History Minutes: George Washington Bush

This Sesquicentennial History Minute is from The Oregon Encyclopedia, a statewide project supported by Portland State University, the Oregon Historical Society, and the Oregon Council of Teachers of English, with generous support from the Oregon Cultural Trust.  This History Minute is from an entry written by Don Sederstrom.

George Washington Bush, the son of an African American servant and an Irish maid, first traveled to the Pacific Northwest in 1820, when he was about 40 years old.  He worked as a trapper and was hired by the Hudson’s Bay Company, but after ten years, he returned to Missouri, where he married and had five sons.  Although his farm was successful, the racial prejudice his family experienced led him to find a new life for his family in Oregon Country.

In 1844, Bush and his friend Michael Simmons set out on the Oregon Trail with six wagons and enough means to finance their journey.  Bush had a charitable nature and provided for the poorer members of his party.  When the wagon train arrived in The Dalles, Englishman John Minto rode ahead to Fort Vancouver for supplies.  He returned with the news that Oregon’s Provisional Government had passed the Lash Law, which ordered African Americans, free or enslaved, out of the territory or be whipped.

As a result, Bush temporarily settled on the north bank of the Columbia and a few months later moved his family to present-day Tumwater, staked out a 640-acre claim, and partnered with Simmons to open the region’s first gristmill and sawmill.  Bush grew vegetable crops, fruit trees, and grain, all of which he shared with his neighbors.

In 1846, Oregon Territory extended to the 49th parallel and Bush was once again confronted with a racist law that threatened everything he had worked for.  For years, Bush’s friends and neighbors petitioned the government to allow Bush to stay.  Finally, on January 30, 1855, the United States Congress passed a special act that allowed Bush to retain his land and property.

George Washington Bush died in 1863 at the age of 81.