John E. Bush (Mosaic Templars of America)

Shortly after the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War, when large numbers of slaves were sent further south ahead of the advance of the Union Army, young Bush and his mother were taken to Arkansas.

His mother struggled to give her children an education, and Bush received relatively little formal schooling.

Worried that he might lose his investment if something prevented him from making the payments, Bush scrimped and saved to pay the property off in six months, when he was 19 years old.

By this time he had become a teacher in the Capitol Hill School, but he lost his job immediately after he was married.

[1] Bush lost his position in the mail service when Democrat Grover Cleveland was elected president.

After this he returned to the profession of teaching and taught for several years until under President Benjamin Harrison he was appointed Receiver of the United States General Land Office.