Parish History: Arthur Lewis Bumpus

ARTHUR LEWIS BUMPUS, son of Everett C. and Elvina F. (Russell) Bumpus, was born 4 March 1870 in Weymouth, Massachusetts. His father was a judge in the District Court in Norfolk County, Massachusetts and a member of the Panama Canal Zone Commission. He prepared for college at Adams Academy in Quincy, Massachusetts. He was graduated from Harvard College in 1891 with an A.B. degree and from Episcopal Theological School in 1894 with a S.T.B. (Bachelor of Scientific Theology) degree. While still a student, he was licensed in November 1891 as a lay reader for St. John's Church in East Boston by the Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks, Bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts, and went on to conduct Sunday Services at the mission Church of St. Chrysostom in Wollaston, part of the parish of Christ Church in Quincy. He was the lay reader at the first service held at the mission on April 10, 1892 and served there for nearly two years. He was ordained a deacon in June 1894, and a priest in June 1895, by the Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, Bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts. He was married to Cora Clark Hood, daughter of the Rev. George A. and Mary E. (Clark) Hood, 18 June 1901 in Boston, Massachusetts. They had one daughter.

From 1894-1899, he served as rector of St. Paul's Church in Natick, Massachusetts and of its mission church, St. Andrew's in South Framingham. Under his direction, a new church for St. Andrew's was completed and consecrated in March 1898. Early in 1899, he became assistant rector at Church of the Ascension in Boston, Massachusetts under the Rev. Edward Lincoln Atkinson. Atkinson reported in a letter to his brother, "I am in fine spirits...; Bumpus hustling, and taking big loads of work on his great shoulders; everything is going well (best January in every way our church ever knew)." From 1902-1909, he was assistant rector at St. Paul's Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. From 1909-1910, he was minister in charge of Trinity Church in Belvidere, Illinois.

On 3 November 1910, the Rev. Arthur L. Bumpus began his service as vicar at St. Andrew's Church in Ayer, Massachusetts and as minister in charge of the mission in Forge Village (now St. Mark's Church in Westford, Massachusetts). With unusual energy, he also served at Trinity Chapel in Shirley Center. While at St. Andrew's, he ran for election in 1912 as the Progressive Party candidate for State Representative in the 11th Middlesex District. The Progressive movement in Massachusetts described itself during that election as "a social uprising and a revolution, not by bloodshed but by the ballot." He was defeated and left the area early in 1913 to become rector of St. Michael's Church in Brooklyn, New York. In 1916, he was called to be rector of Trinity Church in Hewlett, New York where he served until his death.

The Rev. Arthur Lewis Bumpus died 8 July 1926 in Far Rockaway, New York in his fifty-seventh year. Funeral services were held at Trinity Church in Hewlett. He is buried in the family lot at Mount Wollaston Cemetery in Quincy, Massachusetts (Lot 273).

Sources:

1. Bennett, Mrs. Frank Silas History of St. Andrew's Church: Ayer, Groton, Forge Village 1892-1942 (Ayer, Massachusetts: St. Andrew's Church, 1944), 17.

2. Harvard Alumni Directory - A Catalogue of Former Students Now Living (Cambridge: Harvard Alumni Association, 1919), 96.

3. "Rev. Arthur Lewis Bumpus," New York Times, New York, 9 July 1926, 19.

4. Slattery, Charles Lewis Edward Lincoln Atkinson 1865-1902 (New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1904), 110.

5. Stowe's Clerical Directory of The American Church 1924 (Minneapolis: Andrew D. Stowe, 1924), 57.