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HENRY CUMMINS Papers
Ax 130
Biography
Henry Cummins was a resident of Eugene, Oregon. His father, William M. Cummins, had come to Oregon in 1853 and settled in Lane County. Henry attended school for a time, worked in a bookstore, set type and did job printing in the office of the People's Press and later for the State Republican, worked on a survey expedition under Dr. A.W. Patterson up the Deschutes River in 1861, was appointed assistant clerk in the State Legislature (House) in 1862, and studied law. He left Oregon in 1863, and went to Washington, D.C., where he is said to have been involved with some of Hinton Helper's schemes. He was attracted to spiritualism, phrenology, phonography, handwriting schools, atheism, water cures, vegetarianism, and geology. Henry founded a Pantheon of Science in Eugene, and was a member of the Infidel Association of America.
Scope and Content
The collection consists mainly of correspondence, 1858-1863, in which Cummins shared his interests and thoughts with friends in Oregon. The letters also contain much gossip and self- searching, and include references to Joaquin Miller. Most of Cummins' own letters are to girls. Major correspondents are : his brother, John, a lawyer in Lafayette, Oregon; Charles Partridge; James M. Gale; Charles Lafollett; J.L. Luckey; C.M. Sawtelle; Theodore Burmester; Charles H. DeWolfe; Byron J. Pengra; Cornelia Coon; J.S. Miller; Sidney H. Marsh; C. Hoel; and Emily Crandall. There are also six letters from friends in the Salmon River mines, Idaho, 1862.
Henry Cummins' diaries, 1857-1863, are in the Western Americana Collection, Yale University.
An article by Thomas Jefferson Eastwood, "Henry Cummins, Constant Reader,\" in the University of Oregon Library Call Number, vol. 23, no. 1 (Fall 1961), is based on the Cummins papers.
Inventory
1858-1863
1 box
1.5 lin. ft.
Box/folder
1/1 Inventory
Letters
1/2 1858-1860
1/3 1861, Jan.-June
1/4 1861, July-Dec.
1/5 1862, Jan.-June
1/6 1862, July-Dec.
1/7 1863; undated
1/8 Misc. Papers
1/9 Memory Books
Last Modified: 10/30/2006