(Image courtesy of Washington State Archives)

For most people, the name George W. Bush automatically makes one think of our 43rd president and son of America’s 41st president. But for Washington Territory history buffs, this name conjures up a different man from a much earlier era.

In 1845, George W. Bush, his wife, Isabella, and their five sons settled near Tumwater on what became known as Bush Prairie. Their party, which included Bush’s good friend Michael Simmons, were the first Americans to settle north of the Columbia River in what is now Washington. According to HistoryLink.org:

The Simmons party makes the historically significant decision to settle north of the Columbia primarily because the discriminatory laws of the provisional government of Oregon Territory prohibit George Bush, an African American who is a key leader of the group, from settling south of the river.

However, these discriminatory laws had followed the Bushes north. The HistoryLink.org post about Bush discusses the circumstances that led to an 1854 resolution passed by the Washington Territorial Legislature designed to help Bush and his family keep their land:

Ironically, the discriminatory laws the Bushes were trying to avoid had followed them, at least in part due to their own pioneering efforts. The 1845 American settlement north of the Columbia was one of the catalysts for the 1846 Treaty of Oregon, which resolved the U.S.-British boundary dispute by giving the territory south of the 49th parallel to the U.S., thus bringing what is now Washington under the discriminatory law of Oregon Territory. As a result, Bush did not have a clear legal claim on the 640 acres he and his family had painstakingly cultivated.

When Washington Territory was organized in 1853, many of the new legislators were friends and neighbors of the Bush family and beneficiaries of their generosity. Although this experience did not necessarily make them less prejudiced, it did inspire them to make an exception for George Bush and his sons. The first territorial legislature voted unanimously for a resolution urging Congress to pass a special act confirming George and Isabella Bush’s title to the land they had claimed and farmed. Congress did so in 1855, and the Bush Prairie farm remained in the hands of the Bush family for generations.

Bush died on April 5, 1863.

Historical footnote: The State Records Center in Tumwater is named after Isabella Bush.

As Black History Month winds down, we’re featuring House Resolution 707, the legislation confirming the Bushes’ title to the land they homesteaded. Our State Archives has a copy of this legislation , which came to us courtesy of the Library of Congress.