A mere two weeks after the attack on Fort Sumter began the Civil War, Israel Parsons Rumsey co-founded Taylor’s Battery in Chicago, on May 2, 1861. A consummate leader, he was elected Second Lieutenant by his fellow soldiers. The Battery joined battles at Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Atlanta. Rumsey, noted for his courage and intelligence on the battlefield, was promoted to Captain in 1863, and given charge of the unit. The Battery was honorably discharged in July 1864.

Born in rural Stafford, New York in 1836, Rumsey had been among the thousands of men drawn West by a desire for adventure and meaning to his work. At at the age seventeen, he began clerking at an Iowan dry goods store before relocating to the growing city of Chicago in 1857. The fast-paced metropolitan trade community attracted Rumsey, and by 1860 he had established one of Chicago’s first commission houses (buying and selling bonds, stocks, and commodities): Flint, Hoyt & Rumsey. It later transformed into the independent Rumsey and Company. 

Returning to Chicago after the war, Rumsey became increasingly involved in reform politics. Deeply inspired by President Lincoln, Rumsey saw his immediate neighborhood as an opportunity for societal betterment. He was elected President of the Citizens League against the spread of alcohol in 1877, raising public consciousness against the boom of saloons and gambling. As a grain broker, Captain 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.

The Rumseys made their home by 1887 in Lake Forest at 404 East Deerpath, The Evergreens. In Lake Forest, Captain Rumsey’s passion for his country and community made him into a small-time local celebrity. As a former officer of the United States Army, he appeared on a white horse to celebrate the town’s patriotic occasions. Captain Rumsey also continued to channel 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.”