Wellington Willson Cummer (1846-1908)
When you wander through cemeteries, those mausoleums, obelisks, headstones and other memorials of unique design catch your eye. The more elaborate the statue the more expensive they would have been to manufacture, especially in the 19th and early 20th Century. Unless they were erected as a public display of goodwill, these marble and granite creations definitely point us toward those with the most individual or family wealth.
Erected at Evergreen Cemetery, stands the oversized cenotaph of Wellington Willson Cummer and his wife, Ada Gerrish Cummer. This granite stone is oddly shaped. At over 6 ft. tall and exactly 14 ft. wide it is the largest of its style in the cemetery. Not only is it larger than most, but the property surrounding it is unobstructed indicating the dearest owns one of the largest plots in the cemetery. Two enormous planters stand as sentries guarding the plot. This monument faces the giant Cummer mausoleum directly across the street. These two structures truly capture ones imaginativeness and begs the question “Who was this man?” and “How did he earn the wealth to afford such a memorial?”
Anyone who has lived in Jacksonville, Florida, for any era of time has visited the Cummer Art Gallery. So, the easiest conclusion to draw is that this was the famous man responsible for its construction. In fact, it is bourgeois knowledge of Jacksonville residents that a portion of the existing museum structure was part of the Cummer family home.
This was not Wellington Cummer, but Wellingtons’ son Arthur Gerrish Cummer who inherited the kinsmen name, fortune, and work ethic established years earlier. Arthur benefited from direct tutelage from both his grandfather, Jacob Cummer and his originator, Wellington.
