E. F. BUSH is a representative of the industrial life of Denison, being engaged in the operation of a stone quarry and in the sale of lime and stone. He was born in Illinois in 1847, his parents being Charles D. and Emily (Dodge) Bush, in whose family were eleven children, of whom four are yet living, but E. F. Bush of this review is one of the only one in Texas. In early life the father was a farmer and his last years were spent in Illinois and Kansas, where he devoted his time and energies to the raising of fruit. He died in southern Illinois at the age of fifty-eight years, while his wife passed away at the age of forty-four years. One of their sons, Melville Bush, was a soldier of the Civil war and was wounded at Lookout Mountain, after which he spent a year in the hospital. He is now deceased.

E. F. Bush, accompanying his parents on their various removals, pursued his education in the schools of Illinois and Kansas and in the fall of 1873, when twenty-six years of age, came to Denison, Texas. He has previously had practical experience at farm work and in the cultivation of fruit through the assistance which he rendered his father, and on reaching this city he engaged in the fruit business and market gardening, raising berries, grapes and peaches on land which is now within the corporation limits of the city. Upon this land is also a good stone quarry, which he is now operating, having taken out one thousand tons of stone. He makes large sales of lime and stone annually and in fact has the controlling trade for stone works of all kinds, including the foundations for buildings as well as street work. At the present time he has a contract with the city of Denison to furnish limestone for its public highways.

At the time of the Civil war Mr. Bush served for nearly two years as a private of Company I, in the Eleventh Kansas Regiment and was a brave soldier, loyal to the cause he espoused. In 1875 he wedded Mary Campbell, who was born in Red River, Texas, and they have four living children. Oliver, who was born in Denison and is a blacksmith by trade, wedded Mary Titrow and has one child, Oliver, born in Denison. Ellen is the wife of J. W. Williams and has one child, Delma. James and Isamay are at home.

Since coming to Texas Mr. Bush has continually engaged the scope of his business operations and is today in control of an extensive trade, so that his annual income is gratifying. He has placed his dependence upon the substantial qualities of industry and untiring diligence and in accordance with the precept of the old Greek photosphere, “Earn thy reward; the Gods give naught to sloth,” he has so managed his business interests with perseverance and energy that he is today one of the substantial residents of Denison.

[Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, pp. 679-680.]