Erastus H. Cummings, M.D., of the Wonderly building, Grand Rapids, was born in Steuben county, N. Y., September 3, 1835, and is a son of Dr. Clark and Elanor Ann (Clarks) Cummings, also natives of the Empire state.

Dr. Clark Cummins, a graduate of the Jefferson Medicial college, practiced many years in his native state, and in April, 1851, came to Michigan and located on a farm at Orondaga, Ingham county, but about 1865 removed to Toledo, Ohio, where he practiced about fifteen years, and then removed to Elkhart, Ind., where his death took place when he was seventy-five years old, and where, also, the death of his wife occurred, at the same age, five years later. Their family comprised four sons and one daughter, of whom Erastus H., the subject, was the eldest; William J., the second born, was a member of Berdan’s sharpshooters during the Civil War, and sustained a wound which resulted in his death some months later; Mary, the third born, was married to William Chatterdon, of Elkhart, Ind.; Clark died of quick consumption in his twenty-first year, and Daniel died of cholera in 1849, at the age of three years and ten months (both father and mother having had an attack of the same disorder).

Dr. E. H. Cummings received his literary instruction at the Fitzhugh academy in Rochester, N. Y., and in 1856 entered Albion college, attending two years, then, in the fall of 1858, he went to Kansas, mainly for recreation, hunting buffaloes, etc. He was in the west for about a year and a half, and on his return, in 1860, resumed his professional studies in Ingham county under the private tutor, and in the fall of 1860 returned to the university of Michigan. At the close of the course he returned home, and April 23, 1861, he enlisted in company B.—Philip McKernan’s company—but this company failed to get into the three month’s service, and then the doctor went into company H., that afterward became part of the Sixth Michigan Infantry, and was appointed corporal.

The Sixth Michigan rendezvoused at Fort Wayne, Ind., from June 18 until August 2, 1861, under drill, then Corporal Cummings was sent back to Michigan to recruit, and in four days filled up the quota of his regiment to completeness. The raw recruits were mustered into the United States service at Kalamazoo, Mich., and thence ordered to Baltimore, Md., where the regiment remained until February 23, 1862, when it was sent to Newport News, just at the time of the fight between the Monitor and the Merrimac, which took place May 9, 1862. The doctor next went with Gen. B. F. Butler to Ship island, in the gulf of Mexico, then fought at various points on the Mississippi river, and at Baton Rouge, La., carried the regimental colors. After a year’s service, Dr. Cummings was appointed hospital steward, and as such was on detached duty until about the close of the war, when he was discharged at Jackson, Mich., April 29, 1865, after having served over four years.

On his return to Michigan, Dr. Cummings resumed his professional studies and graduated from the university of Michigan in 1866. He then practiced medicine two years at Leslie, Mich., and then came to Grand Rapids and practiced until 1875, in the fall of which year he entered the Hahnemann Medical college, in Chicago, Ill., took a six-months course and graduated; he next had six months` experience in the Cook county hospital at Chicago, and since then has practiced in the allopathic homeopathic schools. He returned to Grand Rapids in the fall of 1876, was in active practice here two years, then went to Edmore, Montcalm county, and practiced until the spring of 1889, when he finally settled in Grand Rapids, where he has been in active practice ever since.

Dr. Cummings has been twice married—first, to Miss Marion H. Swift, of Eaton Rapids, Mich., in September, 1864. Her death occurred in September, 1892. She had borne her husband two sons and two daughters, viz: Earle C., who graduated from high school, spent two years in Albion College, was a clerk in a bank at Edmore several years, and died from the effects of quinsy and accompanying erysipelas February 10, 1889; Elmo Lee, who graduated from the Edmore high school, took a year’s course in a business college at Grand Rapids, and is now in the employ of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad company; the two daughters died in infancy. February 28, 1898, Dr. Cummings married Mrs. Anna Mentzer.

Dr. Cummings is a member of Custer post, No. 5, G.A.R., of which he has been surgeon three years and is a past commander; has also been a member of the K. O. T. M. for sixteen years, and in politics has been a life-long republican. He has never been an office seeker, but has nevertheless served as a member of the Edmore board of Trustees.

The doctor was reared in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal church, to which he still adheres, and of which his first wife was also a member, as is his present wife, who is a highly educated lady and possessed of many accomplishments, and is likewise a member of the W. R. C. Professionally the doctor stands at the front, and socially he and the family mingle with the best people of Grand Rapids.