Obadiah Bush

Who was Obadiah Bush?

Obadiah Newcomb Bush was an American prospector and businessman. He is an ancestor of the Bush political family. Born in Penfield, New York to blacksmith Timothy Bush the Younger and Lydia Newcomb, he left home during the War of 1812. On November 8, 1821, he married Harriet Smith in Rochester, New York. They had seven children, among them James Smith Bush.

In Rochester, Bush became a schoolmaster and was on a committee that nominated candidates for justice of the peace. He and his brother Henry, a manufacturer of stoves, were known abolitionists. He served as vice president of the American Anti-Slavery Society and supported the Underground Railroad. He petitioned the New York State Legislature to secede from the Union in a protest against slavery, after which The Rochester Daily Advertiser accused him of encouraging anarchy.

In 1849, he traveled to California due to the gold rush, leaving wife and children behind. After two years, he was on his way home to reclaim his family and take them west, when he died aboard the ship and was given a sea burial.