Genesee County MI Archives Biographies.....Bussey, James E. 1837 - 
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Author: Chapman Bros. (1892)

JAMES E. BUSSEY, the President of the village of Fenton, Genesee County, and the
pioneer hardware dealer of this place is a prominent and successful man. He was
born in Pittsford, N. Y., March 18, 1837. His mother's maiden name was Mary
Isaacs and his father, Luther Bussey, was a cloth manufacturer in his early
manhood and later took up the produce business, He was a zealous member of the
Baptist Church from early childhood, as was also the mother, and he died at the
age of seventy-five years in 1881, The mother is still living and two of her
three children now survive: Jeanette has died and Grace is the wife of Prof. M.
T. Gass, Superintendent of the Deaf and Dumb Institute at Flint.

  Young Bussey received his higher education in the High School of Macedon and
at sixteen began clerking in a dry goods store there. In 1861 he came to Fenton
and established a hardware business in which he continued until 1882, when he
removed to Flint and purchased a hardware store of Whiting & Richardson. Five
years later he returned to Fenton where he already owned a store and a beautiful
home and again resumed the hardware business here, devoting himself also to
manufacturing. In 1888 he established the Coe Manufacturing Company, of which he
is the proprietor. The product of this factory consists of drill presses, tire
upsetters, tire benders, twist drills, etc., and these are sold in every State
in the Union and are exported in large quantities to Prussia, Russia and England.

  The marriage of Mr. Bussey in 1861 united him with Mary A. Coe, a native of
Michigan and an early daughter of C. W. Coe, an Englishman who came to America
when quite young and was reared in the City of New York. He came to Michigan at
an early day and was in the dry goods business at Dexter and Corunna. He moved
to Fenton in 1863 and here began the manufacture of the Coe Drill Presses, of
which he is the inventor. He died in 1888 at the age of seventy years, and his
worthy wife, who is a devoted member of the Baptist Church, survives him. He was
himself a devout member of the Episcopal Church.

  The four children of Mr. and Mrs. Bussey are Grace I., Kate, Gertrude and
Charles L., and the son has charge of the store. Mr. Bussey takes an active
interest in politics and is often a delegate to Republican conventions. For many
3-ears he has been a member of the City Council and has served as its Treasurer
and as President of the village. He has been identified in various ways with the
corporation of Fenton ever since its organization. He has been a member of the
Masonic order since 1862 and is also connected with the Ancient Order of United
Workmen and the Royal Arcanum.

  In 1889 the manufacturing plant of Mr. Bussey was consumed by fire but was at
once rebuilt. He started out with limited means and has made a great success of
his business venture and now has his goods handled entirely through jobbers. His
store is a two-story brick building eighty feet deep with a wing sixty feet in
width at the rear of the store. There is only one man who was in business here
when he came to Fenton that is now in the same line of business. He carries a
complete stock of hardware and agricultural implements, including plows, reapers
and mowers.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Portrait and Biographical Record of Genesee, Lapeer and Tuscola Counties,
Michigan, Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative
Citizens, Together with Biographies of all the Governors of the State, and of
the Presidents of the United States

Chicago:
Chapman Bros.
1892


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