A Trip Across the Continent

Mariett Foster Cummings

INTRODUCTION

There was published in Santa Barbara, California, in 1925, a very special book for the family involved. It was The Foster Family, California Pioneers. It was edited by Lucy Ann (Foster) Sexton, niece of Mariett Foster Cummings, author of the diary here published. The book is now a rare one and is found in only a few libraries. It is a frustrating book to deal with because, although the intent is to tell the Foster family story, there is a great dearth of such positive things as dates, including those dealing with births, marriages, and deaths. Although it is never said explicitely, evidently Mariett had no children of her own, but there were lots of nieces and nephews who all loved her a great deal.

The beginning of their journey was Plainfield, Illinois, where she had lived for sixteen years, according to her diary entry of April 23, 1852.

We get the date of her birth in a round-about way. In a birthday letter to Mariett written on January 11, 1858, her father, Isaac Foster, remembered her original birthday 31 years before.1 This means she was born on January 11, 1827. It also means that she was 25 years old in 1852, when she and her husband, William Cummings, crossed the Plains to California.

We will clarify the spelling of her name: It is spelled by different persons in three different ways: Marriet, Maryette, and Mariett. The last is the correct rendition. That is how she signed it herself.

Mariett is listed as a single 23-year-old woman in the Illinois census of 1850. She also was unmarried, the daughter of Isaac and Grace Foster. Her birth place is given as New York. William Cumings [sic] is listed in the same census as a 31-year-old fisherman, also a New Yorker by birth. They were married between the date when this census was taken and April 13, 1852, when the first entry in her diary was made.

Other members of the family listed in the 1850 census and their dates at that time were as follows: Isaac G. Foster, the oldest son, age 30, a farmer; Roxanna C. Foster, Isaac Jr.’s wife, age 32; Eugene, age two, their child; Vincent, 27 years of age, a farmer; Arthur T., age fourteen, who was attending school.

Her father, Isaac Foster, was evidently a very vigorous man, one who pushed others to hard work. There is a family story in the Foster book that characterizes this man of “driving energy”:2

 

It seems that a small grandchild said: “Mama, will Grandpa go to Heaven when he dies?”

“Why, I certainly hope and expect so.” And then she added curiously: “But what makes you ask?”

“Because if he’s going. I don’t want to!”

“Why?” queried the surprised mother.

“Because he’ll say when he sees us: Well, well, boys, let’s be moving. Step around now. There’s a lot to be done here. And we have to do it!”

 

Isaac Foster even liked to tell this story on himself. He was a minister in his younger years, but he was often criticized by the church officials for “reading his sermons.” He also informed them on at least one occasion that he did not believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible. He was arraigned for heresy. He began his ministry as a Methodist, then moved over to Presbyterianism, but then he took another step and became a Unitarian. His wife was a Universalist.3 He finally left the ministry and took on the profession of a lawyer.

We have not been able to discover the location of the original Mariett Cummings diary and republish here the version that appeared in the family history.

We have also included as an “Epilogue” a biography, somewhat romantic, that Lucy Foster Sexton wrote of Aunt Mariett. By reading both the diary and Epilogue one gets insight into the life of a truly remarkable American woman.4

 

1 Foster Family, P. 153.

2 Ibid., P. 102.

3 Ibid., P. 110.

4 Ibid., PP. 143-147.