McBride - Bumpus Genealogy

Frederick Rufus Bumpus

B:  20 Sep 1859 - D: 29 March 1926

married:  19 April 1888

Elma Elizabeth Davison

B:  25 April 1866 - D:  19 Oct 1958

Frederick  Rufus  Bumpus  Biography

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Plum  Township  Special  -

Fred Bumpus  Venango County Pennsylvania Genealogy
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  WHO WAS WHO in PLUM TOWNSHIP 
      ~ Titusville Herald ~ 
      By H. W. Strawbridge

    Frederick Rufus Bumpus

     Fred Bumpus Had Many Skills, Built Several Area Landmarks
      The Bumpus family can be traced back to at least the early part of the 
      17th Century when Edward Bompass, a native Leydener, left Holland and 
      boarded the ship “Fortune” at London to sail for America. Included in the 
      group was Jonathan Brewster. They landed at Plymouth, Mass., on Nov. 11, 
      1621. Edward lived at Duxbury, and later at Marshfield. He died in 1693, 
      and had fathered eight children. His first son was John Bumpas, born in 
      1636. The spelling of the name gradually changed through the years. One of 
      John’s great grandsons was Simeon Bumpus who was born in 1739 in Wareham, 
      Mass., and was a Revolutionary War veteran. He moved to New York State in 
      later years. His grandson was Rev. Erastus Sterling Bumpus, born probably 
      at Lorraine, N.Y., on May 31, 1815. He was a Free Will Baptist minister 
      and elder. He was married July 2, 1839, to Ann Faneta Shirley who was a 
      milliner. 
      Minister Moves to Area
      They removed to Jackson Township, Venango county, where they lived several 
      years before moving to Mercer County where he preached, did some shoe 
      repairing and fruit raising. About 1875 they sold their place to a 
      neighbor whose house had burned, and removed to Bradleytown, Plum 
      Township. Here the respected man of god died on Jan. 23, 1880. While he 
      lived in Jackson township on the present property of Mrs. Martha Deeter, 
      record states that the first oil well in the township was put down on his 
      farm. It was drilled to a depth of 400 feet, then abandoned. In 1862 it 
      was completed and proved to be a two-barrel well. During his times of 
      residence in Jackson and Plum townships he was actively associated with 
      the former Plum Free Will Baptist Church located between Bradleytown and 
      Cooperstown.



      First Called Fritz

      His youngest son was Frederick Rufus Bumpus, born Sept. 29, 1859, in 
      Jackson Township. The old family Bible states his first name was Fritz, 
      but he always accepted Fred as his name. Sometimes he went by a nickname, 
      “Rick”. Fred grew up with a real sense of responsibility. He served as a 
      foreman over a telegraph crew when in his late teens. The crew strung a 
      line from Titusville to Warren. One day the superintendent happened along 
      and wanted to see the foreman to congratulate him on installing one of the 
      straightest lines in the state. He was vastly surprised when he learned 
      that the foreman was still in his teens. Fred also learned the carpenter’s 
      trade when very young under an area resident, Milton Rieb. He worked with 
      Rieb until the latter’s death in 1878. Fred once worked as an off-bearer 
      at the Stratton-McQueen sawmill located near the line of the Williams and 
      Lamberton properties above Bradleytown. While he was there the boiler blew 
      up. Fortunately, no one was hurt. As a young fellow he owned a nice sorrel 
      horse named “Tip.” This horse was very lively and smart. Once it was 
      standing behind Fred in the yard, apparently begging for oats. Something 
      scared it and it jumped entirely over Fred without hurting him. Just a 
      whistle and a joggle of the lines was all that was necessary to get him to 
      pass any other horse on the road. 
      Six-Year Courtship
      Fred had a courtship of around six years with Miss Elma Elizabeth Davison 
      of Bradleytown. Their marriage took place in Franklin on April 19, 1888, 
      by a Baptist minister. Elma had wanted to be married by a minister of the 
      Presbyterian Church, her faith, but at that particular time the church in 
      Sunville was without a minister, and the pastor in Franklin couldn’t be 
      located due to it being Presbytery Week. After their wedding they had 
      their photograph, shown here, taken in Titusville. Elma was born April 25, 
      1866, a daughter of James F. and Lucinda Matthews Davison. She was one of 
      four children. She attended the Sunville Academy, then taught in the 
      schools of south Troy, Gates (Jackson Township) and Bradleytown. She also 
      took part in the oldtime singing schools and literary societies in her 
      community. She and Fred had been in the large circus tent which had blown 
      down in Titusville in 1885 and caused great confusion. The couple began 
      housekeeping in the home of his widowed mother who died a year and a half 
      later.


