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{{Short description|American attorney, Episcopal priest, and religious writer}}
{{Short description|American attorney, Episcopal priest, and religious writer}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox person
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix = [[The Reverend]]
| honorific_prefix = [[The Reverend]]
| name = James Smith Bush
| name = James Smith Bush
| other_names = James Smith
| other_names = James Smith
| image = https://images.findagrave.com/photos250/photos/2015/304/90486985_1446446466.jpg
| image = JSBush.jpg
| caption = Rev. James Smith Bush
| caption = Rev. James Smith Bush
| birth_date = {{birth date|1825|6|15}}
| birth_date = {{birth date|1825|6|15}}
Line 12: Line 13:
| death_cause =
| death_cause =
| parents = [[Obadiah Bush]]<br />Harriet Smith
| parents = [[Obadiah Bush]]<br />Harriet Smith
| spouse = Sarah Freeman <br /> Harriet Eleanor Fay
| spouse = {{plainlist|
* Sarah Freeman
* Harriet Eleanor Fay
}}
| children = 4, including [[Samuel P. Bush|Samuel Prescott Bush]]
| children = 4, including [[Samuel P. Bush|Samuel]]
| relatives = [[George H. W. Bush]] <br /><small>(great-grandson)</small> <br /> [[George W. Bush]] <br /><small>(great-great-grandson)</small><br />''See [[Bush family]]''<br />[[Edward Delafield Smith]]<br /><small>(cousin)</small>
| relatives = [[George H. W. Bush]] <br /><small>(great-grandson)</small> <br /> [[George W. Bush]] <br /><small>(great-great-grandson)</small><br />''See [[Bush family]]''<br />[[Edward Delafield Smith]]<br /><small>(cousin)</small>
}}
}}


'''James Smith Bush''' (June 15, 1825 – November 11, 1889) was an American [[Lawyer|attorney]], [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopal]] priest, religious writer, and an ancestor of the [[Bush family|Bush political family]]. He was the father of business magnate [[Samuel Prescott Bush]], grandfather of former U.S. Senator [[Prescott Bush]], great-grandfather of former [[President of the United States|U.S. President]] [[George H. W. Bush]] and great-great-grandfather of former Texas Governor and President [[George W. Bush]] and former Florida Governor [[Jeb Bush]].
'''James Smith Bush''' (June 15, 1825 – November 11, 1889) was an American [[Lawyer|attorney]], [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopal]] priest, religious writer, and an ancestor of the [[Bush family|Bush political family]]. He was the father of business magnate [[Samuel P. Bush]], grandfather of former U.S. Senator [[Prescott Bush]], great-grandfather of former [[President of the United States|U.S. President]] [[George H. W. Bush]] and great-great-grandfather of former Texas Governor and President [[George W. Bush]] and former Florida Governor [[Jeb Bush]].


==Biography==
==Biography==
James Smith Bush was born in [[Rochester, New York]], to [[Obadiah Bush|Obadiah Newcomb Bush]] and Harriet Smith (1800–1867). In 1851, his father returned from the [[California Gold Rush]] after two years in order to reclaim his family and bring them west. He died aboard a ship on his return voyage and was presumably buried at sea.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aikman |first1=David |title=A Man of Faith: The Spiritual Journey of George W. Bush |date=2004 |publisher=W Publishing Group |location=Nashville, TN |isbn=9781418516390 |page=[https://archive.org/details/manoffaithspirit00aikm/page/17 17] |edition=1st |url=https://archive.org/details/manoffaithspirit00aikm|url-access=registration }}</ref>
James Smith Bush was born on June 15, 1825 in [[Rochester, New York]], to [[Obadiah Bush|Obadiah Newcomb Bush]] and Harriet Smith (1800–1867). In 1851, his father returned from the [[California Gold Rush]] after two years in order to reclaim his family and bring them west. He died on November 11, 1889 aboard a ship while on his return voyage in Itcha, New York and was presumably buried at sea. He was 64 years old.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aikman |first1=David |title=A Man of Faith: The Spiritual Journey of George W. Bush |date=2004 |publisher=W Publishing Group |location=Nashville, TN |isbn=9781418516390 |page=[https://archive.org/details/manoffaithspirit00aikm/page/17 17] |edition=1st |url=https://archive.org/details/manoffaithspirit00aikm|url-access=registration }}</ref>


