Frances Moore Webb Bumpass (September 29, 1819 – May 8, 1898; sometimes written as Bumpas), was a newspaper publisher and educator in North Carolina. She published the ''Weekly Message'' for twenty years, including through most of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, and helped organize the Women's Foreign Mission Society of the Methodist Church.

Early life

Frances Moore Webb was born in

Halifax, Virginia Halifax is a town in Halifax County, Virginia, United States, along the Banister River. The population was 1,309 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Halifax County. History Halifax County Courthouse, Mountain Road Historic District, ...

, and raised in

Person County, North Carolina Person County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The population was 39,097 as of the 2020 census. The county seat is Roxboro. Person County is included in the Durham- Chapel Hill, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area, wh ...

, the daughter of Isaac Webb and Harriet Dickens Webb. She was part of the extended Webb family in Person County that included educator William R. Webb. She studied to be a teacher by learning Latin and Greek as a young woman.Paula S. Jordan
"Frances Webb Bumpass"
''Dictionary of North Carolina Biography'' (UNC Press 1979).

Career

As a young clergyman's wife, she moved often, and taught as possible to supplement the family income. In 1847 she settled more permanently in

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; ) is a city in Guilford County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 299,035; it was estimated to be 307,381 in 2024. It is the List of municipalitie ...

. In 1852, the widowed Mrs. Bumpass took over publishing the ''Weekly Message'', a newspaper her husband had begun. She remained the publisher of the ''Weekly Message'' for twenty years, and published regularly through the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

years, except during a period of Federal occupation in 1865. Her elder daughter Eugenia Harriet Bumpass helped with the paper, and taught at Greensboro Female College. In 1872, she closed the ''Weekly Message'' and started a small school in her home. She helped to organize and promote the Women's Foreign Mission Society of the Methodist Church in her last years. She exhorted women in the church to action, saying "Sisters, we have tarried too long. Each of us owes it to herself, in this favored age, to rise to the noblest possibilities of our nation."U. S. Department of the Interior, National Register of Historic Places, Nomination Form
Bumpas-Troy House

Personal life

Frances Webb married Methodist minister Sidney D. Bumpass (or Bumpas) in 1842, when she was 23. They had four children, daughters Duella and Eugenia Harriet, and sons Robah (who became a Methodist minister like his father) and Terrelius (who died in childhood, during the same attack of

typhoid fever Typhoid fever, also known simply as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella enterica'' serotype Typhi bacteria, also called ''Salmonella'' Typhi. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often th ...

as his father). She was widowed in 1851. She died in 1898, and the following year her autobiography was published by the

Southern Methodist Church The Southern Methodist Church is a Methodist denomination of Protestant Christianity. The church maintains headquarters in Orangeburg, South Carolina. The church was formed in 1940 by conservative members of the former Methodist Episcopal Church, ...

. Her papers are part of the Bumpas Family Papers at the Southern Historical Collection,

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

.Bumpas Family Papers, 1838-1972
Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill NC. The Bumpas-Troy House in College Hill, Greensboro, North Carolina, built in 1847 for Frances and Sidney Bumpass and the site of the publishing office of the ''Weekly Message'', is now an inn on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

References

External links

The Bumpas-Troy House
on LandmarkHunter.com
Her gravesite
in Greensboro, at FindaGrave. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bumpass, Frances Webb 1819 births 1898 deaths 19th-century American women educators People from Halifax, Virginia Methodists from North Carolina American women autobiographers American feminists 19th-century American women writers Writers from North Carolina