      In the yard he had a shop in which he filed and fixed buggy wheels, 
      made wagon boxes, axles, spindles and even boats. During the first two 
      summers Fred and Elma ran the hotel at Sugar Lake, and spent their winters 
      at Bradleytown. Fred and J.W. Morse of Chapmanville made a steamboat and 
      Fred piloted it on Sugar Lake for two seasons, one of which was 1892. Fred 
      towed a flatboat on nice evenings, and a number of couples held square 
      dances on it. After the boat was dismantled Fred took the boiler and 
      engine and sawed wood. In 1895-96 Fred and Elma lived in a small house 
      which once stood north of the large house of Elma’s parents. They then 
      lived in Callery Junction and Evans City, Butler County, where he 
      constructed derricks and built walking beams and bull-wheels. After 
      building a derrick he would climb the derrick and stand on his head as 
      sort of a “grand finale”. He once built an entire bull-wheel, installed 
      the spokes, rim, etc., and hung it in one day. This took some busy hours. 
      First Central Power
      He installed the first central power in the oil fields there to pump the 
      lines. One Bob Irwin owned the large lease on which this work was done. 
      Following the Butler County work, Fred then worked in the Lake Creek oil 
      fields building rigs for Billy Thompson. Around 1898 he worked in Sharon 
      in the carpentry and construction business. He built and repaired houses 
      for the steel mill company there. In 1900 the family moved to Rocky Grove 
      and remained there for nine years. He helped to build the Park Hotel, 
      worked at the Eclipse and constructed the lower plant of the Chicago 
      Pneumatic Tool Company. Fred and Elma were the parents of 10 children as 
      follows: Leo Shirley Bumpus, May 10, 1889; James Maxwell Bumpus, Feb. 25, 
      1891; Leonard Davison Bumpus, Sept. 29, 1893; Bernice Irene Bumpus, Sept. 
      4, 1895; two infant girls probably 1897 and 1898; Theodore Dalton Bumpus, 
      July 23, 1900; Nellie Marie Bumpus, July 8, 1904; Ferne Elizabeth Bumpus, 
      Aug. 6, 1908; and Norris Bumpus, April 1910. 
                        Six Children Survive
      Leo was married to Miss Nora Brown of Rockland on Feb. 19, 1916. They 
      lived at Bradleytown where she died in 1936. On Sept. 25, 1939, he was 
      married to Mrs. Marie Riddle of Barkeyville, and they presently live at 
      Bradleytown. He was employed as a machinist and a farmer prior to his 
      retirement. He also served 30 years on the Plum Township school board. By 
      the first marriage there were four children: Mrs. Bernice Noel of 
      Bradleytown, Mrs. Margaret McBride of Slippery Rock, Fred W. Bumpus, 
      deceased and Mrs. Florence Smith of Black Ash. Maxwell was married in 
      October 1934, to Bertha Lindberg of Johnsonburg at Ridgway. Max was a 
      carpenter and is now retired living at Johnsonburg. They have one 
      daughter, Mrs. Gertrude Walters of Pelahatchie, Miss. Leonard remained 
      single. He had worked in the carpentry and construction business prior to 
      his retirement. He presently lives in Bradleytown. Bernice married Clyde 
      Pringle of Oakland Township in April, 1918, in her home. She died of burns 
      received when an oil can exploded in Sedan, N.M., in March 1919. Mr. 
      Pringle was a customs officer and is now retired and living along Lake 
      Ontario. No children were born to this union. The next two children, the 
      infant girls, died in infancy. One, Catherine, lived two days. Theodore 
      was married in August 1927, to Miss Lillian Cannon, a schoolteacher of 
      Aliquippa. She died in 1960. He was married in 1961 to Florence Marquart 
      of Rochester, N.Y. Theodore is an inspector in the Pennsylvania Railroad 
      yards at Pitcairn. There is one daughter by his first marriage, Mrs. Jean 
      Miller of near Pittsburgh. 
      Son is Carpenter
      Nellie was married on Oct. 2, 1926, at Franklin to Clyde Shadle of 
      Fairview. Nellie was a schoolteacher and Clyde farmed at Emlenton, then at 
      Bradleytown. He is presently a carpenter, and they reside on the old 
      Bumpus place in Bradleytown. They have six children: Lewis Shadle of Erie, 
      Mrs. Anna Crawford of Townville, James Shadle of Greensboro, N.C., David 
      Shadle of near Bradleytown, Mrs. Shirley Sterns of Franklin and First Lt. 
      Donald Shadle of the Air Force in Turkey. Ferne was married in August 
      1926, at Mayville, N.Y. to Victor McCurdy of Fairview. He carpentered and 
      farmed. He died at Fairview in December, 1936. They had one son, Bruce 
      McCurdy now of Zelienople, who was later adopted by her second husband and 
      named Welsh. Ferne remarried on Sept. 1, 1939, to William Welsh Sr., and 
      they live west of Chapmanville. He is an electrician. They had two sons, 
      William Welsh Jr., of Meadville and Frederick Welsh at home. Norris died 
      in September, 1910 of a summer complaint at the age of five months. Family 
      historians have stated that Fred’s family was the first family of the 
      Bumpus line to have more than two boys. Fred Bumpus weighed around 200 
      pounds in his younger day, but had fallen to around 160 pounds in his late 
      years. He was six feet tall.



