Obadiah Bush

Obadiah Newcomb Bush ( born January 28, 1797 in Penfield, Monroe County, New York, † February 9, 1851 at sea) was an American teacher and politician.

Bush was an ancestor of U.S. President George HW Bush and George W. Bush. He was the son of the blacksmith Timothy Bush, Jr. (1761-1850) and Lydia Newcomb and left his home town during the War of 1812. On 8 November 1821 he married Harriet Smith ( 1800-1867 ) in Rochester, New York. They had seven children, including James Smith Bush.

In Rochester, Bush became a teacher and participated in a panel which appointed arbitrators. He and his brother Henry, a stove fitter, were known as abolitionists. He was vice president of the American Anti-Slavery Society and supported the Underground Railroad. In the state legislature of New York, he applied for the separation of the State from the Union in protest against slavery, prompting him The Rochester Daily Advertiser accused to declare anarchy.

In 1849, he left behind a wife and children and traveled to California during the gold rush. Two years later he was on his way home to make up for the family when he died on board a ship and received a burial at sea.