James A. Bushnell
In the spring of 1852 James Addison Bushnell left his young wife and baby son in Illinois to cross the plains to Oregon, he traveled on to California to seek his fortune in the gold fields. He did fairly well and wrote to his wife and mother to come to Oregon.The mail service was very uncertain and not having heard from his family he took his $400 and started home via the Isthmus of Panama. When he reached Illinois, he learned that his wife, his infant son Charles Alvah, his mother, sister and brothers were already on the trail to Oregon, James at once went to New York and caught a steamer for Panama, crossed the Isthmus, took another steamer to San Francisco, transferred there to a steamer for Oregon City, and at last reached Mahlon Harlow's home at the Forks of the Willamette in Lane County, Oregon, with no money at all.
He found his wife and small son at the home of Isaac Briggs who lived in what is now Springfield, Oregon He took up a claim near Irving and later bought the Judkins claim near Eugene.
James Addison Bushnell was born July 27, 1826 near Fredonia, Chatauqua County, New York, son of Denial Edwin and Ursula (Pratt) Bushnell, daughter or Osias Pratt, a sea captain. Both parents were of Puritan ancestry. He was the seventh son of a family of ten children. His father moved soon after his birth to Monroe, Ashtabula County, Ohio. This part or the country was called the Western Reserve.
James attended his first school at Monroe, Ohio, but when he was about ten years old the family moved to Conneant, where they remained a year. Then, seeking a warmer climate, since Mr. Bushnell suffered from rheumatism, they moved to Canton, Stark County, Ohio, where they wintered, then moved on to Harrison County, where Mr. Bushnell bought a mill. However, he sold it in l841 and moved to the small town of Franklin, where he intended to take up his trade of cooper. He died there in 1842 leaving his wife with ten children.
At the time of his father's death, James was about 16 years old. He went to work at once as a cooper. In June 1844 the family moved to Kirksville, Missouri. James worked at Hannibal, Missouri making barrels and saved enough money to buy 80 acres of land in Adair County. In September 1849 he married Elizabeth C. Adkins and built a home on his land. His first son, Charles Alvah, was born there March 26, 1851.
Elizabeth Adkins Bushnell died in 1868 and he married, on April 2, 1870, Mrs. Sarah (Ferrill) Powell Page, who although only 24 years old had been widowed twice, She had come to Oregon in The Lost Wagon Train of 1853 with relatives. This is the same wagon train in which James' first wife, his mother and others of his family had traveled.
James Addison Bushnell was one of the founders of the Eugene Divinity School (Northwest Christian College) and was until his death president of its board of regents.