Aaron Rumsey died on April 8, 1864. Mr. Rumsey was born in Hubbardstown, Vermont, in 1797. His brother Calvin had left home and settled in Warsaw where he set up and operated a tannery. Aaron eventually joined him. He married Sophia Phelps in 1819. They had two sons, Bronson Case, Dexter Phelps, and one daughter—Eleanor. The family came to Buffalo in 1832. There, Mr. Rumsey established a tannery located on the south side of the Main and Hamburg Streets canal, near Alabama Street. Over time, he built other tanneries throughout WNY. This was a lucrative business. Hides shipped down Lake Erie from the West sold cheap in the Buffalo market. As a consequence tanneries multiplied, and the manufacture of leather thrived. By 1835 at least every town in the county [Erie] had a tannery, some two or three. In 1838, Rumsey took on as a partner George Howard. The result was Rumsey & Howard. But after Howard left, Aaron took on his sons, Bronson and Dexter, who had been clerking for him, as partners in Aaron Rumsey & Company. Its Buffalo operation was on Exchange Street across from the Central Station. When their father died in 1864, the Rumsey brothers inherited the company and turned A. Rumsey & Company into one of the leading leather firms in the United States. The business was eventually absorbed by the United States Leather Company in 1893. The brothers invested much of their fortune into real estate in the City of Buffalo. It is said that at one point, they owned 22 of the 43 square miles that comprised Buffalo. Aaron Rumsey is buried in section X in Forest Lawn