Cummins, William Fletcher

Professor William Fletcher Cummins (1840-1931) was a Texas Methodist clergyman and geologist. Cummins was born in Webster County, Missouri on June 13,1830. He attended St. Charles College and moved to Texas in 1860 serving nine years with the Methodist Episcopal Church South across Texas. During that time Cummins also served in Arkansas with the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He wrote about being a member of the Ku Klux Klan in 1866-67. In 1869 Cummins failing health forced him to resign from the clergy and pursue other work in real estate and as a railroad agent. In 1881 he began work for the Academy of Sciences in Philadelphia, gathering Texas fossils. He was then hired by the State of Texas as Assistant Sate Geologist. His exploratory geological work resulted in the discovery of the Tampico oil field. Cummins married Mrs. Minnie C. Bullion Darnell in Weatherford, Texas, on March 17, 1871. They had three children. He spent his last years at his home in El Paso, where he died on January 8, 1931.

From the guide to the William Fletcher Cummins Papers 61-70; 63-28., 1892-1933, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)