My Genealogy Hound

HON. A. H. BUSH was born in Lewis county, New York, June 8, 1818. His father, Roland Bush, was a native of Massachusetts, and was born March 12, 1793. His mother bore the maiden name of Harriet Phelp, and was also a native of Massachusetts, born October, 1796. They settled in New York in an early day, where they were afterwards married. In 1850 they migrated to Wisconsin, where he died in 1883 and she in 1887. The senior Bush was in the War of 1812, and was a man of considerable prominence in the communities where he lived, having held various local offices. They were adherents fo the Freewill Baptist faith. There were only three children in the paternal family — two besides the subject of this notice, all of whom are living. The Bush family are noted for their longevity.

The boyhood days of our subject were passed on a farm. He attended school and obtained a fair education, and at nineteen was engaged to teach at a salary of $16.00 per month. After teaching one term he prepared himself for school work and taught several successful terms afterwards. His success as a teacher led to his election as county superintendent of schools, a position he filled with credit for four years; he also organized and held the first institute in Lewis county, N. Y. In 1849 Mr. Bush moved to Wisconsin, locating on a farm in Richland county, and was elected county treasurer of Richland county in 1856, and served two years. He came to Franklin county, Nebr., in June, 1872, in advance of his family, and selected a homestead near Naponee, where he has since resided. His first house consisted of a dug-out, which was afterwards replaced by a log dwelling. Buffalo were plentiful, and antelope roamed over the adjacent prairie in great herds. He was visited three years in succession by the grasshoppers, which destroyed his crop entirely; consequently, he experienced some very hard times during his first few years of settlement.

On September 13, 1843, Mr. Bush was married to Miss Rosanna Metcalf, a native of the Empire State, born in 1821. She died in September, 1846, leaving one child — John M. Our subject then contracted a second marriage, which was celebrated on the fourth day of July, 1848; the lady who that day became his wife bore the maiden name of Cordelia A. Devoe, and was born in New York April 12, 1832. This union has resulted in the birth of eight children, as follows — Harriet K., born November 18, 1849; Charles R., born September 2, 1854; Alfredellice M., born April 4, 1857; Cora R., born May 17, 1859; Minnie E., born July 10, 1862 (deceased); Fred D., born October 10, 1866; Carl F., born January 12, 1871; and Helen M., born August 2, 1878.

Mr. Bush was elected to represent Franklin county in the legislature in 1876 and voted for the adoption of the present constitution of the state, and took an active part in the election of Senator Saunders. He served on three important committees and was an active and efficient worker in that body. He entered the United States mail service in 1880, and made the run between Omaha and Lincoln, served in that capacity for four years, and was one of the oldest mail agents in the service. He has been an active and efficient worker in the cause of temperance all his life, and is a stanch republican in politics. He now owns one hundred and seventy acres of splendid land. He is as clever a man as one will meet in a day’s journey, and is an active and influential man in the community in which he lives.