Horace H. Cummings

Horace Hall Cummings was an Utah educator and taught school in Millcreek, Utah, and Brigham Young College in Logan. He is perhaps best remembered for his service in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as Commissioner of Church Education from 1905 to 1920.

Cummings was born on June 12, 1858, in Provo, Utah Territory, and attended the University of Utah. He worked various jobs, including as a printer’s devil at the Deseret News, a finisher at the Deseret Woolen Mills, and he quarried granite for the Salt Lake Temple. While living in Logan, he also published the Logan Leader, a weekly newspaper, with his brother B. F. Cummings Jr. He served as a missionary for the Church in Mexico and translated some sections of the Doctrine and Covenants into Spanish. He also presided over the Mexican Mission in 1887.

He also wrote textbooks on elementary science that were in use for many years.

For the 1904 World’s Fair in Missouri, Cummings chaired the committee that put together the Utah educational exhibit for the Palace of Education at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, and the exhibit received numerous awards.

Cummings had two wives. He and his first wife, Barbara Matilda, were the parents of seven sons and two daughters. He also married Matilda Sophia Wilcox Bliss. He died on August 1, 1937, in Salt Lake City, Utah.