Dexter Phelps Rumsey (1827-1906), a native of Westfield, NY, came to Buffalo in 1831. His father and family relocated to their new home in order to establish a tannery operation. Eventually, that establishment was operated by Rumsey along with his older brother, Bronson C. Rumsey. He also invested considerably in real estate, with a particular focus in the northern areas of the city. He was appointed as one of the twelve men initially appointed as members of the Buffalo Board of Park Commissioners.
Rumsey was involved in early Buffalo banking as a director of the Erie County Savings Bank. He was a significant figure in Buffalo’s social life, and not just in its financial and industrial aspects. He was a president of the exclusive Buffalo Club, and a member of the Buffalo Country Club. He was a significant supporter of the Buffalo Fresh Air Mission. He was also an original trustee of the Buffalo City Cemetery, the company formed in 1864 which established and still operates Forest Lawn Cemetery.
Rumsey was a principal in the organization of the residential developments which commissioned Frederick Law Olmsted to prepare the Parkside community designs. He also owned a significant tract of land on the south side of The Park. Mr. Rumsey died on 5 April, 1906.
The month after his death, his widow, Mrs. Susan Fiske Rumsey and his daughter, Mrs. Grace Rumsey Wilcox, made a gift to the city of an approximately one acre plot of land adjacent to Lincoln parkway and to the main park entrance. The parcel encompassed a particularly fine stand of quality trees, and abutted the twelve acre section of the park earlier gifted to the city by Mr. Rumsey and his brother Bronson. It formed a welcome addition to Delaware Park along Rumsey Road, a new street which thereafter formed the new southern border for the park. That the colloquial name of the that area, “Rumsey Woods”, be formally retained was the sole compensation requested for the transfer. That element of the park today commemorates both the brother’s gift and Mr. Dexter Rumsey’s personal service to the city of Buffalo.
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