He served as the medical inspector for the Union Army during the American Civil War, and was a two-term mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

[1] His father John Humphreys was a native of Ireland and settled in Ohio in his early 20s.

[1] He attended Franklin Academy in Washington, Kentucky, and high school in Springfield, Ohio.

Abraham Lincoln appointed him as one of eight medical inspectors for the United States Army.

[1] Humphreys was involved in organizing South Bend's original public library in 1872.