George Washington Bush

George Washington Bush
Drawing of George Washington Bush
Born	1779 Pennsylvania
Died	April 5, 1863(1863-04-05) (aged 83–84) Tumwater, Washington Territory
Burial place	Bush/Union/Pioneer Calvary Cemetery Tumwater, Washington State
Spouse(s)	Isabella James

George Washington Bush (1779 – April 5, 1863) was an American pioneer and one of the first multiracial (Irish and African) non-Amerindian settlers.

George Washington Bush was born in Pennsylvania around 1779. An only child, he was raised as a Quaker and educated in Philadelphia. Bush's father Matthew, of African descent, was born in India. Matthew Bush worked for a wealthy English merchant named Stevenson for most of his life. At Stevenson’s home in Philadelphia, Matthew Bush met his wife, an Irish maid who also worked for Stevenson, and they married in 1778. Pennsylvania did not repeal its anti-miscegenation law until 1780, suggesting that Matthew Bush was either not considered black, or he was married under the care of Germantown Friends Meeting in violation of the law. George's parents served Stevenson until his death. Stevenson had no other family and so left the Bushes a substantial fortune.

When he was about twenty years old Bush moved to Illinois where he entered the cattle business for the first time. In about 1820 Bush moved his cattle business to Missouri where he remained for the next twenty years.

Bush fought under Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812 at the Battle of New Orleans. Bush, Jeremiah Mabie and William Rutledge are the only known War of 1812 veterans to have settled in Thurston County, and the earliest known U.S. veterans in the county. He later worked as a voyageur and fur trapper. He began his trapping career with a Frenchman named Robideau headquartered in St. Louis, then spent several years in the Oregon Country working for the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC).

Around 1830, Bush returned to Missouri where he married Isabella James, the daughter of a Baptist minister of German descent, on July 4, 1831. Missouri was a slave state at the time and had adopted anti-miscegenation laws in 1821, but like his father's marriage, there is no evidence that his marriage was thought to be illegal at the time. Bush was a free man and had never been a slave but, while he was of African and Irish descent, Missouri did not provide him the same legal status as a white man. Some sources state that his family lived in comfort there, while others suggest they faced increasing prejudice.