WILLIAM H. BUSH.
William H. Bush, farmer and stockman, of Lancaster township, Atchison county, was born January 16, 1856, in Hanover, Pa. He is a son of Elias D. and Sarah (Keithline) Bush, and was one of six children, as follows: William, subject of this sketch; Samuel, deceased; John, deceased; Andrew, foreman of tailoring establishment in St. Louis, Mo.; Charles F., signal man for the Missouri Pacific railway in Colorado; Minnie, Atchison, Kan. Elias D. Bush, the father, was born December 16, 1834, in Pennsylvania. He was a stationary engineer and also followed farming for a time. During the eighties he came to Atchison county and took up farming in Shannon township. For a few years he rented his land, but later bought 160 acres in section 26, Lancaster township, which is now owned by Amel Markwalt. Elias D. Bush followed farming here until 1904, when he sold his place and removed to Atchison, where he is now living in retirement. William H. Bush’s mother was born February 27, 1834, in Hanover, Pa., and died in 1890, and is buried in Lancaster cemetery.
William H. Bush attended the common schools in Hanover, Pa., and later worked in the coal mines. In 1876 he left the East and came to Atchison county, Kansas, and for five years worked for his uncle, Andrew Keithline, and then rented land in Shannon township for eleven years. He was successful in this venture, and in 1890 bought the farm of 160 acres which he now farms, in Lancaster township. When he took the farm it had only the most meager improvements, consisting chiefly of a small house and an old barn, both in a dilapidated condition. Mr. Bush has built a fine eleven-room house and a large barn, 64×60 feet. This barn cost him $3,000, and he is willing to wager that it is one of the best, though perhaps not the largest, in Atchison county. He now owns 320 acres of land in Lancaster township and has a number of head of high grade stock, including Shorthorn cattle and Duroc Jersey hogs. Mr. Bush is a practical farmer, who, with practically no start, has, by hard work and diligent economy, become a man of comfortable circumstances. He holds a position of high esteem among the many acquaintances he has made in Atchison county.
MICHAEL J. HINES
WILLIAM H. BUSH
GEORGE DORSSOM
CHAS. H. FALK
On March 30, 1881. Mr. Bush was united in marriage with Ellen J. Christian, a native of the Isle of Man, a small island in the Irish sea lying between Ireland and England. She was born January 24, 1857, a daughter of Charles and Mary (Kneale) Christian, both of whom were natives of the Isle of Man. Mrs. Bush died in February, 1911. They had six children, as follows: Cora, Atchison, Kan.; Harry, Atchison, Kan.; Mary Smithson, Lancaster, Kan.; Ina, deceased; Sarah, Atchison Kan.; Jessie, Atchison, Kan. On October 29, 1913, Mr. Bush married Mary E. Christian, a niece of his first wife, and a daughter of Charles and Ellen J. (Wade) Christian, natives of the Isle of Man. She was born near Pardee, Atchison county, March 21, 1869, and attended the Catholic parochial school of Atchison. They have no children. Mr. Bush is a Republican and attends the Methodist church. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Modern Woodmen of America of Lancaster. He also is a member of the Atchison County Protective Association, of which he was one of the organizers, and served as president of the association for a number of years.
Mr. Bush is one of the most successful farmers in Kansas and is the owner of a highly productive tract of land. As an illustration of his success as a farmer, the records show that from a tract of twenty-one acres there was corn produced at an average of 108 bushels to the acre the first year, ninety-seven bushels to the acre the second year, and eighty-four bushels to the acre the third year, after which the land was sown to wheat in the natural order of crop rotation and the yield was thirty-eight bushels to the acre. Mr. Bush is a firm believer in crop rotation as a means of preserving the fertility of the soil.