Asa Cummings
Asa Cummings | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Cummings pictured late in his life | |
| Born | September 29, 1790 Andover, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | June 5, 1856 (aged 65) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Minister |
| Years active | 1821–1856; his death |
Asa Cummings (September 29, 1790 – June 5, 1856) was an American Congregational minister and author. He was ordained into the ministry of the First Congregational Church in North Yarmouth, Maine, in 1821. He wrote a well-respected memoir of Reverend Edward Payson in 1828.
Early life
[edit]Cummings was born in 1790 in Andover, Massachusetts, to Asa Cummings and Phebe Johnson.[1]
He graduated from Harvard College in 1817,[2] before studying at Andover Theological Seminary in his hometown.[3] He graduated from there in 1820.[1] He also taught in Western Danvers, Massachusetts, and at Bowdoin College in Maine, for a short period.[4]
Career
[edit]In 1821, Cummings was ordained minister at the First Congregational Church in North Yarmouth, Maine, a role in which he remained for four years. He continued as honorary pastor there until 1829, when he retired due to ill health.[1]
Shortly after the end of his full-time ministerial role in North Yarmouth, Cummings relocated to nearby Portland,[2] where he became editor of the "prestigious"[5] Christian Mirror between 1826 and 1855.[6][7][8] Cummings owned it until 1833, when it became the property of the Maine Missionary Society; he was retained as editor.[9] In 1828, he wrote a memoir of Reverend Edward Payson, who died the previous year and of whom he was an intimate friend,[4] which was published by the American Tract Society.[10]
Personal life
[edit]In the first half of the 19th century, Cummings's portrait was painted by Charles Octavius Cole. The portrait is in the possession of Portland Public Library and is in the art inventories catalog at Smithsonian American Art Museums in Washington, D.C.[11] A letter he wrote to William Fogg in 1840 is in the inventory of Boston Public Library.[12]
Cummings's fourth son and sixth child, Ralph Wardlaw Cummings (1832–1880), became a physician and edited and published The Maine Medical and Surgical Journal.[13]
Death
[edit]Cummings died in 1856, aged 65, after falling sick while at sea aboard the steamship SS George Law, on his way home from Aspinwall, Panama.[2] His daughter, Hannah (1824–1879), and her husband, Reverend Joseph Rowell (1820–1918), were also onboard.[4] He was buried in the Caribbean Sea, but has a memorial in Evergreen Cemetery in Portland.
Legacy
[edit]Cummings's son, Edward, named Cummings Street, in Portland's Back Cove neighborhood, after his father.[14]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Garrison, William Lloyd (1971). The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison, Volume II: a House Dividing Against Itself: 1836-1840. Harvard University Press. p. 516. ISBN 978-0-674-52661-7.
- ^ a b c McClintock, John; Strong, James (1891). Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. Harper & Bros. p. 196.
- ^ Merk, Frederick (1971). Fruits of Propaganda in the Tyler Administration. Harvard University Press. p. 158. ISBN 978-0-674-32676-7.
- ^ a b c Cleaveland, Nehemiah (1882). History of Bowdoin College: With Biographical Sketches of Its Graduates, from 1806 to 1879, Inclusive. J. R. Osgood & Company. p. 65.
- ^ Society, Maine Historical (1971). Maine Historical Society Newsletter. Maine Historical Society. p. 95.
- ^ "Reverend Asa Cummings, ca. 1850". Maine Memory Network. Retrieved 2025-03-29.
- ^ Ellingwood, Ken (2021-05-04). First to Fall: Elijah Lovejoy and the Fight for a Free Press in the Age of Slavery. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-64313-703-2.
- ^ Garrison, William Lloyd (1971). The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison, Volume II: a House Dividing Against Itself: 1836-1840. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-52661-7.
- ^ "Mitchell, Asa Cummings (1821-1883), 1841 | Bowdoin College Special Collections & Archives". archivesspace.bowdoin.edu. Retrieved 2025-03-29.
- ^ Cummings, Asa (1839). A Memoir of the Rev. Edward Payson, D. D., Late of Portland, Maine. American tract society.
- ^ Institution, Smithsonian. "Portrait of Asa Cummings (1795-1856), (painting)". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2025-03-29.
- ^ Cummings, Asa (1840). Letter from Asa Cummings, Portland, Maine, to William Fogg, 1840 February 17. Portland, Maine.
- ^ of 1853, Bowdoin College Class (1873). Bowdoin College, Class of 1853, Chronological, Biographical, and Statistical Record. J.R. Osgood and Company. p. 42.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ The Origins of the Street Names of the City of Portland, Maine as of 1995 – Norm and Althea Green, Portland Public Library (1995)