Israel Rumsey, Civil War

Captain Israel Parsons Rumsey. The Rumsey family purchased 404 E. Deerpath from Simeon B. Williams in 1887. As a grain broker, Captain Israel P. Rumsey was a longtime director of the Chicago Board of Trade. His name was often brought up as a potential Republican candidate for mayor of Chicago, but he always refused to run. Captain Rumsey had a distinguished Civil War record, helping organize an artillery company just days after the firing on Fort Sumter. After the war, he channeled his fighting energy into the crusade against alcohol, serving as President of the Citizens’ League for the Suppression of the Sale of Liquor to Minors. The 1907 state law creating “temperance zones” around Fort Sheridan and Great Lakes was known locally as “the Rumsey bill.”