Robert Cummings and Elizabeth Ann McFarlin

Robert Cummings and Elizabeth Ann McFarlin

    Robert Cummings married Elizabeth Ann McFarlin on 23 November 1830 in Rutherford County, Tennessee. He was in Texas by 1838, in Nacogdoches County, where he provided transportation for the army of the Republic. His widow was still trying to collect payment for that service in 1854. Robert Cummings died in Dawson's Massacre at the hands of the Mexican army in September 1842. After his death, Elizabeth married Stephen Hicks and, by about 1853, Jesse Robinson.

   William McFarlin died in Rutherford County, Tennessee, in 1824. His will lists his wife Sarah, sons Pleasant Nelson and Benjamin, and daughters Elizabeth Ann, Kasey, Nancy B, Louisa J, and Sarah. This appears to be the Elizabeth Ann McFarlin who married Robert Cummings. For a younger sister, such as Louisa J. was, to have come with Elizabeth and Robert Cummings to Texas was not unusual. It was also not unusual for a brother-in-law to witness a land grant application.

    When Louisa J McFarlin applied for the conditional land certificate which she received, one of the witnesses was Robert Cummings. The certificate does spell her name as "McFarland" and the Minutes of the Board of Commissioners has this certificate under the name of "Louis J McFarland". But the certificate itself, now in the files of the General Land Office of Texas, shows the first name as "Louisa". Our Louisa J. McFarlin Long sold the certificate, after her marriage to Sam Long, proving that she was the owner.

    Robert Cummings and Elizabeth McFarlin had five children:
Eliza Jane b 1834 d m 11 April 1847 James S Long
Sarah Ann b 1835 d m 23 Sept 1850 David Jones
Granville Newtonb 15 March 1838 d 14 Sept 1917m 28 Feb 1861 Clarinda Gandy
William Robert b 11 April 1840 d 22 Jan 1881m 5 Nov 1879M L Pemberton
Mary Youngb 1842 d m abt 1861? Gilles

Family Connections

        By the 1850 census, Sam, Louisa, Martha and Sam's first two sons were living in Lavaca County, Texas. Sam's parents and several siblings had come to Texas by then and lived near him. Louisa's sister, Elizabeth, was also living in Lavaca County, having been widowed in 1842 and marrying Stephen Hicks in Lavaca County in 1843.
        A collection of old papers, found in Bedford County, Tennessee, includes a letter from Granville Newton Cummings, son of Elizabeth McFarlin Cummings. It is not known to who it was addressed. It has been transcribed in "THE JENNINGS-PHILLUPS COLLECTION OF EARLY BEDFORD COUNTY, TENNESSEE RECORDS by Judy Henley Phillips and Linda Shanklin Jackson, 1998
        The letter says:
25 Nov. 1856, Petersburg, Mr. MACKFARLIN, Dear Brothers, I would be very glad to see bothe of you it has bin so long since you have seen my mother Elisabeth A. CUMMINGS you would hardly know her my father Robert CUMMINGS was killed by the Mexicans in '44. Elisabeth's two oldest daughters Eliza Jane and Sarah Ann is maried Elisabeth has but two brothers Nelson MACKFARLIN and Benjamine MACKFARLIN she wants to know whether ant Betsy MACKFARLIN is a live ing or not Louisa Jane is maried to a man by the name of LONG wasent there some money a coming to Elisabeth Ann and Louisa Jane the drouth is bin very hard this year we have fine range for cattle here and horses we dont haf to feed our stock here I would be very glad to see some of you i want you to be shore to write to me where my kindfolks is and how they are we are a living in western texas Lavaca County direct your letters to Lavaca County petersburg po Texas Write soon /S/ G.N. CUMMINGS

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