Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Bush, John Edward ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Deb Haines http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00003.html#0000719 February 14, 2008, 1:31 am Author: Past & Present Will County IL 1907 JOHN EDWARD BUSH. John E. Bush, whose intense and well directed energy made him a successful business man of Joliet, is now living retired after many years' active and honorable connection with the grain trade. He was born in Whitehall, New York, November 5, 1835. His father, Stephen Bush, was born in Orwell, Vermont, in 1800, and removed to Illinois, settling in Joliet, in 1862. Here he engaged in the real-estate business, owning a farm of about seventy-five acres, upon which the town of Brooklyn now stands. After selling that property he bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres west of the town and made his home there until his death, which occurred in 1885, when he was eighty-five years of age. His first wife, who bore the maiden name of Salome Morse, was born at Cornish Flats, New Hampshire, in 1799. They were married in the east and Mrs. Bush died in 1858. In their family were four sons, two of whom have passed away, and one daughter, who is now living. She was married in Joliet and afterward removed to Troy, New York. One son now lives in Honolulu. John E. Bush, whose name introduces this review, supplemented his preliminary education by study in Whitehall Academy, which he attended in 1853. In 1856 he entered Williams College, in Massachusetts, from which he was graduated in 1860 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He came to Joliet in the same year and entered business life in this city as a salesman in a grocery store, where he spent two years. He was afterward teller in the First National Bank for two years, on the expiration of which period he engaged in buying grain. He rented an elevator on the canal, which he afterward purchased, and there bought grain, which he shipped over that waterway to Chicago, operating principally at that point until 1897, when the drainage board condemned the property. He had previously built an elevator on Washington street on the Michigan Central Railroad with a capacity of twenty-five thousand bushels. He erected this structure in the '70s and bought grain at that point for some time. After 1897 he operated the elevator on the Michigan Central until 1904, when he retired from active business life. He had become well known as a leading grain merchant of the county and conducted a large and profitable business in that line. Other business connections and interests also claimed his time and energies. For a period he was associated with the Norris-Scrapp Cabinet Machine Company and also with the Electric Clock Company. In 1880 he built the River block, which was sixty by ninety-five feet. It was three times destroyed by fire but twice he rebuilt. It was in this building that the Bates Machine Company began business and Mr. Leach also established the Windmill Company in the River block, while Mr. Carroll started his bakery machine there. Mr. Bush also added to the substantial improvement of the city, erecting the flat building at Nos. 108, 110 and 112 Desplaines street, all of which is now occupied. The structure is sixty by one hundred and fifty feet, two stories in height with basement. Four of the flats are used as residences, while the lower floor and basement are occupied by William Wonderlick for an undertaking and livery business. Mr. Bush has also erected and improved his own home at No. 653 South Chicago street. Not only in business affairs but in other lines of activity has he done much for the city and its progress. He was assistant supervisor at the time the courthouse was erected and has been school inspector for two terms. He was also a member of the board of trustees of the old Chicago University. In politics he is a republican, unfaltering in his advocacy of the principles of the party. He was chairman of the board of trustees of the Eastern Avenue Baptist church, and in 1885 established the Sunday-school known as Three Points Mission in Joliet, and has since been its superintendent, while for nineteen years he was a teacher in the Sunday-school at the state penitentiary. His life has exemplified his Christian faith in good deeds and works and his labors have been far-reaching and beneficial. Mr. Bush was married at Joliet in 1862, to Miss Mariaa Cornelia Woodruff, a daughter of George Woodruff. She was born in Joliet and died in 1876, leaving a son and daughter: George Woodruff Bush, who is now engaged in the hardware business in Joliet; and Jennie C., at home. In 1877 Mr. Bush was again married, his second union being with Miss Isabella G. Kenyon, who was born in Connecticut and came with her father, John Kenyon, to Illinois, settling on a farm in Will county in 1862. The family afterward removed to Joliet. There were five children of the second marriage: John Kenyon, who is a teacher of chemistry in the high school at Joliet; Laura Belle, who died at the age of four months; Bessie May, who died at the age of three years; Edward Morse, who was graduated from the college at Lake Forest, Illinois, in June, 1906; and Ralph H., who is attending the Lake Forest University. In former years Mr. Bush put forth earnest and strenuous effort to achieve success and as the years passed by his careful manipulation of his business interests brought him a gratifying measure of prosperity that well enables him to live retired. Few men have been better known in connection with the grain trade and while wining individual prosperity he also belongs to that class of men whose labors are of direct benefit in promoting general advancement through business relations. Additional Comments: PAST AND PRESENT OF WILL COUNTY, ILLINOIS By W. W. Stevens President of the Will County Pioneers Association; Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1907 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/will/bios/bush2644nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ilfiles/ File size: 6.3 Kb