A Broad Ax, a Bullwhip, a Birth, and a Death

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Series

Prompt: Start

I have challenged myself to write weekly for a year. I am good at starting things but terrible at finishing them, here is hoping that 2018 is a better year for me in this regard. My hope is that weekly encouragement and prompts will keep me motivated through the year, and turn into a writing habit I enjoy so much I would miss it if I stopped.

My enjoyment of family history began in my late teens early twenties at a family reunion in Rolling Hills Alberta. My Grand Aunt Lucelia May Bush (Blair) began to tell stories about her father (my Great Grandfather Wesley Hiram Bush). I remember they made a trip from Michigan, west to Nebraska. Lucelia was born in Nebraska and her brother, Frank Wesley Bush, dies during the sojourn; he was just over 19 months old. I’m not sure why they went, but it could have been that Wesley’s brother, Daniel E. Bush, had moved there previously and encouraged them to join him. After a straight two years of crop failures, Wesley packed up his family and headed back to Michigan.

 She spoke about her Father’s skill with a bullwhip and a broad axe; killing a snake during one of their stops using the bull whip, and swinging the best broad axe in all Michigan. My Grand Uncle Daniel Edward Bush said “Celia was always a good storyteller.” Whether true or not those stories enthralled me and from that time forward I was more than just interested in my family history.

Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 02 January 2018), memorial page for Frank W. Bush (31 May 1891–8 Aug 1892), Find A Grave Memorial no. 69325456, citing Greenwood Cemetery, Lexington, Dawson County, Nebraska, USA ; Maintained by CPR (contributor 46798335) .

Minerva Sayer (Bush) and Wesley Hiram Bush, from the private collection of Dennis Daniels received from Robert Clive Daniels.





Thank you for joining my search,
Dennis

Credit for this series to Amy Johnson Crow Certified Genealogist