Elida Rumsey

Elida B. Rumsey (June 6, 1842 – June 17, 1919), also referred to by her married name, Elida Fowle, was a singer, philanthropist, and Union nurse during the American Civil War. Too young to join Dorothea Dix's army nursing service, Rumsey volunteered for three years of the war.

Early life Elida Barker Rumsey was born in New York City on June 6, 1842, the daughter of John Wickliffe Rumsey and Mary Agnes Underhill Rumsey. Her father owned a hosiery shop, and later worked in banking. As a child, Rumsey's parents moved to Washington, D.C. which began Rumsey's interest in political action. At the time of southern secession, Rumsey was engaged to John A. Fowle who was employed in the Navy. Because of their closeness to the capital and Fowle's work, the couple was interested in serving in the Civil War, particularly in a philanthropic manner. which she helped to organize and fund. She also took supplies and over four hundred loaves of bread to the Second Battle of Bull Run. En route to the battle, she and her husband came across a small cabin which they turned into a makeshift hospital. The couple moved to Brooklyn after the war, where they were active in the Congregational church led by Henry Ward Beecher. They moved to Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1877. They raised four children together, including a war orphan, Jeannie, whom they adopted; a fifth child died young.

In her later years, Elida Rumsey Fowle was active in veterans' organizations in New England, and founded the Grandchildren of Veterans of the Civil War. She started another free library, volunteered at a hospital, and worked in various charity homes for aged women, intemperate women, working women, aged couples. and she died in 1919, aged 77 years, in Dorchester.

In popular culture In 1913, Rumsey's story was fictionalized for a silent film, Song Bird of the North. The Rumsey character was played by Anita Stewart.