Cumins, Solon

Born: 1810-12-03 Vermont

Died: 1873-06-20

Flourished: Grand Detour, Illinois

Solon Cumins was merchant, manufacturer, justice of the peace, postmaster, county government official, and one of the original settlers of Grand Detour, Illinois. In October 1833, he married Harriett Marsh, with whom he would have four children. Between 1835 and 1840, Cumins and his wife settled in Grand Detour. He purchased the local grist-mill and opened a mercantile establishment. He also operated a plow factory in Dixon. In the early 1840s, Cumins purchased huge tracts of public land in and around Grand Detour and in the adjoining Lee County. From October 1849 to September 1853, he served as postmaster of Grand Detour. Upon the organization of Grand Detour Township in 1850, Cumins won election as township assessor and justice of the peace. From 1857 to 1861, he was a member of the Ogle County Board of Supervisors, serving as chairman in 1861. Harriet died in March 1858, and Cumins married Martha Moore in October 1859. In 1860, Cumins was operating a mill in Grand Detour and owned real property valued at $30,000 and a personal estate of $20,000. He was a member of the Episcopal Church.

George Norbury MacKenzie, Colonial Families of the United States of America (Baltimore: Seaforth, 1917), 6:185; State of Vermont, Vermont Vital Records through 1870, Bethel County, 3 October 1833, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA; Charles Allen Converse, ed., Some of the Ancestors and Descendants of Samuel Converse, Jr., Major James Convers, Hon. Heman Allen, M.C., Captain Jonathan Bixby, Sr. (Boston, MA: Eben Putnam, 1905), 1:192; The History of Ogle County, Illinois (Chicago, IL: H. F. Kett, 1878), 607-10; Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Ogle County, ed. by Horace G. Kauffman and Rebecca Kauffman (Chicago, IL: Munsell, 1909), 2:776-78; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Ogle County, 716:1, 3, 18, 83; Lee County, 716:3, 4, 6, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-1971, NARA Microfilm Publication, M841, 145 rolls, Records of the Post Office Department, RG 28, 1845-1855, 18:146, National Archives Building, Washington, DC; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Cook County, 15 October 1859, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Grand Detour, Ogle County, IL, 385.