Site of Town of Cummins

The town that won was laid out on land R. C. Stewart donated in January 1891, the Handbook of Texas says, and was platted that February by H. B. Tarver. By June it had a hotel, several businesses and a newspaper, the Sterling Courier, and a post office followed later that year. The first school was built by 1892 and the county's first cotton gin in 1895, and in 1896 Sterling City had 300 residents, eight businesses and three churches. Once known for 150 windmills, it had 900 people by 1914 and incorporated in August 1955.

What the plaque says

The pioneer settlement of Cummins developed at this site about 1890 around the saddle and harness shop of the earliest permanent settler, Mississippi native Robert Benjamin Cummins (b. 1848). A post office the following year the nearby town of Sterling City (1.9 miles east) was founded. The two towns became rivals for the designation of county seat when the Texas Legislature created Sterling County from Tom Green County on March 4, 1891. An intense publicity campaign developed, aided by the writings of the respective town newspaper editors: W. L. Thurman of the Cummins paper, the "North Concho News", and S. R. Ezzell of the "Sterling Courier". An election, conducted May 20, 1891, appeared to be a victory for Cummins until several voting boxes were dismissed for technical reasons, resulting in a tie. A second election on July 7 gave Sterling City a 13-vote margin and it was named the county seat. Most Cummins businesses and residents had moved to Sterling City by the end of 1891. Nothing remains of the early townsite, which once included a school, saloon, meat market, mercantile, blacksmith shop, and grocery stores. (1981)

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Sterling County — 1.9 mi
• Camp Elizabeth — 7.5 mi
• World War I Peace Monument — 22 mi
• Silver — 26 mi