      Hair Changes Color

      He had white curly hair when a boy, and an interesting anecdote is 
      recalled in this respect. While someone was cutting his hair one day, a 
      lady who lived a distance south of the Bumpus home and who was noted (and 
      feared too) as a witch woman, called upon the Bumpus family. She told them 
      without any hesitation that the boy’s hair was being cut in the wrong 
      sign. Indeed, it never curled again, and his hair turned black. He was 
      gray, though, during the greater portion of his adult life. He also 
      sported a mustache. He was quite jovial. A member of the family also said 
      that one could hear him sneeze “a mile away!”. Fred was a member of the 
      former Free Will Baptist Church in Bradleytown, the Cooperstown IOOF lodge 
      and the Carpenter’s Union in Franklin, which he joined in 1900. During the 
      1880’s he was a member of Company E of the 16th Regiment of National Guard 
      in Cooperstown. He was one of four squads of eight men apiece, or 32 men 
      all of whom were six feet or more tall in their stocking feet. Fred had 
      referred to them as “four sets of fours”. They comprised what was said to 
      be the tallest squads of guardsmen in the state at that time. Elma was a 
      longtime member of the former Sunville Presbyterian Church with which she 
      united on May 24, 1884 under Rev. J. L. Robertson. She was installed as an 
      elder on Sept. 28, 1939.

      Designed Floor Sander

      Sometime during the early 1900’s Fred had completed plans for a floor 
      sander. He wrote to the patent office in Washington to get a patent, but 
      he never carried out the plans for manufacturing it. Some man in Franklin 
      whom Fred had approached about the plans became rather untrustworthy in 
      Fred’s opinion, so he abandoned his intentions of completing the patent. 
      Fred carpentered a number of local buildings. He helped to build the 
      Valley schoolhouse in 1889, both the Free Will Baptist (1892) and 
      Methodist (1910) churches in Bradleytown, the Diamond church belfry in 
      1909, the back part of the Conrad Rice home near Wallaceville, the raising 
      of Dr. Richey’s small barn in Chapmanville, the large part of the Clyde 
      Armstrong house at Chapmanville, the shingling of the Presbyterian horse 
      sheds at Sunville, and he, Leonard and Theodore assisted Bill Robinson in 
      constructing the large barn belonging to J.M. Shriver at Diamond in 1922.


      Fred, Leonard and Maxwell started construction of a new home on their 
      place and they moved into it, still unfinished, in August, 1925, though 
      Fred was in failing health then. Fred died March 26, 1926, following an 
      illness of about a year’s duration. He was buried from his home on March 
      30 with the Methodist pastor, Rev. W.H. Turner, officiating. Interment was 
      in the Plum Cemetery, Jackson Township. Elma died in the same home on Oct. 
      19, 1958, at the age of 92, having been Plum township’s oldest resident at 
      that time. Although she had been failing gradually, she was seriously ill 
      for only a day. 






      Transcribed by Paula Harry 
      dharry@pa.rr.com 


      Disclaimer:there may be errors due to transcription of information from 
      both early and late (current contributors) work.