Autobiography and Reminiscences.
Cummins, Sarah J. Autobiography and Reminiscences. Freewater, OR: Allen, (1914).
Slim 8vo.; frontispiece photograph with one abrasion; stapled text with printed wrappers glued at spine.
One of an indeterminate number of printings: Howes notes a La Grande and a Walla Walla imprint, but not this Freewater printing; with the original publication information on the copyright page (noting that although the motives behind printing the narrative are pure, a purcahse price of 50 cents will help defray printing costs and “provide comforts [to Cummins] in her declining years”) masked by the following typewritten note, affixed: For Prices and Terms Address Dr. E.W. Allen, Lock Box 53, Freewater, Oregon. Howes C952; Graff 950; Smith 2153. A slender but compelling memoir, presenting an extraordinarily distinct picture of pioneer life. In an affecting dedicatory note, Cummins offers an overview of the volume:
Written for my dear children and grandchildren, and as many of my dear friends as may wish to read the story of the life and labors of one who braved the hardships and endured the suffering incidence to the life of one who assists in making a home in a new and practically unexplored region such as the Willamette valley was in the year of eighteen hundred and forty-five.
Cummins begins her story with two brief prefatory essays. In the first, entitled, “Patriotic Sentiments, July 4th, 1908,” she displays her love of country with a devotion and enthusiasm comparable to the gratitude she later expresses for God’s help in her trials. This note is representative of the graceful and measured prose appearing throughout the work, and the specific language mirrors the final paragraph of the volume, in which she does thank Divine Providence. In the prefatory note she writes:
I am now nearing the close of my earthly existence and as the shades of life’s evening appear on the distant horizon, I glance over my past life and review the blessings and experiences and potent blessings which have ever encompassed my pathway, fully realizing that through it all there ever abides this one great source of thankfulness—that I have in each instance and under all circumstances so lived as to honor those noble founders of our great institution and by so teaching my sons and daughters to live that they honor not only my name and their own lives but also their sacred lives as law abiding citizens, and whatever may be their views of the questions of the day, or in whatever capacity they may be called upon to act may they never neglect their privilege of honoring the noble founders of our nation—our noble republic. (p. 6)
In the next two-pages of remarks, “Reminiscent Thought,” she explains her motivation for writing this memoir:
Sitting alone and glancing over my past life, long and eventful as it has been, I recall many of its scenes of pioneer adventure that were marvelous manifestations of the power and goodness of God in protecting us in our travels through wild regions, inhabited by savages and the haunt of wild beasts…I have decided to write out some important points as they occur to my mind or are copied from my diary as written in years long since gone by, that my children may have printed in book form if they choose to do so. I trust, however, that it will be for no motive greater than to preserve and keep alive the ever present truth of honest ancestry, honorable parentage, a true patriotic sentiment, and simple Christian faith as a rightful heritage in the hearts of all those near and dear.
Should any word of mine so inspire the hearts of any casual reader of these lines as to create a desire for knowledge in regard to better things in matters either temporal or spiritual, then shall I have labored not in vain . . . (p. 7)
She continues in a hortatory vein, introducing her personal narrative by encouraging her readers to seek in it inspiration and strength to vanquish the challenges of life. Cummins’s perseverance i
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