Who was Mrs. Cummings?

augusta · Post by **augusta** » Sun Dec 12, 2004 10:23 am

Lizzie's dressmaker, or one of them, around 1897 was a Mrs. Cummings. Does anyone have any information about her? What was her first name? Where did she live? She had a shop in town.

The 1910 census for Providence, RI lists, besides Emma Borden, a "Mary Cummings", servant, female, white, 40, married 1, 20 years married, 1 child living, 1 child, died, father born in Scotland, mother born in Scotland, servant for private family" - living at 211 Hope Street along with three others (plus Emma). (This comes from Rebello, page 316)

Cummings is a common name nowadays. They probably had quite a few back then.

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Sun Dec 12, 2004 10:36 am

I believe her first name was Mary (Rebello, 297) and she was Emma's dressmaker. Emma wrote her a letter in March 1894 from Maplecroft:

"Mrs. Cummings (dressmaker)
I received your message last evening and think you are very kind to remember me.
I hope to be in the country some this Summer, so think one dress will be all I need; I think an India or China silk as useful as any thin dress, and if you will bring patterns of something with dark ground, something suitable for church wear and for calling. I will go to see you the middle of the week. I suppose you will be home by that time.
I hope this wind will go down before night, that you may have a pleasant and safe passage to New York. Truly yours, Emma L. Borden
March 23, 1894"

A copy of that letter I believe appears in Phillips. Kat would know for sure

I wonder when Emma says that she hopes to be "in the country" she means Swansea. I always wondered whether the "girls" ever used Swansea after moving to Maplecroft.

william · Post by **william** » Sun Dec 12, 2004 11:33 am

For what it's worth - There was a Mary Ellen Cummings born in Fall River on March 7, 1877 - died February 3, 1963.

Rather young to be a dressmaker in 1897, but at that period of hard times you were often forced to make a living at an earlier age

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 2:17 am

She is in Spiering (p.187?):
"...from Mrs. Cummings, whose shop on Elm Street stood beside Andrew Borden's Union Savings Bank..." at the time the letter of December 12, 1896 was written.

augusta · Post by **augusta** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 9:26 am

I had totally forgotten about that Emma letter, Harry. Thanks. So they both used Mrs. Cummings as a dressmaker. Okay. That's a clew.

That's an interesting thought: Did the 'girls' use the Swansea farm after the murders? I would think that that reference to 'the country' would mean their Swansea farm. Gee, what a fancy way to put it. It wasn't that far away. Did they sell the second farm right off the bat when Lizzie was acquitted?

Ooh - good find, Bill! And that is true - they would have young girls working as a seamstress. So being born in 1877 may not automatically knock her out of the running.

Is there anything further on her? Like in a census, that would give her husband's name and her address?

Right, Kat. She had the shop in town. Maybe she lived above it.

If the FRHS has at least the other envelope, they should have her address on it! Bingo!

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 5:14 pm

If she is William's Cummings she would be 19 with a shop?
That's where he is being cautious.