James Scott Cummings, one of the first physicians to settle in Bronson, Kan., and the local surgeon of the Missouri Pacific railroad, was born in Parke county, Indiana, June 8, 1861. His father, John M. Cummings, was born at Rockbridge, Va., while his mother, Catharine Beadle, was a native of Clark county, Kentucky, born there April 14, 1832. The parents lived on a farm in Indiana and there James was reared and attended the public schools. In 1869 the family came to Kansas and settled on a farm in Allen county, where their son lived with them until 1872, when he began to teach country school. For seven years he taught in the winter and during the summer vacations read medicine with Dr. G. D. Whitaker, an old and successful practitioner of Carlyle, Kan. Dr. Cummings, then went east and entered the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, where he graduated in 1880. Immediately after receiving his degree he located at Rocklaw, Allen county, Kansas, and practiced there for two years. In 1882 he moved to Bronson, being one of the earliest settlers in the place as he has built five different homes during his residence. During the first years, Dr. Cummings met with all the discouragements and hardships which pioneer professional men have to contend with in a new country, but he was enthusiastic, loved his profession and overcame all difficulties, so that today he is well fixed financially and devotes most of his time exclusively to office work. In politics he is a stanch Democrat, having been elected mayor of the city and councilman several times by that party. He was also coroner of Bourbon county five years, and has been local surgeon of the Missouri Pacific railroad for seven years.

On Sept. 22, 1881, Dr. Cummings married Libbie C., the daughter of A. J. and Parmelia Ray of Bourbon county, and they have one daughter, Mabel, the wife of G. R. Hughes, the present postmaster of Fort Scott, Kan. The Doctor is a member of the Bourbon County and Kansas State Medical Societies and the American Medical Association; he also is a member of the medical staff of the Mercy Hospital, Fort Scott. Fraternally he is a Thirty-second degree Mason, and a member of the Mystic Shrine; belongs to the Knights of Pythias and has filled nearly all the chairs of the order. Dr. Cummings is loved as a physician and is regarded as one of the finest and most progressive citizens of Bronson.