Henry J. B. Cummings

Who was Henry J. B. Cummings?

Henry Johnson Brodhead Cummings was a lawyer, Civil War officer, editor and publisher, and one-term Republican Congressman from Iowa's 7th congressional district.

Born in Newton, New Jersey, Cummings attended public schools in Muncy, Pennsylvania as a child. He was editor of a newspaper in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania in 1850, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1855. He moved to Winterset, Iowa in 1856 and served as prosecuting attorney for Madison County, Iowa from 1856 to 1858.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Cummings enlisted in the Union Army in July 1861, and was made captain of Company F of the 4th Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He accepted the commission of colonel of the 39th Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment on September 12, 1862 and was honorably discharged on December 22, 1864. Afterward, he became editor and proprietor of the Winterset Madisonian.

In 1876 he was elected as a Republican to succeed John A. Kasson as the representative of Iowa's 7th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. He served in the 45th United States Congress from 1877 to 1879.