James Smith Bush

Infobox_Person
name = James Smith Bush
other_names = James Smith


caption =
birth_date = birth date|1825|6|15|mf=y
birth_place = Rochester, New York, USA
death_date = dda|1889|11|11|1825|6|15|mf=y
death_place = Ithaca, New York, USA
death_cause =
parents = Obadiah Newcomb Bush (father)
Harriet Smith (mother)
spouse = Harriet Fay
children = Samuel P. Bush

Rev. James Smith Bush (June 15, 1825 – November 11, 1889) was an attorney and Episcopal priest and religious writer, and an ancestor of the Bush political family. He was the father of business magnate Samuel Prescott Bush, grandfather of US Senator Prescott Bush, great-grandfather of former US President George H. W. Bush and great-great-grandfather of current US President George W. Bush.

Biography

James Smith Bush was born in Rochester, New York to Obadiah Newcomb Bush and Harriet Smith (1800–1867).

Yale University

Bush entered Yale University in 1841, the first of what would become a long family tradition, as his grandson, Prescott Sheldon Bush, great-grandson, George H.W. Bush, great great-grandson, George W. Bush, and great great great-granddaughter Barbara are all Yale alumni.

Bush supported the founding of Wolf's Head Society in 1883, known originally as The Third Society, along with over three hundred other Yale alumni, Charles Phelps Taft, Edward Phelps and Charles Harkness among them. [Phelps Association Membership Directory, 2006]

Bush took the bar in 1847 after law studies at The University of Rochester.

First Marriage

His first wife, Sarah Freeman, lived in nearby Saratoga Springs. They married in 1851, but she died 18 months later during childbirth.

This prompted Bush to study divinity with the rector of the Episcopal church there. Ordained a deacon in 1855, he was appointed rector at the newly organized Grace Church in Orange, New Jersey. In 1860 he was an Episcopalian Clergyman living in Orange, Essex Co., New Jersey.

econd Marriage

On February 24, 1859, he married Harriet Eleanor Fay in Trinity Church, New York City. Fay was born in Savannah, Georgia.

Children

:# James Freeman, b. 15 Jun 1860, Essex Co., NJ:# Samuel Prescott, b. 4 Oct 1863, Orange., NJ :# Harriet Montfort, b. 14 Nov 1871:# Eleanor Howard, b. 7 Nov 1873

:Samuel was named after Harriet Fay's grandfather, Samuel Prescott Phillips Fay.

Career

In 1865-66, having been given a health sabbatical by his church,cite book
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=riRCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA129&dq=pacific+monadnock+vanderbilt&lr=#PPA145,M1
title=My Fifty Years in the Navy
author=Charles Edgar Clark
year=1917
publisher=Little, Brown and Company] he traveled to San Francisco via the Straits of Magellan on the ironclad monitor USS Monadnock with Commodore John Rodgers (a parishioner of his), with international goodwill stops along the way. Officially, he was designated Commodore's Secretary, [cite news
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9503E3DC133EEE34BC4D51DFB667838E679FDE
title=For the Pacific Coast: Departure of the Vanderbilt and the Monadnock
date=October 25, 1865
publisher=The New York Times
accessdate=2008-01-06] but was considered "acting chaplain", giving services on board and even conducting a shipboard wedding for a German American they encountered in Montevideo, an incident recounted by Bret Harte in his dispatches. [cite book
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=5PUAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA17&dq=pacific+monadnock+vanderbilt&lr=#PPA366,M1
title=The Cruise of the "Monadnock"
author=Bret Harte
work=The Overland Monthly] Coincidentally, the fleet observed the punitive shelling of a defenseless Valparaiso, Chile by the Spanish Navy during the Chincha Islands War, after mediation efforts by Rodgers failed.