===Yale College===
===Yale College===
Bush entered [[Yale College]] in 1841 (class of 1844), the first of what would become a long family tradition,<ref name="bush41aportrait10">{{cite book|last1=Bush|first1=George W.|title=41: A Portrait of My Father|date=2014|publisher=Ebury Publishing|location=London|isbn=9780553447781|oclc=883645289|page=[https://archive.org/details/41portraitofmyfa0000bush/page/10 10]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/41portraitofmyfa0000bush/page/10}}</ref> as his grandsons [[Prescott Sheldon Bush]] and James Bush, great-grandsons [[George H. W. Bush]], [[Prescott Sheldon Bush, Jr.]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yaledailynews.com/crosscampus/2010/06/25/prescott-s-bush-jr-44-dies-87/ |title=Yale Daily News - Cross Campus - Prescott S. Bush Jr. '44 dies at 87 |access-date=2010-06-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100628041610/http://www.yaledailynews.com/crosscampus/2010/06/25/prescott-s-bush-jr-44-dies-87/ |archive-date=2010-06-28 }}, retrieved 6/27/10</ref> [[Jonathan Bush]] and William H. T. Bush, great great-grandson [[George W. Bush]], and great-great-great-granddaughter [[Barbara Bush (born 1981)|Barbara]] are all Yale alumni. He is accounted among the over 300 Yale alumni and faculty who supported in 1883 the founding of [[Wolf's Head (secret society)|Wolf's Head Society]]. After Yale, he returned to Rochester and studied law, joining the bar in 1847.<ref>Phelps Association membership directory, 2006</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://smokershistory.com/Bush.html |title=The Bush Family |website=smokershistory.com |access-date=13 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305011406/http://smokershistory.com/Bush.html |archive-date=5 March 2021 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
Bush entered [[Yale College]] in 1841 (class of 1844), the first of what would become a long family tradition,<ref name="bush41aportrait10">{{cite book|last1=Bush|first1=George W.|title=41: A Portrait of My Father|date=2014|publisher=Ebury Publishing|location=London|isbn=9780553447781|oclc=883645289|page=[https://archive.org/details/41portraitofmyfa0000bush/page/10 10]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/41portraitofmyfa0000bush/page/10}}</ref> as his grandsons [[Prescott Sheldon Bush]] and James Bush, great-grandsons [[George H. W. Bush]], [[Prescott Sheldon Bush, Jr.]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yaledailynews.com/crosscampus/2010/06/25/prescott-s-bush-jr-44-dies-87/ |title=Yale Daily News - Cross Campus - Prescott S. Bush Jr. '44 dies at 87 |access-date=2010-06-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100628041610/http://www.yaledailynews.com/crosscampus/2010/06/25/prescott-s-bush-jr-44-dies-87/ |archive-date=2010-06-28 }}, retrieved 6/27/10</ref> [[Jonathan Bush]] and William H. T. Bush, great great-grandson [[George W. Bush]], and great-great-great-granddaughter [[Barbara Bush (born 1981)|Barbara]] are all Yale alumni. He is accounted among the over 300 Yale alumni and faculty who supported in 1883 the founding of [[Wolf's Head (secret society)|Wolf's Head Society]]. After Yale, he returned to Rochester and studied law, joining the bar in 1847.<ref>Phelps Association membership directory, 2006</ref>{{primary source inline|date=May 2023}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://smokershistory.com/Bush.html |title=The Bush Family |website=smokershistory.com |access-date=13 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305011406/http://smokershistory.com/Bush.html |archive-date=5 March 2021 |url-status=dead}}</ref>{{unreliable source|date=May 2023}}


===First marriage===
===First marriage===
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===Second marriage===
===Second marriage===
On February 24, 1859, he married Harriet Eleanor [Fay], daughter of Samuel Howard and Susan [Shellman] Fay, at Trinity Church, New York City. Fay was born in [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]. Her father is the sixth generation removed to John Fay, immigrant patriarch, born in England abt. 1648, embarking on May 30, 1656, at Gravesend on the ship [[Speedwell (1577 ship)|''Speedwell'']], and arrived in Boston June 27, 1656.<ref>{{cite book |title=Vital Records of Southborough, Massachusetts, To the End of the Year 1849 |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924028839269 |location=Worcester, Massachusetts |publisher=Franklin P. Rice |year=1903 }}</ref>
On February 24, 1859, he married Harriet Eleanor [Fay], daughter of Samuel Howard and Susan [Shellman] Fay, at Trinity Church, New York City. Fay was born in [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]. Her father is the sixth generation removed to John Fay, immigrant patriarch, born in England abt. 1648, embarking on May 30, 1656, at Gravesend on the ship [[Speedwell (1577 ship)|''Speedwell'']], and arrived in Boston June 27, 1656.<ref>{{cite book |title=Vital Records of Southborough, Massachusetts, To the End of the Year 1849 |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924028839269 |location=Worcester, Massachusetts |publisher=Franklin P. Rice |year=1903 }}</ref>{{primary source inline|date=May 2023}}{{page number needed|date=May 2023}}


