Clyde R. Cummins
Clyde R. Cummins is president and owner of The C. R. Cummins Company, general railroad contractors, with offices and headquarters in the Leader-News Building at Cleveland, but with an operating service that covers several states, though chiefly in Ohio. Mr. Cummins has been identified with railroad construction practically since he was a boy, and has been an independent contractor almost continuously since he reached his majority. He has handled contracts involving the expenditure of many millions of dollars for the Pennsylvania and other large railway corporations and his business record is a highly creditable performance for a man still under forty.
The C. R. Cummins Company enjoys at least one enviable and enjoyable distinction of being the largest Ohio incorporated company doing business in the class of work.
Mr. Cummins is a native of Ohio, born at Wellsville August 16, 1881, son of Charles B. and Emma (Riggs) Cummins. His father, who was born at Massillon, Ohio, went through the Civil war as a private soldier in the Thirteenth Ohio Regiment, and practically fought from the beginning to the end of that great struggle. After the war for a period of thirty-five years he was a bridge engineer and engaged in construction work for the Pennsylvania Railway.
Clyde R. Cummins was educated in the Wellsville public schools and when about eighteen years of age gained his first experience in railway construction. As an independent contractor he has built many miles of railroad in Ohio and also in Indiana and Illinois. At the present time the company has sixteen contracts for railroads under construction. The company has in course of construction eight miles of new line for the Wheeling & Lake Erie, is double tracking twenty-nine miles on one division of the Pennsylvania, and is also building all the passing tracks on one of the divisions of the Pennsylvania lines in Ohio. The company has its forces at work on five different divisions of the Pennsylvania lines. The C. R. Cummins Company was incorporated in 1913. Its first headquarters being in Chicago, from where they were moved to Cleveland, with branch offices elsewhere in Ohio. Among other contracts Mr. Cummins is constructing a large engine house at Sandusky for the Pennsylvania, and in the past and today most of his business has originated with the Pennsylvania and the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railways. The operations of more than 1,000 men are controlled and directed through the man office of the company at Cleveland.
It is significant that Mr. Cummins counts his chief recreation and pleasure as railroad contracting and his earnestness and enthusiasm in the business have undoubtedly been primarily responsible for the signal success he has won. As minor recreations he acknowledges an interest in motoring and baseball. He is a republican in politics, and is both a York and Scottish Rite Mason. He has affiliations with the Scottish Rite Consistory and Shrine at Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he lived in 1913, is a member of the Knights Templar Commandery at Wabash, Indian, and is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Greencastle, Indiana. He is also a member of the Cleveland Automobile Club, the Clifton Club at Lakewood and the Cleveland Athletic Club.
Mr. Cummins and family reside on Erie Cliff Drive in Lakewood. July 9, 1906, at Chicago, he married Miss Mary A. Evans. She was born and educated in Indianapolis, where her mother, Mrs. Lillian B. Evans, still resides. Two children have been born to their marriage, John Thomas, born at Indianapolis, and James Evans, born at Cleveland.
From Cleveland - Special Limited Edition, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago & New York, 1918 v.1