Fortescue Cuming

Fortescue Cuming (February 26, 1762 – 1828) was an Irish-born traveler and author. He is known for Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country, an account of journeys made from 1807 to 1809 through the western United States, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, the Mississippi Territory, and West Florida. His account was later republished by historian Reuben Gold Thwaites and has been used by historians of early western Pennsylvania and Kentucky.

Early life

Cuming was born at Strabane, County Tyrone, Ireland, on February 26, 1762. He studied medicine and traveled in France, Switzerland, and Italy before going to New York. In 1784, he married Phoebe Harisson, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Thomas Harisson; the couple had seven children. Cuming subsequently lived in New York, Trinidad, and Westchester, before establishing a home at Cedar Hill, outside New Haven, Connecticut, in 1792. Portraits of Cuming and his wife by Saint-Mémin date to 1797. The following day he continued to Shippensburg. From there, he traveled through Strasburg, now Upper Strasburg, rather than taking the stage road through Chambersburg. According to Thwaites's later reconstruction of the journey, Cuming arrived in Pittsburgh on February 2 after twenty-seven days on the road and remained there through the winter, spring, and early summer.

On July 18, Cuming left Pittsburgh by boat and descended the Ohio River to Maysville, Kentucky, arriving on July 30. From there he traveled on horseback through Kentucky to Lexington and Frankfort, returning to Maysville on August 5. He then crossed into Ohio to inspect his land and traveled through Chillicothe, Lancaster, and Zanesville to Wheeling, before returning to Pittsburgh on August 21. Thomas D. Clark, assessing travelers' accounts as sources for Kentucky history in 1940, characterized Cuming's observations as "reasonably sane" and his information as "definitely valuable," adding that he had "the eye of a reporter."

Later life

Cuming apparently did not return to Phoebe after his western travels; she was buried in New Haven in 1821. He subsequently married a woman identified in the Dictionary of American Biography only as Miss Butler. Cuming died at Vermilionville, Louisiana, in 1828.