Since 2017, Rock Grove Brook tells us of a 19th Century little known Lennoxville Family: the Cummins
The name Rock Grove Brook was made official in May 2017 by the Commission de toponymie du Québec. The brook originates in Oxford Park and has been canalized into underground pipes from Park Street to the south of William-paige Street, where it flows into Têtes de Violons (fiddleheads) Brook. The name, Rock Grove, comes from a home on its bank. called The brook behind the house flowed in a deep channel in the bedrock found between Boright and Parkdale Streets. The house was once the family home of Colonel John Swete Cummins. It still stands at 3033 College Street and is part of the Lennoxville heritage circuit and pedestrian route.
Colonel John Swete Cummins’ family came to settle in the Townships. Cummins was born in 1811 in Upper Dunkettle, County Cork, Ireland. He was the son of Martha Swete (1789-1842) and of merchant Nicholas Marshall Cummins (1783-1838). John Swete immigrated in 1886 to Upper Canada. At first, he was a land agent in the Kingston area of Ontario. In 1837, he was a militia captain on a boat defending the country from a possible American invasion. He likely belonged to the militia for several more years ; he was a Lieutenant Colonel in 1849. In 1840, he had gone to Ireland to marry Catherine Smith (18??-1866), from Moorepark, County Cork. They would eventually have 9 children : Jane, Catherine, Mary King, John Henry, Stephen Swete, Josepha, Lillian Lucia, Rose Catherine and Isabella. The newlyweds first settled on Amherst Island, off Kingston, Lake Ontario and then in Ernestown, also near Kingston. In 1849, John Swete published in London a novel in two volumes set in Canada : Altham : A Tale of the Sea. It was perhaps the most interesting early Canadian novel. In the 1851 and 1861 censuses, the family was living in Nepean Township of Carleton County, near Bytown (Ottawa since 1855). John Swete was listed as a farmer with 5 children in 1851 and 7 in 1861.
It is not known when the family came to the Eastern Townships. Available information is contradictory from records in the censuses. For instance, from 1855 to 1858, John Swete Cummins represented Roxton Township on the Council of Shefford County. The family seems to have settled in Bury Township at least in 1857-1858 ; their daughter Lilian Lucia was born there. For employment, John Swete Cummins was an agent of British Amarican Land Company until at least October 1860. It was shortly after the 1861 census that the family moved to Pointe-lévis, where John Swete Cummins died, October 31, 1862. He was buried in the Anglican Cemetery of the Church of Holy Trinity in Lévis, on Wolfe Street. It is likely, based on census data, that following his death Catherine Smith decided to come and live in Lennoxville and, around 1863, bought the Rock Grove house or had it built. The deed of sale of the house in 1986 mentions that it was about 125 years old. Catherine died there in 1866 without a will and the eldest daughter and spinster Jane took over caring for the family.
An interesting fact is that from July 1st, 1867 to July 24, 1868 Jefferson Davis (1808-1889), the only president of the Confederate States of America, came to live with his family in Lennoxville where his son, Jefferson Jr., was a student at Bishop’s College School. He also wanted to rest in a quiet area. The family stayed at Stephen Clarke’s American Hotel, also known as Clarke’s Hotel. The building stood on the site of the Lennoxville Library at the corner of Queen and College Streets. The Davis family members were regular visitors to the home of the Cummins family and the children of both families enjoyed playing together.
In the 1871 census, Jane lived at Rock Grove with 5 siblings. Stephen was then a bank clerk and John Henry worked for the Hudson Bay Company. They no longer appear in the 1881 census but we find John Henry with the Hudson Bay Company in Renfrew, west of Ottawa. The estate was not settled until 1889 when Rock Grove was sold, to whom we do not know. The property was later passed on to a so-called Ames, to Robert Edward Blake, to Valentine Reeve and to Thérèse Masson, who sold it in 1986 to Robert Richardson, Jacqueline Korschun and Kenneth Hyman. In 2002, Robert Richardson’s spouse, Elizabeth Hurd, bought the shares of the 2 other owners and became joint owner with her husband. The house is now divided into five apartments and is rented to students who have to sign an agreement to respect the rules of tranquillity and good neighbourliness !
P.S.: The authors would be most grateful to receive more information about the Cummins family.