Kings County
Biographies
EDWARD E. BUSH
A pioneer and leader in many fields f industry in Kings county, and one who has won for himself an enviable record for industry and integrity here, is Edward E. Bush, who was born at Waukon, Allamakee county, Iowa, June 25, 1859, son of Moses D. Bush, whose name is associated with the history of pioneer industries in this region.
Moses D. Bush was born on a farm beside the Hudson river in the state of New York. When but nine years of age he was orphaned and became self-supporting, working on a farm, where he grew up, and experiencing many hardships which fitted him for his subsequent career as a pioneer. While yet young he went to the village of Chicago and conducted a boarding house, becoming the owner of a tract of a hundred and sixty acres upon which the house stood. Disposing of that interest he returned to New York and was married to Emily E. Randall, with whom he went to Allamakee county, Iowa, where he engaged in farming and practiced surveying, assisting in running the boundary line between Minnesota and Iowa. In 1864 he brought his family to California by the overland route, and, locating at San Jose, operated a small foundry there for about three years. He then sold it and later came to Kings county, where he took up land that is now a part of the site of Lemoore. This was a quarter-section, and when he settled here there was but one house between his and Visalia. He later sold the ranch to Lee Moore, for whom the town was named.
When Moses D. Bush came to Kings county it was sparsely settled, there being only about twenty-five people living there, among them being Uncle Dan Rhoades, Justin and Jonathan Esrey, who were following stock-raising. In the train were Samuel Wright and H. F. Bicknell and their families, who settled on government land and started to make homes; they suffered many trials, being compelled to go to Gilroy and haul their provisions, as the stock-raisers were opposed to them and refused to sell them meat or food of any kind. He was most optimistic as to the country's future and induced many friends to settle in what is now Kings county, giving them shelter and food and dividing his provisions with them. Geese and ducks were plentiful, and at one time Mr. Bush and his son were able to take eighteen hundred pounds to Gilroy, where they sold them at $1.25 per pound. They also operated a ferry boat across the lake, a distance of seven miles. He and a few others originated the first ditch hereabouts, taking water from Kings river, and he was one of the promoters of the Lower Kings River Ditch Co. and helped to dig its ditch with his own hands, taking in payment for his labor stock in that public utility. In 1879 he moved to a tract of four hundred acres, four miles south of Hanford, thus becoming a pioneer farmer and dairyman in the Lakeside district. In 1884 he sold his farm and took up his residence in Hanford, where he died November 16, 1898, aged seventy-six. He was a Democrat and held several public offices, and those still surviving who knew him are ever ready to praise his business acumen, his honesty and his generosity. His widow is passing her declining days with her son, Edward E. She and her husband were members of the Adventist church.
Edward E. Bush was a young boy when brought to Kings county and had had meager educational advantages. He was obliged to walk five miles to school, through herds of cattle, and he aided materially in the improvement of the home place. While still quite young he and his brother worked for Mr. Atwell on a small steam- boat, hauling hogs from Atwell's Island, now Alpaugh, across where Corcoran now stands, and landing at Buzzards Roost, now Waukena. In 1881, when twenty-two, he became an independent farmer, but the next year ran a small livery business in Hanford, and by 1890 the enterprise was increased to such an extent that he sold at a gratifying profit; since then he has devoted his energies almost entirely to real estate. He has been materially helpful in many directions toward forwarding movements for the prosperity of Hanford, and was instrumental in procuring the extension of the Santa Fe railroad from Fresno to the Kern county line. In 1889 he started the Del Monte Vineyard Co., which put one hundred and sixty acres under vines and trees, and the next year the Banner Vineyard Co., which, together with the former vineyard, made a tract of three hundred and twenty acres, and this he sold within a few months. Soon after he bought the Grangeville vineyard of a hundred and sixty acres, planted it to vines and sold it in the second year. Meantime he bought a section of land of Foster Brothers, half of which he put to vines and sold to P. McRae, planting the other half in 1891, and this he sold to the Armona Orchard & Vineyard Co. In the fall of the latter year he organized the Silver Bow Vineyard Co. at Butte, Mont., and sold two hundred and forty acres of it to residents of Butte, Mont., the following spring selling to other residents there a half section which he had set to prunes and peaches and which is known as the Montana Orchard. In 1890 he bought and platted the Reddington Addition of forty lots in Hanford, and a little later bought twenty acres more in the northern section of the town and platted half of that; since then he has observed these purchases develop into the city's most exclusive residence district. About the same time he bought another twenty acres of land in Hanford, which he sold in one body.
As Mr. Bush was a pioneer in fruits and vines, so was he also a pioneer in the oil industry. Soon after 1890 his attention was directed to oil possibilities, and in 1896 he organized the Consolidated Oil & Development Co., capitalized at $50,000, which sunk a well in the Kroyenhagen district and found oil, but not in paying quantities. Next he organized the Caribou Oil Co. in the Coalinga district with a like capital, became its superintendent and manager, and with C. C. and W. A. Spinks bought a section of land, a part of which was sold to the Peerless Oil Co., eighty acres to the Merced Oil Co., and eighty to the Great Northern Oil Co. Five wells on land still owned by the original company yield a good annual income. In the Kern river country he organized the Provident Oil Co., capitalized at $200,000, developed sixty acres in oil and suspended operations owing to cheap oil. He organized also the McFadden Oil & Mining Co., with a capital stock f $100,000, and sunk a well which, though operations were suspended, is still the property of the company. In both of these companies Mr. Bush owns a large block of stock. A larger enterprise of Mr. Bush's was the Del Rey Oil Co. Its capital was $1,000,000; of its four hundred acres, forty are in the heart of the Kern river field, seven producing wells being sunk under the superintendence and management of Mr. Bush, who still owns stock in the company, as well as two hundred and forty acres of undeveloped lands in that district. In 1898 he organized the Del Monte Coal Co., which developed coal lands in this part of the county, but suspended operations because of exorbitant shipping charges.
Of the Hanford Abstract Co., which was organized with a cash capital of $10,000, Mr. Bush has been superintendent and manager since November, 1901, owning a controlling interest in the stock. With four stockholders he organized the Hanford Gas & Power Co., of which he is secretary and general manager ; their plant is one of the finest of its kind in the state, costing $60,000, and to date (1913) has more than doubled the investment price. In the fall of 1892 Mr. Bush was one of the most enthusiastic promoters of the creation of Kings county from Tulare, giving generously of his money and time to that end, and he was one of the commissioners on organization appointed by Governor Markham. He has been directly concerned with most of the improvements which have marked the growth of Hanford from a village to a thriving industrial community. He was interested in the sugar beet industry and the erection f the $1,000,000 factory at Corcoran, which means, when plans materialize for operation by proper financing, one of the greatest things for the advancement and prosperity of the farmers in Kings county. He was one of the organizers of the Guarantee Land & Investment Co., which company purchased eight thousand acres of land between Corcoran and Hanford, now being developed for colonization.
Politically Mr. Bush is a Democrat: Though never an office seeker, he has been secretary of the County Central Committee and a delegate to the conventions and was one of the presidential electors on the Democratic ticket in 1908. Fraternally he affiliates with the Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Foresters. Mr. Bush married in Kings county December 21, 1884, Miss Emma L. Byrd, who was born in California, and they have four children: Ruby Pearl, wife of G. M. Wilson; Clarence E.; Moses Lyman; and Grover L.
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
pp. 877-880
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler