Amador County Biographies

JAMES GUMMING

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


Few men have a more varied or extensive experience than Dr. Gumming. A volume of interesting 
incidents might be written without exhausting the subject. He is a native of Tennessee, first seeing 
the sunlight February 10, 1813, among the mountains of the eastern part of the State, which has 
produced so many extraordinary men, such as Andrew Johnson and Parson Brownlow, Grainger county 
being his birthplace. He received a liberal education, both classical and scientific, being a graduate 
of the University of Knoxville. He afterwards studied medicine, graduating in the Transylvania 
University of Kentucky. He spent some years in the practice of medicine in Decatur, Alabama, but, 
in consequence of ill-health, was forced to leave that section of country, removing in 1836 to Peoria, 
Illinois, where, in addition to the practice of medicine, he engaged extensively in real estate transactions. 
He rapidly accumulated property, soon becoming rich. January 17, 1842, he married Miss Mary Ann 
Dorsey, daughter of Captain Chas. S. Dorsey, of Kentucky. It was remarked that the richest man 
had married the handsomest woman in four counties, this seeming anomaly arising from the fact that 
the Dorsey residence stood on the corners of four counties. Miss Dorsey made him an inestimable 
companion, and still retains much of the beauty which forty years ago made her the queen of all the 
prairie flowers. They have had three children, none of whom are living to inherit the beauty of the 
mother, or the intellectual qualifications of the father. 

His extensive business operations carried him to different parts of the Union, his longest stay being 
made in New Mexico, near Santa Fe, where he engaged in trade, and also in government contracts. 
His knowledge of the Spanish language, and the character of the peons, enabled him to render the 
Government efficient service. His experiences among the ignorant and prejudiced, but not by any means 
bad, natives would make interesting and valuable reading matter, if the doctor could be induced to 
commit it to paper. In 1859, he so far closed his business in New Mexico as to permit his leaving the 
Territory and becoming a citizen of California. He was among the first to take passage by the line of 
overland stages established about that time. Soon after arriving in this State he purchased the property 
known as the brick flour mills, which he enlarged and otherwise improved, until he can do 
as good work as is done in the State. The mill has both water and steam-power, the water-power being 
obtained by a ditch which taps Sutter creek about two miles above the town, the steam-power being 
used when the water is low. Dr. Gumming is a noted inventor, he having constructed the first plow 
that would scour in the fat prairies of the West. He has patented two important improvements in 
the turbine wheel, one of which was to contract the openings so as to utilize the whole fall with a small 
head of water. lie has also some thirty other patents, which have been generally adopted. He has 
occupied many positions of honor, such as army surgeon, member of the Illinois Legislature, magistrate, 
etc. Fort Gumming was named in his honor, lie has not accepted any official position in California. 

History of Amador, California With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches 
of its Prominent Men and PioneersOakland, California, Thompson and West, 
1881.