By doing so, Bush became the first woman to preside over a public meeting composed of both men and women in the U.S.[1] Abigail Norton was born on March 19, 1810, attended the orthodox First Presbyterian Church in Rochester, New York, and helped her mother with charitable works.

In 1831, she converted to become a "Brick Church perfectionist"[2] in the wake of popular evangelical revival meetings featuring Charles Grandison Finney.

[4] In a split among abolitionists in 1840, Henry Bush chose to remain with the American Anti-Slavery Society, the faction which accepted women as active members.

[4] Abigail Bush grew more sympathetic to radical reform and come-outerism, and withdrew in 1843 from the Brick Church to become active in the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society.

Amy Post, Rhoda DeGarmo and Sarah D. Fish met in the evening of August 1, 1848, to select a roster of officers composed wholly of females, with Abigail Bush to be president.

Bush took the platform and said Friends, we present ourselves here before you, as an oppressed class, with trembling frames and faltering tongues, and we do not expect to be able to speak so as to be heard by all at first, but we trust we shall have the sympathy of the audience, and that you will bear with our weakness now in the infancy of the movement.

[12] The family settled on a 600 acre ranch just south of the then border of Martinez, California in Contra Costa County, about 20 miles east of San Francisco.

Her husband died in the late 1870s, at which time she sold the northern portion of the ranch to the Christian Brothers, who built a seminary and began their wine making business.

"[7] In 1898, NWSA celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Seneca Falls and Rochester conventions, and honored Bush's early courage and strength during a session entitled "Pioneer's Evening".