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This page was last revised on November 20, 2017.
NOTE: This work was originally done only to six generations, but I am accepting information now for inclusion beyond six generations.
This work details the descendants of Matthew and Elizabeth Cummins of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky. Some relationships are conjectural; the work is not complete.
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Contact information: John Knouse, PO Box 1196, Athens, OH 45701
jaknouse@frognet.net
Matthew Cummins' origins are not clear. He was probably born in Pennsylvania, where he lived as a young man and where he was apparently married. However, some accounts claim that he was born in Halifax County, Virginia.
He served in the Revolutionary War, claiming to have enlisted twice. The first time was in Pennsylvania, in Capt. William Cowan's Company is Col. Thomas Clark's Regiment, of which no record has been found; he then claimed to have been transferred in 1777 to Capt. Thomas Askin's Company in Col. James Dunlap's Regiment, which were from the Cumberland Valley of Pennsylvania, although he is not listed on the roster.
The second time was definitely for Virginia, enlisting in 1776 and again in July, 1780, at which time his family was living in Charlotte County, Virginia. He was taken captive by the British in the battle of Eutaw Springs after his collarbone was broken by a musket ball in September, 1781 and was detained on the prison ship Esk at Charleston until November 1782.
Although he is known to have had 11 sons and 7 daughters, nowhere is the name of his wife mentioned except for the one known record referring to him as a prisoner of war. Apparently, he had three children living at home at that time, in 1782.
Mathew, Elizabeth and family moved to Kentucky in the 1780's, there being a record of him in Lincoln County in 1786, and settled in that part of Lincoln County later to become Franklin County, later to become part of Anderson County. He was a weaver by trade. He had six sons in the War of 1812 (one source says seven), all of whom escaped being wounded. He was poor in his old age and had considerable difficulty obtaining a pension for his Revolutionary War service, much of his pension having been paid to his children after his death.
He apparently often spelled his name "Cummings" in his youth. Elizabeth's name appears in only one record, but it is a well-correlated one, as mentioned above.
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