Sonoma County Biography
Lawrence Q. Cummings
The densely populated countries of the old world have given of their sons to aid in the agricultural development of the western continent. A considerable proportion of these immigrants have come from Ireland, bringing with them those traits which are indispensable to the development of an ideal citizenship. Among the representatives of this nationality who have established themselves on the Pacific coast and have been factors in the changes wrought here during the past thirteen years, mention belongs to Mr. Cummings, who has been a resident of the agricultural community of Santa Rosa since the year 1898.
Mr. Cummings was born in county Cork, Ireland, March 4, 1860, his parents also being natives and life-time residents of the Emerald Isle. He was little more than child when, at the age of fourteen years, he set sail from his native land and came to the United States. The vessel landed at Boston, Mass., and there and in Lowell that state, he found employment in the boot and shoe manufactories. Later he went to Georgetown, Mass., where he was employed for three years, and from there he started for the Pacific coast country, having remained in the east altogether for three years. San Francisco was his destination on coming to the west and for a time he drove horses in the employ of the government. Subsequently, in 1898, he came to Sonoma county and settled down to agricultural life on the ranch which he owns today, comprising twenty-three acres of rich land not far from Santa Rosa. Twelve acres are in grapes, seven acres in prunes and apples, while the remainder of the land is in corn and pasture land. The last crop gathered netted the owner as follows: grapes $300, prunes $400, and from his chickens, the raising of which is an industry not previously mentioned, he cleared about $300.
In July, 1896, Mr. Cummings was united in marriage with Miss Winnifred Leary, a native of this state, the daughter of Daniel and Mary (Connell) Leary, the former deceased and the latter now a resident of Oakland. Three children were born of this marriage, but only two are living, Josephine Frances, born in May, 1902, and now a student in the Monroe district school, and Sylvester John, born December 11, 1907. Politically Mr. Cummings is a Democrat.
History of Sonoma County, California
History by Tom Gregory : Historic Record Company, 1891
Los Angeles, Ca. 1911
Transcribed by Roberta Hester Leatherwood
June 2008
Pages 1062-1063
Sonoma County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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