- GEORGE W. BUSSEY, a thrifty and venerable citizen of Green
county, Wis., is a retired farmer
- now spending the closing years of a useful and industrious
life in the village of Juda. Mr. BUSSEY is the son of Hezekiah
and Fannie (CROSS) BUSSEY, of Brown county, Ohio, who came to
this State in 1846, and made their home here as long as they
lived. Hezekiah BUSSEY was born Aug. 5, 1789, and died Dec. 27,
1871. Fannie BUSSEY, his widow, was born March 20, 1790, and
died Oct. 30, 1879. John BUSSEY, the grandfather of George W.,
was a native born Englishman, who came to America before the
Revolution, settling in Virginia, where he became the father
of four children: John, who was killed in the war of 1812; Hezekiah,
named above; Mary married Amos BLACK, of Virginia; and Annie,
who married Benjamin ASHBY, of Kentucky.
- Hezekiah BUSSEY and Fannie CROSS, daughter of John CROSS,
of Ohio, were married July
- 12, 1810, and to their union came the following children:
John R., born March 20, 1811, was a farmer in Oklahoma, and died
June 19, 1885. William C., born Aug. 22, 1812, died unmarried,
in California, Dec. 6, 1884; in 1846 he went to California, making
the voyage in a sailing vessel around Cape Horn. George W. Elener,
born Aug. 8, 1818, married Elizer TRACY, of Green county. Nelson,
born July 29, 1822, married Orra DYER. Mary Ann, born April 30,
1826, married the late William COOLEY, and died in April, 1899.
- Mr. BUSSEY was born Dec. 19, 1816, and was married Aug. 26,
1836, to Miss Emily GABY,
- daughter of John GABY, of Maryland, and became the mother
of these children: Phoebe E., born April 9, 1839, married Jeremiah
OSTRANDER, of Green county, and died Aug. 10, 18__. Ada J., born
March 13, 1841, married William J. OSTRANDER, and died Oct. 30,
1879. Mary Ann, born Dec. 19, 1842, married Oct. 25, 1857, Charles
VAN BUREN, a farmer of Green county, now residing with her father
in Juda. Fannie H., born April 26, 1844, married John MYERS,
a farmer of Green county. Mahlon, born Nov. 4, 1845, married
Miss Lena CLARK. John N. and Orra E., born April 8, 1848, twins;
Orra E. is the wife of Nathan AINSWORTH, of Green county. Susan
C., born May 24, 1850, is Mrs. John SCHEMMERHORN, of Madison.
Mrs. BUSSEY was born Feb. 7, 1813, and died March 7, 1888.
- Mr. BUSSEY started out in life without a dollar, and with
but a meager education. He came with a
- wife and two children to Wisconsin in the fall of 1842, while
it was still a territory. When they crossed the Wisconsin line
there was not a dollar in the family treasury. Having learned
the shoemaker's trade when a boy in Ohio, he followed it at night,
working by the light of a tallow candle. During the day he was
a carpenter. For some years he worked in this most industrious
fashion, and then bought a mill of his brother, which he operated
for seven years. At the end of that time he sold it and turned
the proceeds into a small farm, and after a time traded that
for a woolen mill. This plant he managed for a number of years,
when he exchanged it advantageously for a very valuable farm.
Here Mr. BUSSEY farmed for a number of years, and then selling
part of the place, bought his present very handsome and convenient
home in Juda, where, as already noted, he is living retired.
Mr. BUSSEY owns this quarter-section farm in the town of Spring
Grove, and also has a farm of 160 acres in Kansas. Mr. BUSSEY
is not connected with any church. High moral ideals determine
his life, and he affirms that honesty and square dealing are
the principal parts of religion. As a volunteer in the Union
army during the war of the Rebellion he displayed a lofty patriotism,
and to that key his life has been attuned. He served as a member
of Battery D, 1st Wis. Heavy Artillery, and enlisted in 1862.
Mr. BUSSEY served at Fort Jackson, in Louisiana, and at other
places, and received an honorable discharge at the close of the
war. From the country he helped to rescue at the cost of impaired
health, he is now receiving a pension of $16 a month. In politics
Mr. BUSSEY is a Republican, and has been justice of the peace,
road supervisor, assessor, postmaster at Oakley, and is a capable
and efficient official. Belonging to the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, he has striven to exhibit in his life the principles
underlying that noble order. He has been a Mason in good standing
for forty years. At the age of eighty-four years, it is given
him to look back over a long and useful life which has been lived
for the welfare of the world and the happiness of those around
him.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin,"
(c)1901 Union Publishing; pp. 933-934.
-
- Courtesy of Carol.
|