LUCINDA (HEMENWAY) CUMMINGS

FROM: Newspaper article, unmarked as to date, probably 1905 Worcester Telegram

"Born on Mechanic street, Worcester, 73 years ago, yesterday, Mrs. Lucinda (Hemenway) Cummings observed her birthday yesterday at her home, 5 Bigelow court, by performing the usual duties of her household, and by reading The Telegram, which she has done the first thing in the morning for the last 19 years."

"Mrs. Cummings is from Revolutionary war stock, her grandfather and great- grandfather having been soldiers under George Washington. In her veins flows the blood of the Pequod and Penobscot Indians, the Emerald Isle and the blood of the African. Her mother was a Penobscot Indian, whose father was a colored man, and on her father's side the line is Indian and Irish."

"Mrs. Cummings is the daughter of Ebenezer and Betsy Crossman Hemenway, who lived on Mechanic street in the earlier days of Worcester, when Main street was called the Great road, and May street flourished under the cognomen of Whipple Patch lane. Mrs. Cummings, then Lucinda Hemenway, spent her younger days in Worcester, and went to the first schools in the city. There were seven children in the family, three older and three younger than Mrs. Cummings. Mrs. Cummings is the last of the family."

"In November, 1852, she moved to Boston, and was married the same year to Francis W. Cummings, who was a Worcester man. With her husband, Mrs. Cummings stayed in Boston six years. They returned to Worcester and lived there 10 months, Mr. Cummings being coachman for William Bickford. At the end of that time, Mr. and Mrs. Cummings moved to New Haven, where they lived eight years."

"Mrs. Cummings returned to Worcester with her husband in 1866, and has lived here since. She secured employment with Judge Charles Devens, for whom she worked 25 years as housekeeper."

"Mrs. Cumming's great-grandfather was Patrick Collins, and her grandfather's name was Jeffrey Hemenway, both of whom fought in the Revolutionary war at Bunker hill, Lexington and Concord. Her great-grandfather Collins came to America during the earlier days of the country, and Collins, a sturdy Irishman, married a Pequod Indian girl, whose daughter was married to Jeffrey Hemenway, a colored man. Their son, Ebenezer Hemenway, married Lydia Bowman, a Maine Penobscot Indian girl. They had 14 children."

"Mrs. Cummings' father was born on Whipple Patch lane, now May street, and he lived in Worcester all his life."




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