Ephraim Knowlton was born in 1803. He came to the Cincinnati area in the early 1820s to supervise workmen on the Miami and Erie Canal. Knowlton founded the town of Cumminsville, named for David Cummins, one of the community's earliest residents. Knowlton established a grocery store here in 1830. Beginning in 1838, the store doubled as a post office, with Knowlton serving as the postmaster. It was in 1838 when Cumminsville received its name formally, although white Americans had lived in the area since 1805. Prior to the 1850s, the town remained small. A few hotels and affiliated businesses serviced travelers on the Miami and Erie Canal, but the town only averaged two to three hundred permanent residents. Additional businesses and people moved to Cumminsville beginning in 1851 with the arrival of the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton Railroad. Knowlton died in 1888. Cumminsville is now a part of Cincinnati.