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| Riverside Seminary (Cummings not pictured) Images of America: Wellsville |
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| Riverside Seminary History of Allegany County, N.Y. |
In summer 1872, Anson W. Cummings was elected to the chair of mathematics and engineering at the University of South Carolina. He replaced T. E. Hart who had served in the position since 1869. At the same meeting where Cummings was elected, Professor James Woodrow was replaced by T. N. Roberts.
As is described in the entry for Roberts, the exact nature of Woodrow's departure from the university is unclear, and the same is true for Hart. At the time, the Greenville Enterprise simply reported that his position was vacated by the university trustees. However, in a later history of the university, Irwin Green uses stronger language: "[Hart] was removed . . . by the alien Negro government forced upon the state."
Hart's replacement by Cummings marked a major change at the university. Hart was a native South Carolinian who had graduated from The Citadel. He was among the most talented academics in the state. He had spent the Civil War studying at German universities and wrote a dissertation at Heidelberg in mathematics under the supervision of Otto Hesse. While Cummings had much more experience with teaching (over three decades; Hart had only started teaching in 1866), his academic training was much weaker. He had not earned a single university degree for academic studies; all his degrees were honorary.
Conservatives disapproves of Cummings' election. The Charleston Daily News was especially critical. "Can It Be?" was the headline of one article, which referred to Cummings as the "notorious Dr. Cummings." A lengthier article called him a "clergyman of not particularly good standing" and included a highly negative overview's of Cummings's record in the south. They called attention to the fact that ministers of the Holston Conference found him guilty of defrauding the Female College in Asheville, and it claimed he had been rumored to have engaged in similar misconduct while living in Spartanburg. it mockingly described the misconduct as a "series of ingenious but discreditable experiments with figures of the college account books," activities which demonstrated his "love for the exact sciences." The paper also drew negative attention Cummings' efforts to oppose Ku-Kluxism in Spartanburg County.
A letter to the editor submitted to the Daily Phoenix newspaper by "Ecce Ecclelesia [Behold the Church]" that called attention to the fact that Cummings was associated with the northern Methodist church, not the southern one. Privately, many white Conservatives appear to have deplored Cummings's election. When they attended the graduation ceremony, both Cummings and Roberts (the other newly elected professor) were "hooted at" three graduating students, an incident celebrated in Conservative newspapers. The incident is described in detail in the entry for Professor Roberts.
In his history Reconstruction in South Carolina, John S. Reynold provides description of Cummings likely reflects the opinions held by South Carolina conservatives. Reynolds writes that Cummings owed his professorship to the support he had given the state government in their efforts to fight the Ku Klux Klan in Spartanburg. He dismisses Cummings' qualifications, writing that Cummings was "a man of ordinary intelligence and small scholarship, and was otherwise unfit for a professorship at any reputable college."
Cummings' students at the university appear to have held him in positive regard. In an account of his time at the university, the former student C. C. Scott wrote that, "As an instructor, Prof. Cummings was painstaking, exact, thorough, evidently a born mathematicians, and well earned the sobriquet – 'old mathematics.'"
In 1875, Cummings was elected chair of the faculty (a position similar to that of university president). An article in the Southern Home newspaper derisively described the new position as "President of the [expletive deleted]-ed University of South Carolina" and then mockingly repeated a suggestion by the Columbia Register: when conferring degrees, Cummings should forgo the traditional academic gown and instead wear the "terrible [Ku Klux Klan] costume, horns and all, which he wore when on a lecturing tour North, against the bloody Ku Klux."
Despite his past support for the Confederacy, Cummings was an enthusiastic supporter of the admission of African American students to the university, and more generally of efforts to educate formerly enslaved workers. In a 1874 article published in the College Courant, he wrote positively about the development of the University of South Carolina under the Reconstruction government:
The enemies of equal political and educational rights for a time hoped that the ruin of the institution would follow [the admission of the African American students]. In this they are not to be gratified. The law class, composed of white and colored students, is now larger than for years before, and the two races of students are now progressing in all departments in greatest harmony. Each regulates his own social relations, but in all other respects the question of color is ignored. . . .
The opening of the State University to colored students, as well as to white, marks an educational era in the State, and is hailed with joy in all portions of the country. Those desiring classical, medical, or legal education can find here all the advantages they desired. It is believed that as soon as these facts are known, students will come from all parts of the South, until our spacious accommodations are all in demand.
Its halls are now filled with white and colored students, pursuing their studies in perfect harmony, and with equal success. We are here exemplifying in practice what is regarded as impracticable in theory, and find both races benefited by the experiment. Each is stimulated by the other to the highest exertion
Cummings was one of the last of the Reconstruction faculty to leave the university. After Daniel Chamberlain conceded the governorship to Wade Hampton in April 1877, the newly formed state government began to take steps to shut close the university. A new university board of trustees was elected, and Cummings appeared before them at their first meeting, held on July 30. The trustees informed Cummings that the General Assembly had directed that the university was to be closed on the next day (July 31). Cummings asked that the faculty receive three-fourths of their yearly salary, and the trustees granted his request. By September, Cummings had left South Carolina and returned to New York state.
In New York, Cummings settled in the town of Wellsville and purchased the Riverside Seminary. The seminary had been founded in 1873 as part of a general effort at developing Wellsville. Cummings ran the school as a college preparatory boarding school. The faculty consisting of himself, his wife Isabelle, his son Olin, and one Sue V. Fleming.
The year after he began running the seminary (in 1878), Cummings was awarded an honorary LL.D. degree by Rutherford College in North Carolina.
Cummings remained in Wellsville for the rest of his life. He ran the seminary until around 1881 or 1882 (account vary) when poor health led him to retire. The seminary continued to operate until 1888. That year a fire destroyed several buildings, and rather than rebuild, the seminary was closed.
During his retirement, Cummings published the book The Early Schools of Methodism. This volume collected short histories of schools that had been founded by the Methodist church. Much of the volume consists of solicited contributions from other Methodists, but Cummings himself wrote the histories on Allegheny College, the Gouverneur Wesleyan Seminary, and McKendree College (the last jointly with S. H. Deneen)
In his retirement, Cummings' activities became limited by memory problems and other health issues. In October 1894 (when he was in his late 70s), Cummings was stricken with paralysis. He remained in this condition, suffering greatly, until his death on December 7. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Wellsville.
Sources
1. The Greenville enterprise. [Greenville, SC], July 3, 1872, p. 4.
2. "University of South Carolina." The Intelligencer [Anderson, SC]. June 27, 1872. p. 2.
3. "Professor Cummings." Charleston Daily News [Charleston, SC]. July 12, 1872. p. 4.
4.The Southern Home [Charlotte, NC]. October 25, 1875. p. 3.
5. Daily Charlotte Observer [Charlotte, NC]. October 22, 1875. p. 2.
6. "The South Carolina University." Charleston Daily News [Charleston, SC]. June 21, 1872. p. 1.
7. "Can It Be?" Charleston Daily News, June 24, 1872. p. 1.
8. "The State University." Charleston Daily News, June 28, 1872. p. 2.
