Frank F. Bumps

Frank F. Bumps (June 21, 1861 – July 18, 1914) was an American attorney. He was one of the most prominent attorneys in Detroit from 1898 until his death in 1914. He also played American football as a forward on the undefeated 1885 and 1886 Michigan Wolverines football teams.

Early years Bumps was born in 1861 in Bangor, Maine. As a boy of approximately 12 years, he moved with his family to Muskegon, Michigan. He enrolled at the University of Michigan in 1881 and, after missing two years due to illness, graduated from the Literary Department in 1887 with a Ph.B. degree. While attending the university, he played at the forward position on the undefeated 1885 and 1886 Michigan Wolverines football teams. While at Michigan, he was also a champion wrestler, a sprinter on the track team, and a member of the baseball team. In 1905, he prosecuted Rose Barron, an elderly woman accused of serving biscuits poisoned with arsenic to multiple occupants at the Alhambra Apartments, resulting in the death of a baby. It ended with a hung jury. He conducted the grand jury investigation into the Department of Public Works. The first trial resulted in a hung jury, and the second in an acquittal after seven weeks.

In 1912, he ran unsuccessfully for Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney. Bumps was a member of the Detroit Board of Commerce and a sergeant in the Michigan National Guard.

Family and death In 1893, Bumps married Edith L. Knapp. They had three daughters, Dorothy, Francis, and Marjorie. He died in 1914 at age 53 at Harper Hospital in Detroit. The cause of death was peritonitis.