AKA Willapa Bay Lighthouse
6th Lighthouse Keeper Asahel Kidder Bush / 1870 – 1872
Asahel Kidder Bush was born 9 September 1830 in Yate County NY to Mr. Henry Lodowick Bush and Mararetta Bradley Bush. After initial schooling, Asahel interned under Dr. Rufus Howard to study medicine from 1847 – 1850. On the 16th of June 1855 Asahel married Eliza A. Congdon in Chelsia, Washtenaw, Michigan. Children from this union were Dora, William Henry, and Hattie C.
Asahel was living in Michigan City, Indiana when he enlisted in the Union Army on 22 April 1861 as a 1st Lt. He requested his son William (called Willie) to be his valet. This meant that William was the youngest of all soldiers in the Union Army at 6 years old. (Willie’s stories include meeting President Lincoln)
Asahel’s assignment was to Company B, 9th Indiana Infantry which he honorably mustered out on 29th of July 1861 in Indianapolis Indiana after only 3 months. He started recruiting to create the 4th Indiana Light Artillery Volunteer Regiment which served from September 30, 1861 to September 21, 1864. During this time the men picked up the nickname of “Bush’s Battery” after their commanding officer Captain Asahel Kidder Bush. Bush’s Battery saw action in the Vicksburg Campaign, and in Chickamauga in 1863.
Asahel musters out
Upon return to Indianapolis in 1864 the regiment was reformed into the 7th Battle Unit and officially mustered out on September 21, 1865. Asahel mustered out on the 29th of November 1865 but civilian life didn’t seem to suit him. In March 1967 he re-enlisted and took an assignment as 2nd Lt, Company E of the 2nd U.S. Artillery, 12th Regiment, Veterans Reserve Corps, at Fort Stevens, OR as assistant quartermaster
On to Shoalwater Bay Lighthouse
Asahel resigned his commission on 28 Feb 1869 and moved his family to Washington Territory to take over the keeper’s job at Shoalwater Bay Lighthouse located on Toke-Point. Asahel’s father Henry Lodowick Bush was the assistant lighthouse keeper during this time. Later, after purchasing 140 acres on the north shore of the north branch of the Willapa river, he turned his attention to logging and farming in the Riverside area. He tried his hand at lumber milling with a small water-powered mill located in Riverside. In 1874 he was appointed Postmaster of Riverside in Pacific County, a position he held until 1877. Also Asahel K. Bush was appointed Probate Judge for Pacific County in 1880
A.K. Bush opens Dr. Office & Pharmacy
In January 1883 he moved to Montesano to open a drug store and to practice medicine. His son William Henry Bush eventually moved to Montesano too and they operated the drug store as Dr. A.K. Bush and Son until William eventually took over the drug store.
Besides being busy with a Pharmacy & Physician’s Office Asahel’s wife Eliza Bush was active in Washington’s State Women Suffrage Movement which Asahel supported. In the 1880’s Dr. A.K. Bush was a signatory with 94 other Chehalis County professionals in support of A Woman’s right to vote in Washington State. (In 1910 Washington State permanently amended the Washington State Constitution to grant women the right to vote 10 years before the rest of the country)
Eliza A. (Congdon) Bush dies
Asahel’s first wife Eliza A. Congdon Bush died on 29 Aug 1890 at the age of 54. She is buried in the Wynoochee Cemetery in Montesano WA. After the loss of his wife, Asahel ran for a public office and was elected County Health Officer of Chehalis County on 19 Feb 1891 About one year later Asahel remarried. On 23 May 1892, Asahel married Julia A Carlile and to this union was born Silas C. Bush on 5 July 1893. Now when Julia and Asahel married, Julia was 18 and Asahel was 62. (Julia was born to R.G. Carlisle and Cynthia Zenor Carlisle on the 7th of December, 1873 in Eureka, Kansas) After his marriage to Julia he relocated his home to Westport WA although he still held positions of public trust in Chehalis County (Chehalis County was Renamed
Grays Harbor County in 1915). Part of the move was for his health since the sea-air seemed to help, but part was to get away from the stigma of having such a younger wife, especially around those who knew his first wife and her activities in the Washington Woman Suffrage Association.
Dr. Asahel Kidder Bush dies
Dr. A. K. Bush suffered a serious illness in 1897 in Westport WA. His illness prompted the visits of his son William and his brother A. S. Bush from Pacific County. Apparently he recovered from this illness because on 19 December 1900 he was elected President of the Board of Trade for Westport WA. The 1900 Census shows Asahel, Julia and Silas living in Westport WA, but his health continued to decline. Asahel Kidder Bush died 19 November 1902. His burial is in the Wynoochee Cemetery located in Montesano, Grays Harbor County, WA.