Person:Daniel Cummins (1)

According to his obituary Daniel Cummins was born on January 1 1765 "in Low Dutch Valley New Jersey" about "40 miles from New York City". This place is southwest of the community of Long Valley New Jersey. Before the world wars Long Valley had been known as German or even earlier as Deutsch valley. Dutch Valley was likely a corruption of Deutsch Valley. This suggests that Low Dutch Valley was lower than (i.e. southwest of) Long Valley and on the Raritan River.

Daniel's father Jacob Cummins was described by T. F. Chambers as a tenant in Lower Valley and that his acreage was located in what was later known as the Trimmer Tract. He may have been referring to property that Jacob Trimmer had bought from Livingstone in 1797 in Lebanon Township, Hunterdon County or to a Trimmer property (338 acres bought in 1750 by Matthias Trimmer) in the Logan Tract in Roxbury (now Washington) Township, Morris County NJ. In either case Daniel Cummins was born very close to the Morris-Hunterdon County boundary.

According to his obituary Daniel and his family moved to Knowlton Township Sussex (now Warren) County when he was 4 years old i.e. in 1769.

Daniel's father, Jacob Cummins died in Hardwick (later Green and Fredon) Township in Sussex County. Records on file at the Sussex County Court house in Newton New Jersey concern Jacob Cummins' estate including affidavits signed by Daniel and his brothers, Matthias, Jacob, John, Peter, and David. There is no doubt that they spelled their surname Cummins. Daniel Cummins continued to sign his name that way on deeds and documents during his life in Canada.

A continuing frustrations for family historians has been the tendency among officials, editors, descendants, and even stone-cutters to spell Daniel's surname incorrectly as "Cummings." viz.: the 1822 deed for the original Cummins' Chapel in Lot 22 concession 2 Flamborough West Township, Wentworth County (his signature is cleary "Cummins"); his wife's obituary which was written in 1845 by his own grandson, Caleb Hopkins Van Norman; his epitaph which was cut after his death in 1853 on the stone in Millgrove Cemetery; his obituary which was written several years after his death by Rev. James Shaw (who never met Daniel) at the request of Daniel's daughter Elizabeth Hanes.

Daniel Cummins was raised as an Anglican at St. James Episcopal Church in Delaware, Knowlton Township, Warren (then Sussex) County, New Jersey. His father, Jacob, and his brothers, Jacob and Matthias, had been elected officials at that church. After arriving in Canada Daniel was recruited by Methodist Episcopal missionaries and became Methodist class leader holding services in his home in West Flamborough Township. In 1822 he and others bought proeprty and built a chapel on lot 21 concession concession 2 near his house in Flamborough West. That chapel was known as Cummins Chapel.

In 1828 Daniel Cummins joined with Rev. Henry Ryan to form a new Canadian-based Methodist denomination known as the Canadian Wesleyan Methodist Church. . Because of this Daniel was forced to leave his Cummins Chapel which was almost immediately re-named Rock Chapel by Rev. Anson Green. Daniel's son, John Cummins, built a new Cummins Chapel nearby at Clappison's Corners where worship continued until John's death in 1861. In 1841 this new denomination merged with others to form the New Connexion Methodist Church. By 1881 they had merged with Wesleyan Methodists and the Episcopal Methodists to form the Methodist Church in Canada. In 1925 the Methodists and Presbyterians merged to form the United Church of Canada.

Daniel Cummins Christeen Angle grave Millgrove Ontario

1. ↑ "The Early Germans of New Jersey; their history, churches, and genealogies"
   1895.

   by T. F. Chambers published in Dover, NJ by Dover Printing.

2.   A Brief Sketch of the Life of Daniel Cummins of West Flamboro
   ~1863.

   by Rev. James Shaw. Published in "The Witness" a newspaaer published in Ontario Canada by The Methodist New Connexion Church.

3.   Millgrove Municipal Cemetery
   1978.

   transcription of grave markers published at Hamilton, Ontario, Canada by the Hamilton Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society in 1978.