====Children====
====Children====
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|work=[[The New York Times]]
|work=[[The New York Times]]
|access-date=2008-01-06}}</ref> but was considered "acting [[chaplain]]",<ref name="Clark"/> giving services on board and even conducting a shipboard wedding for a [[German American]] they encountered in [[Montevideo]], an incident Bush recounted in dispatches he wrote for ''The Overland Monthly''.<ref>{{cite book
|access-date=2008-01-06}}</ref> but was considered "acting [[chaplain]]",<ref name="Clark"/> giving services on board and even conducting a shipboard wedding for a [[German American]] they encountered in [[Montevideo]], an incident Bush recounted in dispatches he wrote for ''The Overland Monthly''.<ref>{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5PUAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA17
|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5PUAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA17
|title=The Cruise of the "Monadnock"
|chapter=The Cruise of the "Monadnock"
|author=James S. Bush
|author=James S. Bush
⚫
|title=The Overland Monthly|year=1869
|author-link=James S. Bush
⚫
|work=The Overland Monthly|year=1869
}}</ref> Coincidentally, the fleet observed the [[Valparaiso bombardment|punitive shelling]] of a defenseless [[Valparaíso]], [[Chile]] by the [[Spanish Navy]] during the [[Chincha Islands War]], after mediation efforts by Rodgers failed.<ref name="Clark"/>
}}</ref> Coincidentally, the fleet observed the [[Valparaiso bombardment|punitive shelling]] of a defenseless [[Valparaíso]], [[Chile]] by the [[Spanish Navy]] during the [[Chincha Islands War]], after mediation efforts by Rodgers failed.<ref name="Clark"/>


Line 80: Line 83:


In 1883, Bush published a collection of sermons called ''More Words About the Bible'', a response to his colleague [[R. Heber Newton|Heber Newton]]'s book ''Right and Wrong Uses of the Bible''. In 1885, his book ''Evidence of Faith'' was reviewed by ''[[The Literary World (Boston)|The Literary World]]'' as "clear, simple, and unpretending", and summarized as an argument against [[supernatural]] explanations for God.<ref>{{cite book
In 1883, Bush published a collection of sermons called ''More Words About the Bible'', a response to his colleague [[R. Heber Newton|Heber Newton]]'s book ''Right and Wrong Uses of the Bible''. In 1885, his book ''Evidence of Faith'' was reviewed by ''[[The Literary World (Boston)|The Literary World]]'' as "clear, simple, and unpretending", and summarized as an argument against [[supernatural]] explanations for God.<ref>{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ykoDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA59
|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ykoDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA59
|title=The Evidence of Faith
|chapter=The Evidence of Faith
|year=1885
|year=1885
|work=The Literary World}}</ref> According to the same journal, both works fit into the [[broad church]] movement.<ref>{{cite book
|title=The Literary World}}</ref> According to the same journal, both works fit into the [[broad church]] movement.<ref>{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aSs-AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA487
|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aSs-AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA487
|title=News and Notes
|chapter=News and Notes
|year=1889
|year=1889
|work=The Literary World}}</ref> The ''Boston Advertiser'' called the latter work "the best statement of untrammeled spiritual thought" among recent books.<ref>{{cite book
|title=The Literary World}}</ref> The ''Boston Advertiser'' called the latter work "the best statement of untrammeled spiritual thought" among recent books.<ref>{{cite book
|url=https://archive.org/details/kingschapelserm01peabgoog
|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/kingschapelserm01peabgoog
|page=[https://archive.org/details/kingschapelserm01peabgoog/page/n19 6]
|page=[https://archive.org/details/kingschapelserm01peabgoog/page/n19 6]
|title=Books of Religion (advertising)
|chapter=Books of Religion (advertising)
|work=King's Chapel Sermons
|title=King's Chapel Sermons
|year=1891
|year=1891
|publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]]}} As quoted by publisher.</ref>
|publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]]}} As quoted by publisher.</ref>
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==External links==
==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Commons category}}
* http://mssa.library.yale.edu/obituary_record/1859_1924/1889-90.pdf
* http://mssa.library.yale.edu/obituary_record/1859_1924/1889-90.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151129191542/http://mssa.library.yale.edu/obituary_record/1859_1924/1889-90.pdf |date=November 29, 2015 }}
* https://web.archive.org/web/20021006163356/http://www.gracecathedral.org/enrichment/crypt/cry_20010221.shtml
* https://web.archive.org/web/20021006163356/http://www.gracecathedral.org/enrichment/crypt/cry_20010221.shtml
* {{Find a Grave}}
* {{Find a Grave}}
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[[Category:Lawyers from San Francisco]]
[[Category:Lawyers from San Francisco]]
[[Category:Yale College alumni]]
[[Category:Yale College alumni]]
[[Category:People from Orange, New Jersey]]
[[Category:Clergy from Orange, New Jersey]]
[[Category:Lawyers from Orange, New Jersey]]
[[Category:People from Staten Island]]
[[Category:People from Staten Island]]
[[Category:Religious leaders from Rochester, New York]]
[[Category:Religious leaders from Rochester, New York]]

