Rufus Charles Cumbie was born July 20, 1854, in Jerome, Heard County, Georgia. His parents were Charles Cumbie and Nancy Jane Gamble. Nancy Jane was the daughter of David Gamble and Anna Finney. Rufus' paternal grandparents were Reuben and Margaret McCall Cumbie of South Carolina.

In 1860, Rufus Charles was 6 years old and lived in Rock Mills, Randolph County, Alabama. In 1870, he was 17 years old and lived in Jerome, Heard County, Georgia. For about ten years beginning in 1880, the Cumbies, Gambles, Rays and other families migrated from Georgia and Alabama to western Arkansas via riverboats. This included most of his siblings, their wives and children as well as his parents. Rufus taught school at Excelsior and Nickeltown.

On December 24, 1884, Rufus Charles married Rachel Eudora Blaylock, daughter of William Matthew Blaylock and Rachel (Kirk) Blaylock. Rachel was the daughter of John Kirk and Lucy (Long) Kirk of Anderson County, Tennessee. William Blaylock was the son of Charles Millington and Philadelphia (Kelly) Blaylock of North Carolina. William M. was born in Georgia.

Rufus and "Dora" had two girls born at Excelsior: Minnie Gertrude, born in 1885, and Clara Edna, born in 1887. They then moved to Sand Springs, Indian Territory, Oklahoma, a suburb of Tulsa. There he taught school and their third child was born, a boy, Plymouth Rufus "Clem", born January 1891. There were five more children born to the marriage: Ivan, Bessie, Walker, Bert and Ethel.