NOTE: Dates on his cemetery stone do not match the dates given in his obituary.

LA PLATA HOME PRESS, La Plata, Missouri
August 14, 1913
CAPTAIN ABEL FRANK BUMPUS
---Captain Abel Frank Bumpus was born to the union of John and Nancy Bumpus of Ashland, Ohio on December 1, 1831 and died August 9, 1913, aged eighty-one years, eight months and eight days.
---A direct descendant of the sturdy Puritan, Samuel Bumpus, who was co-founder of the Plymouth Colony in 1819. His life was one full of inherited tendencies of his brave for father, he was able to surmount all obstacles and to withstand threw trials and tribulations met with in that early day of development of what was then the "new west."
---After his early school days he engaged with his father and brother in the lumber and grain business. Adventures in the west appealed to him so he moved westward to Missouri and located in La Plata in 1857. He began the buying and shipping of live stock, and this proved to be his lifes vocation.
---Abel F. Bumpus was happily married to a charming and talented southern girl, Louisa Catherine Tolbert on June 19, 1863. To this union were born eleven children; three, Bessie, Emma and Albert Joseph have preceded him to that happy and permanent resting place. One daughter, Mrs. Stella Wilson and seven sons, Thomas R., John F., Charles E., Win E., James W., Glen N., and Clyde Wade live to mourn his death.
---Married as he was in the midst of the Civil War, it may be noted that troubles did not weigh heavily upon his head. Later he commanded a company of volunteers in the Union Army and at near the close of the war was sent home subject to recall but was never discharged from service.
---Traveling from company to company throughout north Missouri, he became known far and near for his amiability, honesty and business sagacity.
---Louisa Catherine Bumpus, his life partner, departed from this earth on March 31, 1901. Bereft of the companionship of his good wife, his love, care and admiration naturally turned to his children, whose love of a father could not have been greater or more sincere.
---In this death the community loses a pioneer of the pioneers. Yes, a landmark known far and wide, unselfish in the extreme and ever true to friends, his favors have born fruits beyond expectation. He was one of the few men offered the privilege of financially aiding the venerated Dr. Andrew Taylor Still and in turn this famous man mentions his name in a fitting manner in his autobiography.
---Mr. Bumpus was one of the committee to lay the corner stone of the State Normal School at Kirksville and he was marshal of the day.
---Since his family became of age he has lived with them and endeared himself to them having lived in Denver and enjoyed good health until the past four weeks. His death came as a sudden shock to his family and limitless multitude of friends. He goes to join his wife and three children who live in a house not built by hand.
---The body was brought in La Plata Tuesday and a short funeral service was held at the grave by Rev. N.A. Browning after which it was laid to rest in the La Plata cemetery.