Four Muhlenberg men while citizens of the county became members of Congress--Alney McLean, Edward Rumsey, Doctor A. D. James, and R. Y. Thomas. Edward Rumsey, the second to attain this distinction, came to Muhlenberg in his youth, shortly after the close of the second war with England, and made Greenville his home during the rest of his life--a period of fifty years. Citizens now living who knew Edward Rumsey in their younger days usually begin and end their talks regarding him, whether short or long, with a sentiment that is best expressed in a paraphrase of the familiar quotation:

"None knew him but to love him, Nor named him but to praise."

He was very modest and unassuming and usually a man of few words, but when addressing the public his speech became eloquent.

Some have it that the town of Rumsey, in McLean County, was named after him. Others assert that the place was so called after his uncle, "James Rumsey, who built the first steamboat." However, the version generally accepted is that when, in 1839, the people proposed naming the new town after Edward Rumsey, he modestly declined the honor, and his friends then compromised with him and called the place Rumsey in memory of his uncle. Thus, although the town may have been named after James Rumsey, it was really so called after Edward Rumsey.

The death of his two children, aged three and six, in the spring of 1838, was soon followed by the loss of all ambition on his part to climb the ladder of fame. His friends vainly urged him not to cast aside his many bright prospects of a public career. Although his interest in public affairs practically ceased when he was forty, no man in Muhlenberg was better known and more admired during his entire life than Edward Rumsey. He was a gentleman of the "old school." During the Civil War the Southern sympathizers looked upon him as their adviser. He married Jane M. Wing, daughter of Charles Fox Wing. She died October 15, 1868.

Much could be written about Edward Rumsey based on the verbal reports of to-day, but such a chapter would probably be more of a eulogy than a biographical sketch. Ten years after his death an article on his life and character was printed in "The Biographical Encyclopedia of Kentuckians of the Nineteenth Century," which I here quote in full:

Hon. Edward Rumsey, lawyer, was born in Botetourt county, Virginia, in 1800, and removed with his father, Dr. Edward Rumsey, to Christian county, Kentucky, when quite a boy.

His uncle, James Rumsey, is claimed to be the first who applied steam to navigation in America, if not in England. It was also claimed that the evidence submitted before the National House of Representatives, in 1839, is conclusive as to his priority over John Fitch. A letter written by George Washington, in 1787, mentions that James Rumsey had communicated his steamboat invention to him in 1784, and that subsequently John Fitch had laid his claim to the invention before him, asking his assistance, he declining to give it, stating that James Rumsey had previously introduced the same idea to him.Edward Rumsey, About 1845

It is certain that James Rumsey propelled a steamboat on the Potomac River, against the stream, at the rate of four miles an hour in 1784. He afterward went to England and procured patents for steam navigation from the British Government in 1788; constructed a boat of one hundred tons burden, with improved applications, covered by his patents, which were in advance of those of James Watt. He was on the eve of complete success when his sudden death from apoplexy, while discussing the principles of his invention before the Royal Society, terminated his career. His boat and machinery went to satisfy his creditors; and Robert Fulton, then in London, profited by his intimacy with the inventor.

dward Rumsey was educated in Hopkinsville by Daniel Barry, one of the famous classicists of Kentucky. He studied law with John J. Crittenden, who became his lifelong friend. He settled in Greenville and practiced in Muhlenberg and adjoining counties. His reputation for candor and thorough honesty, coupled with his clear sense of justice and wonderful faculty of expression, soon placed him at the head of the bar. With all his natural qualifications to shine in public life he was remarkably timid and modest, his diffidence at times becoming almost morbid. Owing to this fact, no doubt to a great extent, may be attributed the loss from public affairs of one of the most refined and brilliant men of the times.

At the urgent solicitation of his county, he consented, in 1822, to represent its interests in the Legislature, where he immediately took rank as a leader, making a great impression by his earnestness, modesty and uncommon ability. In 1837 he was nominated for Congress, and was elected by an almost unanimous vote of his district. While in Congress he made the famous speech on the resolution recognizing his uncle's claim to the invention of the steamboat and bestowing on that uncle's blind and only surviving son a gold medal as a mark of such recognition.1

While serving in Congress his two children died of scarlet fever. After that no argument of his friends or constituents could ever induce him again to enter public life. He strove to drown his sorrow in mental and physical toil; living in the future and the past. He never entirely recovered his elasticity and soon became prematurely old.

The outbreak of the Civil War brought with it new calamities. He loved his country next to his children. He believed that the General Government had no right to coerce a State. Although he survived the war, grief and apprehension aided greatly to break the thread of life. He died in Greenville, April 6, 1868.

On February 9, 1839, Edward Rumsey delivered his famous speech before the House of Representatives of the United States. In this speech he reviewed the history of the invention of the devices for propelling boats by steam, showed that his uncle, James Rumsey, was entitled to the distinction of being the first inventor, and asked that Congress present to James Rumsey, jr., the only surviving child of James Rumsey, a suitable gold medal, commemorative of his father's services in giving to the world his discovery of using steam for the propulsion of boats and watercraft. The resolution awarding such a medal passed the House by a unanimous vote, but for no reason given was rejected by the Senate. It is probable that the Senate recognized Fulton as the first man to put steam to practical use in connection with navigation, and therefore ignored the fact that Rumsey was the real inventor. At any rate, there was no gold medal nor reward for the Rumseys, notwithstanding reports to the contrary.

The Rumsey claim had its advocates many years before Edward Rumsey delivered this speech. It has them now, more and more every year, and will in all probability continue to have them in increasing numbers until Rumsey is universally recognized as the original inventor. No man in recent years gathered more evidence in defense of James Rumsey's claim than did John Moray, of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, whose manuscript on the subject was almost finished when he died, January 15, 1912.

No stone marks the grave of James Rumsey; no monument has been erected to his memory. He was buried in London, in that part of St. Margaret's churchyard which has since been converted into a thoroughfare. The fact that James Rumsey was the real inventor of the application of steam for the propulsion of boats will in all probability be some day recognized by the world. Edward Rumsey's speech will then be more fully appreciated, and Muhlenbergers will refer with even greater pride to the fact that he was a citizen of Greenville.