Thomas Henry Bush (1831-1898)

Judge Bush was born in Pennsylvania, June 8, 1831, and came to California in 1853. He learned the bookbinder’s trade, which he followed in San Francisco, and also engaged in mining and kept a store in Lower California. He came to San Diego in 1865, where at first he kept a store, and in 1868 became postmaster. In the same year he was appointed county judge to fill the unexpired term of Julio Osuna, and held the office eight years. He was also school trustee and city trustee; in the latter capacity, he was instrumental in selling the city lands to Horton, and signed the deed. From 1878 to 1887, he was absent from San Diego, prospecting and visiting in his native state. In his later days, he engaged in the real estate business, was a notary, and secretary of the San Diego Society of Pioneers. He died December 17, 1898.

He married Ellen Augusta Porter. They had one daughter, Bertha, born in San Francisco in 1863. Miss Porter was an early teacher at Old Town.

Judge Bush was not a lawyer, and might, perhaps, have made a more satisfactory record as a judge had he been one. At the time of the agitation for the removal of the county seat from Old Town to Horton ‘s Addition, he showed decided bias in favor of the Old Town faction, and the people of New San Diego always remembered it.

[from Smythe, William Ellsworth. History of San Diego, 1542-1908. San Diego: History Co., 1907. (page 267)]

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