X The Unknown Quantity

It's possible to speculate on the character of someone you never met in your own family by being aware of a few facts. Those facts may come from family stories, a lead you found online, and paper ephemera such as military records and birth certificates.

At the time of Frank Bush's WWI enlistment in June, 1917, he was married to his first wife Flossie Jones, and working out of town in Springfield, Massachusetts for M.C. Myers as Contract Painter. This fact was noted on his Draft Registration Card. After the war was over, he was discharged with $600, this was noted on his Discharge papers and he went back to Amsterdam, NY. After Flossie died of cancer, Frank became partners in a photography studio in New York City, where, in the words of his second wife, my grandmother Ina Maria Carpenter, he "nearly starved to death". He also took a correspondence course in painting during this time, again, this is supported with papers. I feel that during this time, he may have been in mourning, maybe feeling a little lost and at ends, trying to keep himself busy, and to establish his life's work.

The fact that there were three mortgage notes attached to my Grandfather's house in Fort Johnson, NY in 1930 the year he died says to me that there were hard times in his field of work, or he was not very careful with his money, or a combination of both. Whatever the reason, he was determined to provide the best he could as head of the household of his family, who at the time, consisted of his mother, step-father, wife and infant son, my father. I also found a newspaper classified ad soliciting a stone mason, which tells me he was possibly having some work done to improve the house.

Frank was working for his neighbor Charles Barrow, a local businessman and sign maker on the day he fell. A younger man also fell, with only minor injuries. I want to speculate that my grandfather may have been training him.

Frank's death had a devastating effect on his family. His widow and four-year old son George had no choice but to let the house go, and they moved in with a family friend who lived in Amsterdam. So here was where my father was raised by a strong-willed single mother. Ina had lost her own mother early, years ago, and a sister in a house fire, and her only brother Myron had died on pneumonia at age 16. I have a copy of his obituary.

The history of Ina and George is told in the Amsterdam Directories and Census. From thereon, not much is a mystery. My father is still with us, and although his memory is fading, he does have many recollections of life with his mother. Here is where I come into the story, when my mother met my father in the church his mother attended, where Grandpa Finch was pastor. So he gave his baby away to my father in marriage, and the Bush line continues to the present.