Seventy-fifth Anniversary

Of the death of Ann Arbor's first settler

BURIED IN FOREST HILL

The inscription on his headstone gives the date of the first settlement

In Forest Hill cemetery is an old headstone bearing the inscription "Elisha W. Rumsey. Died Sept. 5, 1827, aged 42 years. The first settler in Ann Arbor. Feb 1824."

Seventy-five years and eleven days ago today the first settler in Ann Arbor died, a little over three years after making the settlement. That is the tale the old headstone tells.

Mr. Rumsey was not the only first settler as John Allen and his family came at the same time. Rumsey came from Genesee county, New York, and Allen from Virginia. They met at Cleveland, Ohio, and journeyed together to Ann Arbor. Mr. Rumsey's wife, Mrs. Mary Ann Rumsey, was one of the two Anns who gave the city its name. Mr. and Mrs. Rumsey kept the "Washtenaw Coffee House" on the southwest corner of Huron and First streets, but Mr. Rumsey only lived three years and a half after coming here. He was the captain of the first militia company organized in the county. Mr. Rumsey gave the land to the county for a county jail. It is the block on Liberty street between Fourth and Fifth avenues. His brother, Judge Henry Rumsey, who is buried beside him in Forest Hill cemetery, at one time owned the land where the campus now is.