Bush, Absalom

BUSH, POWERS, FIGGONS, ARNOLD

Posted By: mjv (email)
Date: 8/14/2020 at 13:49:00

Absalom Bush, a retired farmer, resides at Kalona. He was born in Fayette County, Ohio, Feb. 8, 1813, and is the son of Leonard and Catherine (Powers) Bush. His father was born in Pendleton County, Va., of German ancestry. He was a farmer and a natural mechanic, and was also a carpenter, manufacturing looms and spinning-wheels, and various other household articles. He was a master in the use of tools, and could make anything that he was requested to, and no man could do finer work. He was married in Virginia to Miss Catherine Powers, who was his companion and helpmeet until his death. She was born in Hardy County, Va., and was the daughter of a Dunkard minister. Her family were also of German origin.

The family, consisting of the parents and three children, removed to Ross County, Ohio, on the north fork of the Paint River, where they staid two years, and then removed to the farm in Fayette County. This farm was a wild, unimproved place in a wilderness. Their log house was built without a floor, and after the family were moved the first work of Mr. Bush was to grub the stubs and roots out of the room, and to level off a floor. He and his wife improved the farm and reared a family of eleven children. Mr. Bush died at the age of seventy years, his wife surviving him and dying at the age of seventy-four.

Our subject, Absalom Bush, was reared on the farm and became an expert at tools under the instruction of his father. He was married, Oct. 7, 1832, to Violet, daughter of Levi and Violet (Figgins) Arnold. Mrs. Bush was born in Kentucky, but came to Ohio when very young. She was reared in Fayette County. Mr. and Mrs. Bush are the parents of twelve children, five boys and seven girls, three of whom died in childhood. The others are: Catherine, the wife of William Gwinn, now residing in Keota, Iowa, and the mother of six children, three boys and three girls; Darius, next of birth, was a soldier of the late war, enlisting in Co. H, 7th Iowa Vol. Inf., July 11, 1861, on the second call for troops; he was killed in the first battle (Belmont) Grant fought, Nov., 14, 1861. His younger brother, Cyrus, was severely wounded in the same battle, by a gunshot wound in the shoulder. Mr. Bush went to Belmont and brought home his wounded son. His other son was then reported missing, but the father did not know the facts of his death until eight months later, when he learned from a returned prisoner that Darius was cut down by a rebel Colonel, his head being nearly severed from his body. The Union soldiers, seeing the act, shot the Colonel dead in his tracks. A still younger son, D. Ezra, was also a soldier, and was twice wounded, the last time severely (see sketch of D. E. Bush). The next youngest child was Elizabeth, who died at the age of eighteen years; Sarah was the wife of E. S. Marsh, and died July 25, 1887, leaving six children, four girls and two boys; Violet, the wife of William E. Kerr, lives in Washington, and has six children living, four girls and two boys; Cyrus married Alice Brown, and has six children, three boys and three girls, and resides in English River Township; Mary, the wife of John P. Coffman, of the Baptist Church of Albion, Iowa, has six children, four girls and two boys; Leonard, a farmer of Cedar Township, this county, is married to Margaret Strabling, and has four sons and one daughter. The three who died in childhood were Anderson, aged eleven years, Louisa and Huldah. The last named was the youngest child.
Mr. Bush came to Washington County with his family in October, 1846. He bought the farm now owned by his son D. Ezra, on section 24, and continued farming until 1862, and then moved to the village of Kalona, where he has since resided. He has not been a seeker after office, but has served as Township Trustee, and in minor positions. In politics he was a Whig, and a life-long Abolitionist, and worked earnestly for the restrictions of slavery. He became a member of the Republican party at its formation, and has been a stanch supporter of its principles ever since. Mr. Bush and wife and several of their children, are members of the Christian Church. They have now forty grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.

Mr. Bush is a man of sincere humane sentiments, has always been a champion of the weak and oppressed, and a fearless denouncer of tyranny and wrong. His patriotism was unbounded and the sacrifice made by him in the loss of one son and the wounding of two others, attested his sincerity. He is a man of remarkable temperate habits; for forty years he has drunk no intoxicating liquors nor taken a dose of medicine.

Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington County, Iowa (1887). Excerpt from Biographical Sketch of Absalom Bush, pages 457-458.