Ohio Biographies



Frederick Bumpus


FREDERICK BUMPUS, A BIOGRAPHY

By Marlow Bumpus, March 7, 2004

Frederick Bumpus was born in Cornwall CT. in May of 1764, the son of Edward Bumpus and Susannah Dean. The exact date is unknown. Frederick’s father had moved to Cornwall near Sharon and married Susannah in the Congressional Church of Cornwall on March 8, 1758. Frederick was raised in a family of five children; not a large family for the time. Besides Frederick there was Reuben, b. 1760, Sarah and two older children: Edward, b. Nov. 15 1749 and James, born to Mariah Benson, Edwards’s first wife who died before 1758. Susanna was the daughter of Reuben Dean. Edward Sr. was in the French and Indian War and signed the Revolutionary War pledge. He died at the age of 90.

The family later moved to Albany County NY and Frederick was drafted at the age of 17 at Little Hoosick, Albany Co. into the service of the United States for one month in June of 1781. [Little Hoosick is now Petersburgh, and is in Rensselaer County, which was created later from Albany Co.] About the first of April 1782. Frederick entered the service of The United States for nine months as a private and was mustered in at Albany New York in a company commanded by Captain Henry of the New York Regiment commanded by Colonel Willett. Frederick continued in that command for the entire nine months. He joined the regiment at Albany and stayed there two weeks in military training before leaving on a march to Schenectady. Staying only two days, due to a smallpox outbreak amongst the residents, the regiment moved on to Johnstown. Here they stayed for four of five months under the command of Lieutenant Johnson, a Continental Officer with whom he moved on to Fort Plain where they stayed in a barn for a few days. With John Woodcock, Frederick was sent to Fort Herkimer to Capt. Tiene’s Company. He was generally out on scout but never saw battle. He served with a small detachment ‘keeping garrison’. He eventually returned to Fort Plain where Lt. Johnson discharged him on Dec. 31, 1782.

Returning to Little Hoosick he remained there for about six years before moving on to Rensselaerville in Albany County in about 1788. He lived until about 1807. Frederick married Catherine in Rensselerville. Children born to Frederick and Catherine while they lived in Rensselaerville were John in 1792, Reuben in 1800 and Mariah in 1803 and probably Frederick. The birth dates of Salathiel, Jane, Effi, Elizabeth and James are not known and at least some may have also been in Rensselaerville. Isabella was born in about 1815 in Spencer, Hector or Cayuga New York. In about 1807 the family moved to Spencer in Tioga, New York where they were living in 1810 when the census taker counted them. Some of the children were probably staying with their uncle Reuben Bumpus in Rome, Pennsylvania, just a few miles from Spencer. Reuben was married to Phoebe Gibbs and had served five hitches in the Revolutionary War. He was a founder of Bumpville, Pennsylvania, near Rome. The 1810 census indicated some children living in his home, yet ‘The History of Bradford County, PA.’ credits him with having no children.

Frederick moved the family from Spencer to Hector in Cayuga County, then to Benton in Ontario County, all in New York State, before settling in Washington Township, Richland County, Ohio in about 1819. Several of the children were married in Richland County and they lived in the Mansfield/Marion area for many years. As were most families of the area, Frederick was a farmer, though either Frederick or his son Frederick Jr. was said to have been a whisky distiller who never drank a drop. Three of his neighbors were William Randal, William Glenn and Alexander Mann who married Mariah Bumpus. These men held Frederick Bumpus in high regard to which they testified in an affidavit dated 1832.

Frederick, being a farmer, at times had trouble making ends meet. He applied for a pension for his service in the Revolutionary War on May 7, 1818 while living in Ontario County, New York. He applied again in 1832 in Richland County, Ohio under a new law Congress passed June 7, 1832 and was awarded a pension of $33.33 per year for life. Frederick was arrested by constable Denial Andrews of Washington Township and taken before the court on the 15th day of January 1831 for non-payment of a debt of $9.75 to John W Hooper and John H Evens of Hooper & Evens. He was ordered held by Justice of the Peace, J Dunn, until the debt and future costs were paid or he was otherwise legally discharged. The judge added costs of $2.72 making the debt $12.57. On May 23. 1832, Frederick was ordered released by Judge J Dunn because it was illegal to jail a soldier of the Revolutionary War for debt. The court further ordered that Hooper & Evens pay all ‘costs and charges’ and a judgment was ordered against them because they were aware of the law before they proceeded with the ‘process’.

In 1836 George B Arnold sued Frederick for $110.86, which he was ordered to pay. The Supreme Court of Ohio upheld the decision in 1837 and Frederick was ordered to pay the amount plus $62.92 in costs. Frederick died in late 1839 or early 1840 and was buried in an unmarked grave in the Mansfield Cemetery, Mansfield, Ohio. The Sheriff for judgment against him sold his farm in 1842 and 1843. The 1843 sale identified the land as NW sec 15, twp 20, range 28. His ‘wife Catherine agreed to the sale of land’. This was probably to pay judgment awarded George Arnold in 1837.

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