Latest revision as of 03:00, 11 November 2024

The Reverend
James Smith Bush
Rev. James Smith Bush
Born(1825-06-15)June 15, 1825
Rochester, New York, U.S.
DiedNovember 11, 1889(1889-11-11) (aged 64)
Ithaca, New York, U.S.
Other namesJames Smith
Spouses
  • Sarah Freeman
  • Harriet Eleanor Fay
Children4, including Samuel
Parent(s)Obadiah Bush
Harriet Smith
RelativesGeorge H. W. Bush
(great-grandson)
George W. Bush
(great-great-grandson)
See Bush family
Edward Delafield Smith
(cousin)

James Smith Bush (June 15, 1825 – November 11, 1889) was an American attorney, Episcopal priest, religious writer, and an ancestor of the Bush political family. He was the father of business magnate Samuel P. Bush, grandfather of former U.S. Senator Prescott Bush, great-grandfather of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush and great-great-grandfather of former Texas Governor and President George W. Bush and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

Biography

[edit]

James Smith Bush was born on June 15, 1825 in Rochester, New York, to Obadiah Newcomb Bush and Harriet Smith (1800–1867). In 1851, his father returned from the California Gold Rush after two years in order to reclaim his family and bring them west. He died on November 11, 1889 aboard a ship while on his return voyage in Itcha, New York and was presumably buried at sea. He was 64 years old.[1]

Yale College

[edit]

Bush entered Yale College in 1841 (class of 1844), the first of what would become a long family tradition,[2] as his grandsons Prescott Sheldon Bush and James Bush, great-grandsons George H. W. Bush, Prescott Sheldon Bush, Jr.,[3] Jonathan Bush and William H. T. Bush, great great-grandson George W. Bush, and great-great-great-granddaughter Barbara are all Yale alumni. He is accounted among the over 300 Yale alumni and faculty who supported in 1883 the founding of Wolf's Head Society. After Yale, he returned to Rochester and studied law, joining the bar in 1847.[4][non-primary source needed][5][unreliable source?]

First marriage

[edit]

His first wife, Sarah Freeman, lived in Saratoga Springs. They married in 1851, but she died 18 months later during childbirth.

This prompted Bush to study divinity with the rector of the Episcopal church there. Ordained a deacon in 1855, he was appointed rector at the newly organized Grace Church in Orange, New Jersey.

Second marriage

[edit]

On February 24, 1859, he married Harriet Eleanor [Fay], daughter of Samuel Howard and Susan [Shellman] Fay, at Trinity Church, New York City. Fay was born in Savannah, Georgia. Her father is the sixth generation removed to John Fay, immigrant patriarch, born in England abt. 1648, embarking on May 30, 1656, at Gravesend on the ship Speedwell, and arrived in Boston June 27, 1656.[6][non-primary source needed][page needed]

Children

[edit]
  1. James Freeman, b. June 15, 1860, Essex Co., NJ
  2. Samuel Prescott, b. October 4, 1863, Orange., NJ
  3. Harold Montfort, b. November 14, 1871, Dansville, NY
  4. Eleanor Howard, b. November 7, 1873, Staten Island, NY
Samuel was named after Harriet Fay's grandfather, Samuel Prescott Phillips Fay.