In 1867-1872 he was called to Grace Church (later Cathedral) in San Francisco, but troubled by family obligations, only stayed five years. His short stay along with that of photographic roll film inventor Hannibal Goodwin was to be satirized by Mark Twain in his weekly column in "The Californian". [ [http://www.gracecathedral.org/enrichment/crypt/cry_20010221.shtml Years of Grace, Part I: Chapel to "Cathedral" - gracecathedral.org - Retrieved January 8, 2007] ]

In 1872 he took a call from Church of the Ascension at West Brighton, Staten Island. In 1884, during a dispute over a church raffle (a gold watch was auctioned, which he considered gambling [cite news
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9402E7DB1538E033A25753C3A9649D94629FD7CF
title=Resigned Because of a Raffle
date=December 30 1883
publisher=The New York Times
quote=The Rev. James S. Bush has resigned as Pastor of the Church of the Ascension, at West Brighton. A short time ago a fair was held in the church, when a gold watch was put up for chances and won by Erastus Brooks. The Rev. Mr. Bush was opposed to the raffle, which he considered gambling. There was considerable feeling in the church on account of the Pastor wishes not being respected.
accessdate=2008-01-06] ), he stepped down. [cite news
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E02E0D61538E033A2575BC2A9679C94659FD7CF
title=A Pastor Chides His Flock; The Rev. Mr. Bush's Farewell Sermon at West Brighton
date=January 28 1884
quote=Peace now prevails in the Church of the Ascension at West Brighton, Staten Island, and raffles and such things may hold sway without let or hindrance. The Rector, the Rev. James S. Bush, who opposed the employing of games of chance to raise money for the church, has severed ...
publisher=The New York Times
accessdate=2008-01-06]

In 1883 he published a collection of sermons called "More Words About the Bible", a response to his colleague Heber Newton's book "Uses of the Bible". In 1885, his book "Evidence of Faith" was reviewed by "The Literary World" as "clear, simple, and unpretending", and summarized as an argument against supernatural explanations for God. [cite book
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=ykoDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA59&dq=james.s.bush+evidence+of+faith#PPA59,M1
title=The Evidence of Faith
date=1885
work=The Literary World] According to the same journal, both works fit into the broad church movement. [cite book
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=aSs-AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA487&dq=james.s.bush+broad&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1
title=News and Notes
date=1889
work=The Literary World] The "Boston Advertiser" called the latter work "the best statement of untrammeled spiritual thought" among recent books. [cite book
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=HzU3AAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA6&dq=evidence.of.faith+james.s.bush&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1#PRA1-PA7,M1
title=Books of Religion (advertising)
work=King's Chapel Sermons
year=1891
publisher=Houghton Mifflin As quoted by publisher.]

He retired from to Concord, Massachusetts, and in 1888 left the Episcopal Church altogether and became a Unitarian. The stress of this separation caused him health problems for the remainder of his life. He moved to Ithaca, New York.

Published works

Sermons

* cite book
title=The Atonement. A sermon, preached before the convention of the Diocese of New Jersey, on Wednesday, the 27th day of May, A.D. 1863
year=1863
oclc=31430725
* cite book
title=Death of president Lincoln. A sermon, preached in Grace Church, Orange, N.J., Easter, April 16, 1865
year=1865
oclc=21467720
* cite book
title=Building on Christ: a sermon preached at the opening of St. Paul's Church, San Rafael, October 10th, 1869
year=1869
oclc=1022229

Books

* cite book
title=The priesthood and absolution
year=1878
publisher=?
location=New York
oclc=949190
* cite book
title=More words about the Bible
year=1883
publisher=J. W. Lovell
location=New York City
oclc=40115349
* cite book
title=Evidence of faith
year=1885
publisher=J. R. Osgood
location=Boston
oclc=5816854

References

External links

* http://www.svu2000.org/genealogy/George_W.pdf
* http://mssa.library.yale.edu/obituary_record/1859_1924/1889-90.pdf
* http://www.gracecathedral.org/enrichment/crypt/cry_20010221.shtml