Three Friends photo, left to right, Molly Bach, Susan Fiske, Gertrude Watson. Image source: Buffalo Times Susan Fiske, born in 1857, was the eldest of five children born to Frank and Charlotte Hazard Fiske. Her father, a Harvard graduate, was an early Buffalo grain merchant and later a banker. Around 1860, the family moved into a big square brick house at 199 Delaware Avenue, not far from the Cary mansion. Her parents valued education and, by the time she was eleven years old, Mrs. Anna Osborne Williams had opened her private school in the basement of the Unitarian Church at 110 Franklin Street. After attending there, Susan attended the Buffalo Seminary.

Photo of Susan Fiske as a young woman. Image source: TBHM She recalled in 1924 that she had been interested in “the activities for women’s welfare” since she was about twenty years old. Her old teacher, Mrs. Williams, was a member of the Association for the Advancement of Women, a national organization whose work focused on networking and consciousness-raising among women. At one time Mrs. Williams was president of the Buffalo chapter; the organization often met at the Williams home at 254 Franklin. She was certainly an important influence on Susan who joined the AAW and followed her former teacher into suffrage work.

Dexter P. Rumsey. Image source: Buffalo as an Architectural Museum Susan Fiske did not marry until she was 32 years old, an age when women were thought to be dedicated spinsters. The man she married had been married twice before; both wives had died. Dexter P. Rumsey was 62 years old when they married in 1889. He was very wealthy, working in the family tanning industry with his brother, Bronson, and later devoting himself to managing his varied investments which included Buffalo real estate. His personality suggests that he and his much younger new wife had a lot in common. He was an avid reader of scientific and philosophical works and was regarded as a very interesting conversationalist. They would have fifteen years together before his death in 1906. The new widow was forty-nine years old, daughter Ruth was fourteen and son Dexter P. was twelve.

Susan Fiske Rumsey continued her active life after her marriage. She was one of the founders of Children’s Hospital, was in leadership roles for Trinity Episcopal Church, and was in attendance in the fall of 1897 when Mrs. Williams called all interested women to her home to found a Buffalo and county Political Equality Club. Suffrage was to be an enduring investment for Susan Rumsey for the next 20 years. The Dexter Rumsey home at 742 Delaware saw its first suffrage meeting in February, 1897. By 1902, she was vice-president of the Woman’s Suffrage Association (aka the Buffalo Equal Suffrage Club); Mrs. Williams was president. By 1906, the organization was renamed the Buffalo Political Equality Club, a label that was widely used around the country. She was elected third vice-president.

She was also active in Buffalo’s branch of the National Consumers League, founded in 1899 by Jane Addams and Josephine Lowell. Its focus was on the rights of workers, particularly women in factories and stores, and on safe consumer products. The Buffalo Consumers League was formed in 1903. In 1904, Susan Rumsey hosted a reception at her home for Florence Kelly, general secretary of the League. And in 1909, she was elected a vice-president and attended the organization’s state convention in Poughkeepsie as the Buffalo delegate. She was already in the area, having attending a hearing on suffrage in New York City.

After 1908, when the National American Woman Suffrage Association held its national convention in Buffalo, interest and activities around suffrage began to increase significantly in the area. Susan Rumsey was becoming close friends with Ella Hawley Crossett of Warsaw, NY, president of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association; Anna Howard Shaw, president of the NAWSA, and Carrie Chapman Catt. Her home was increasingly open to meetings, working sessions, receptions, and hosting one or more leaders of the movement.

In 1910, she was elected recording secretary of the Buffalo PEC. In 1912, the organization secured a two year lease on 238 Delaware, formerly the home of the Buffalo Club. Unnamed donors raised the funds for the lease; it is likely that Susan and/or Kate Lewis were the primary donors. Both made it known that they could be relied upon for financial assistance when needed. Susan was chair of the headquarters, which was open to all suffrage organizations, and was treasurer of the executive committee.

Her home, with its large rooms, saw a meeting in 1913 for 150 local suffrage workers to plan for the state conference of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association to be held in Buffalo January 29-31, 1914. Repeatedly over the next five years, her home was ground zero for receptions and meetings relating to suffrage as well as other of her myriad progressive interests.

Although a letter to the editor in 1915 was submitted under her name, public demonstrations were not her forte. When NYSWSA was reformed as the New York State Woman Suffrage Party, she and Nettie Rogers Shuler ran for a seat on the board. Susan Rumsey won as delegate-at-large.

New York State voters approved the suffrage referendum in 1917, Susan was named honorary chair of the Erie County Woman Suffrage Party. And when the 19th amendment, called the “Susan B. Anthony Amendment,” was approved by Congress, she was one of the handful of area women to create the Erie County League of Women Voters. By 1930, she was named honorary chair of the League of Women Voters, signalling her withdrawal from active participation in the League. The next year a "suffrage memorial tablet" was unveiled in Albany, New York. It contained the names of 84 suffrage leaders in New York State; Susan Rumsey was on the tablet. In April that year, her name appeared on the League of Women Voters national headquarters honor roll; she was one of twelve New Yorkers so honored.

Susan Fiske Rumsey, 1924. Image source: The Buffalo Times Susan remained interested and active in numerous local organizations. She regarded her service as a trustee of the University of Buffalo as her greatest privilege. A permanent reminder of her contributions is Rumsey Woods, a 383' by 214' plot of land at the edge of Delaware Park that she donated to the city shortly after her husband's death in 1906. Her only stipulation was that it forever be called Rumsey Woods in memory of her husband, Dexter.. In December, 1941, after a two week illness, Susan Fiske Rumsey died. She was 85 years old. Her obituary described her thus: "To all she was a friend and to all she exhiibited the characteristic of speaking as if only the visitor were the most interesting person in the world."