#52Ancestors52Weeks...Week 20 Theme: Taking Care of Business....The Cummings were Silversmiths, Jewelers and Watchmakers By Trade: The Crawford Family Working Tree (Part 4 )

  Death Notice for Thomas Van Buren Cummings who died December 6, 1868. 

Found in family papers for the Crawford Family.  This was most likely in a Sacramento, California newspaper.  He was 28 years old. 

    In my previous post of February 25, 2024 I talked about the two marriage certificates I had for the Crawford Family.  One was for John Washington Crawford and Sarah Byerly and the other was for their daughter Sarah Elizabeth Crawford who married Franklin Hayes. Franklin and Sarah "Sallie" Hayes were my great great grandparents.  Both of those marriage certificates provided clues that helped me discover a connection to the Cummings family through Rebecca Byerly (or Byrley) Cummings.  Rebecca was most likely Sarah Byerly Crawford's sister or a very close relative.  This small snippet of newspaper (above) that I found in the Crawford papers also provided a clue that the Crawfords were somehow connected to the Cummings family.  Who were the Cummings?  Their various trades as silversmiths, jewelers and watchmakers helped me put together their family tree. 

   Let's go  back to Philadelphia first......

  The 1850 Census for the 2nd Ward (Moyamensing) in Philadelphia found Henry Cummings and his wife Caterina/Catherine (Jeffries) living with a Rebecca Byerly Cummings and her five  children: Thomas, William, George, Emma and baby Lewis.  Henry was 27 years old and was a silversmith.  I know from Rebecca Cummings' obituary that her husband William Cummings left Philadelphia for California during the 1849 Gold Rush and that she was pregnant at that time. She stayed with William's younger brother Henry back in Philadelphia.  This was the same Henry who witnessed Sarah Byerly and John Washington Crawford's 1848 marriage at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. This census information fits Rebecca's obituary.  William was away, Rebecca was living with his brother Henry, and she had given birth to baby Lewis by that time.  

  My working theory is that Henry Cummings, Sr. was father to William (b. 1820) and Henry (b. 1823).  There was a John B. Cummings that also lived in Philadelphia. All three were silversmiths.

   *William Cummings was a silversmith, learning his trade in Philadelphia and Boston per his obituary.  He married Rebecca Byerly in Philadelphia before 1840. He made his first trip to Sacramento, California in 1849 and then brought his family out west in 1851-52 and started a jewelry business on J Street with $50 to his name. 

   *Henry Cummings was a silversmith in Philadelphia and was originally buried at St. Paul's Episcopal Church grounds in 1891 with his wife Catherine and then reburied in Fernwood Cemetery after St. Paul's cemetery was abandoned. 

    *John B. Cummings was listed as a silversmith and jeweler working in Philadelphia in 1837 and 1841. He may have been a brother, or another Cummings relation.  I cannot find anything else definitive about him, but the jeweler and silversmith occupation fits with the other Cummings brothers' chosen vocations. 

By NMGiovannucci - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=108697665

The back view with the remaining cemetery. 

   This is St. Paul's Episcopal Church today...the building now houses Episcopal Community Services.  It is located at 225 S. 3rd Street, Philadelphia.  It was just a few blocks away from Henry Cumming's house on Christensen Street where he was recorded living on  the 1880 Census. 

  

By ProfReader - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33768525

 The front view.  The church was built in 1761 and altered in 1830.  

 From Philadelphia to Sacramento.....

 From William's obituary I know that he and Rebecca had a total of 10 children and only three were alive at the time of his death: William, Louis and Benjamin. William died in 1891 in Sacramento.  I have pieced together the story of his family....

*Thomas Van Buren Cummings was born in Philadelphia the 18th of November 1840.  By the age of 19 he was living with his family in Sacramento and worked as a watchmaker; his skills as a watchmaker fit nicely with his father's jewelry business.  He died at the age of 28 and was buried in the Sacramento City Cemetery (obituary above). 

*William Cummings (Jr.) was born in Philadelphia August 5, 1842.  He worked in Sacramento and San Francisco as a jeweler.  He died in 1912 and was buried in Pacific Grove, California with his children and their families. 

*George Washington Cummings was born July 15, 1844 in Philadelphia and died November 21, 1870 at the age of 26. He worked as a jeweler with his brother Louis in San Francisco at one point. He was a resident of Sacramento at his death. 

*Emma S. Cummings was born December 23, 1846 in Philadelphia, came to Sacramento with her family in 1852 and died in 1866 at the age of 20.  She was buried in the Sacramento City Cemetery.  

*Louis Broomall Cummings was born in Philadelphia October of 1849 and died in Sacramento in 1923 of accidental burns. He was buried in the Sacramento City Cemetery. Louis owned Cummings Sons Jewelry in San Francisco and was also a watchmaker. 

*Mary Cummings was born in Philadelphia in 1850, and was listed on the 1860 census when she was ten years old.  Her death date is unknown, but she was buried in the Sacramento City Cemetery. 

*Sierra Nevada "Sarah" Cummings was the first child born in California in 1852, and she was named after the beautiful Sierra Nevada mountains which the Cummings and Crawfords had to cross to make it to Sacramento.  They came by wagon. 

*Benjamin Franklin Cummings was born in Sacramento in 1856 and died on April 14, 1893 of heart failure.  He was 37 years old. He worked with his brother Louis in San Francisco in the jewelry business.  He was buried in the Sacramento City Cemetery.  He witnessed my great great grandparents' wedding ceremony in San Francisco in 1881. 

*Alice Cummings was born in 1858 in Sacramento. 

*Nellie Cummings was born December 17, 1860. 

    Philadelphia was the largest silver market in America from 1760 to the 1820's and a center for silver manufacturing through the 19th century.  William Cummings was able to take his skills with him out west where he trained his boys and built a jewelry business that was very profitable and provided his family a comfortable living.  His son Louis opened up his own shop  'Cummings Sons' in San Francisco and employed his brothers at various times. William Jr.'s son William M. Cummings was listed on the 1930 Census as being a proprietor of a jewelry store in Pacific Grove, California, so it appears the family business was moved from San Francisco to Pacific Grove.  William M. Cummings son Russell Howard Cummings was listed on the 1940 Census as a watchmaker, and son Stanley was listed as a salesperson at Cummings Sons in Pacific Grove in the 1951 Directory. So, the Cummings were involved in this trade for over 100 years. 

  With the exception of William Jr., the entire Cummings family is buried in the Sacramento City Cemetery. 

 Sacramento City Cemetery, Lot 96

Find A Grave for William Cummings (1820-1891)

 Entrance to the cemetery

  The Byerlys and the Cummings families were true California pioneers, and it has been a fascinating journey learning about their lives.  I have added the Cummings family to our family tree.  Another branch!