Cummings is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Traill County,

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, So ...

, United States.

Geography

Cummings is situated directly between

Interstate 29 Interstate 29 (I-29) is an Interstate Highway in the Midwestern United States. I-29 runs from Kansas City, Missouri, at a junction with I-35 and I-70, to the Canada–US border near Pembina, North Dakota, where it connects with Manitoba ...

and

U.S. Route 81 U.S. Route 81 or U.S. Highway 81 (US 81) is a major north–south U.S. highway that extends for in the central United States and is one of the original United States Numbered Highways established in 1926 by the American Association of Stat ...

and is connected to those two highways by

North Dakota State Highway 200 North Dakota Highway 200 (ND 200) is a major east–west state highway in North Dakota, United States. It runs from Minnesota State Highway 200 at the Minnesota border near Halstad, Minnesota to Montana Highway 200 near Fairview, Montana. At ...

. Cummings is located several miles north of the city of Hillsboro.

History

A post office was established at Cummings in 1881. The community was named for Henry Cumings, a Great Northern Railway worker, whose name was misspelled so often as Cummings that the

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...

made the change official in 1922. It is today largely a farming community, as is the rest of the county. In all of Cummings' history one of their best-known residents was William J. Burnett (born August 14, 1854), who served two terms as a representative for the eighth district in the state senate. In addition to his work in the state senate, Burnett was an advocate for the development of the Farmers' Elevator. His work on behalf of the town resulted in both population and commercial growth in the late 19th century. As of 1910, Cummings had a schoolhouse, grain elevators, general stores, and churches. In the 1940s and 1950s there were several businesses. These included the post office, a grocery store, a bank, a hardware store, a blacksmith, two grain elevators, several potato houses, the Farmer’s Union oil tanks, and the Great Northern Railway depot. There were also Ervin #3 school (1st through 8th grades) and a city hall. The Farmers' Elevator burned to the ground on December 31, 1959 – January 1, 1960. The blacksmith building burned in February of that year. The school was demolished in 1996. The Great Northern depot, which included living quarters for the agent and his family, was located west of the tracks. Joseph Notch was the agent/telegrapher from the early 1930s until his death in 1962. The depot was twice threatened by fire. Once, when burning embers from the Farmers' Elevator fire landed on its roof, several farmers from around Cummings came to the rescue with grain trucks to evacuate the agent and his family. Prior to this, a

hot box A hot box is the term used when an axle bearing overheats on a piece of railway rolling stock. The term is derived from the journal-bearing trucks used before the mid-20th century. The axle bearings were housed in a box that used oil-soaked ...

from a railroad car had ignited the dry prairie grass. The agent and his family, using potato sacks soaked in precious water, managed to get the fire out just before it reached the depot and garage. The depot was sold and removed shortly after 1962, being purchased and renovated into a home. , it is still located a few miles west of Cummings."The Cummings Schools and Village", Published 2008, Page 47

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Traill County, North Dakota Unincorporated communities in North Dakota Populated places established in 1881 1881 establishments in Dakota Territory