Career

[edit]

In 1865–66, having been given a health sabbatical by his church,[7] he traveled to San Francisco via the Straits of Magellan on the ironclad monitor USS Monadnock with Commodore John Rodgers (a parishioner of his[7]), with international goodwill stops along the way. Officially, he was designated Commodore's Secretary,[8] but was considered "acting chaplain",[7] giving services on board and even conducting a shipboard wedding for a German American they encountered in Montevideo, an incident Bush recounted in dispatches he wrote for The Overland Monthly.[9] Coincidentally, the fleet observed the punitive shelling of a defenseless Valparaíso, Chile by the Spanish Navy during the Chincha Islands War, after mediation efforts by Rodgers failed.[7]

In 1867–1872, Bush was called to Grace Church (later Cathedral) in San Francisco, but troubled by family obligations, only stayed five years. His short stay along with that of photographic roll film inventor Hannibal Goodwin was to be satirized by Mark Twain in his weekly column in The Californian.[10]

In 1872, Bush took a call from Church of the Ascension at West Brighton, Staten Island. In 1884, during a dispute over a church raffle (a gold watch was auctioned, which he considered gambling[11]), he stepped down.[12]

In 1883, Bush published a collection of sermons called More Words About the Bible, a response to his colleague Heber Newton's book Right and Wrong Uses of the Bible. In 1885, his book Evidence of Faith was reviewed by The Literary World as "clear, simple, and unpretending", and summarized as an argument against supernatural explanations for God.[13] According to the same journal, both works fit into the broad church movement.[14] The Boston Advertiser called the latter work "the best statement of untrammeled spiritual thought" among recent books.[15]

Bush retired to Concord, Massachusetts, and in 1888 left the Episcopal Church altogether and became a Unitarian. The stress of this separation caused him health problems for the remainder of his life. He moved to Ithaca, New York where he died suddenly while raking leaves in 1889.

Published works

[edit]

Sermons

[edit]
  • The Atonement. A sermon, preached before the convention of the Diocese of New Jersey, on Wednesday, the 27th day of May, A.D. 1863. 1863. OCLC 31430725.
  • Death of president Lincoln. A sermon, preached in Grace Church, Orange, N.J., Easter, April 16, 1865. 1865. OCLC 21467720.
  • Building on Christ: a sermon preached at the opening of St. Paul's Church, San Rafael, October 10th, 1869. 1869. OCLC 1022229.

Books

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Aikman, David (2004). A Man of Faith: The Spiritual Journey of George W. Bush (1st ed.). Nashville, TN: W Publishing Group. p. 17. ISBN 9781418516390.
  2. ^ Bush, George W. (2014). 41: A Portrait of My Father. London: Ebury Publishing. p. 10. ISBN 9780553447781. OCLC 883645289.
  3. ^ "Yale Daily News - Cross Campus - Prescott S. Bush Jr. '44 dies at 87". Archived from the original on June 28, 2010. Retrieved June 27, 2010., retrieved 6/27/10
  4. ^ Phelps Association membership directory, 2006
  5. ^ "The Bush Family". smokershistory.com. Archived from the original on March 5, 2021. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  6. ^ Vital Records of Southborough, Massachusetts, To the End of the Year 1849. Worcester, Massachusetts: Franklin P. Rice. 1903.
  7. ^ a b c d Charles Edgar Clark (1917). My Fifty Years in the Navy. Little, Brown and Company. p. 129.
  8. ^ "For the Pacific Coast: Departure of the Vanderbilt and the Monadnock". The New York Times. October 25, 1865. Retrieved January 6, 2008.
  9. ^ James S. Bush (1869). "The Cruise of the "Monadnock"". The Overland Monthly.
  10. ^ Years of Grace, Part I: Chapel to "Cathedral" - gracecathedral.org - Retrieved January 8, 2007 Archived October 6, 2002, at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ "Resigned Because of a Raffle". The New York Times. December 30, 1883. Retrieved January 6, 2008. The Rev. James S. Bush has resigned as Pastor of the Church of the Ascension, at West Brighton. A short time ago a fair was held in the church, when a gold watch was put up for chances and won by Erastus Brooks. The Rev. Mr. Bush was opposed to the raffle, which he considered gambling. There was considerable feeling in the church on account of the Pastor's wishes not being respected.
  12. ^ "A Pastor Chides His Flock; The Rev. Mr. Bush's Farewell Sermon at West Brighton". The New York Times. January 28, 1884. Retrieved January 6, 2008. Peace now prevails in the Church of the Ascension at West Brighton, Staten Island, and raffles and such things may hold sway without let or hindrance. The Rector, the Rev. James S. Bush, who opposed the employing of games of chance to raise money for the church, has severed ...
  13. ^ "The Evidence of Faith". The Literary World. 1885.
  14. ^ "News and Notes". The Literary World. 1889.
  15. ^ "Books of Religion (advertising)". King's Chapel Sermons. Houghton Mifflin. 1891. p. 6. As quoted by publisher.
[edit]
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