Polk Co. IAGenWeb

BUSHNELL, JOSEPH P. - The subject of this sketch was born in Jefferson, Ashtabula county, Ohio, October 11, 1845. His father was a lawyer by profession, and was associated in practice with Benjamin F. Wade and Joshua R. Giddings. His mother was born in Hartford, Ohio. When he was only two years old his father died. His mother returned with her only child to Hartford, where they remained four years. At the end of that time his mother married Mr. W. T. Crouse, of Youngstown, Ohio, and resided there about two years, when his parents removed to Freeport, Illinois. In 1853 the family came to Iowa City and settled on a farm. He entered the State University and remained two years, when, the war for the Union having broken out, he enlisted in company D, Forty-fourth Iowa volunteer infantry. After the war closed he returned, entered the University, remaining two years, when he found it necessary, on account of failing health, to engage in some out door pursuit, and accordingly traveled for some time for a commercial house in Chicago. In the spring of 1867 he engaged in the hotel business in Council Bluffs, where his parents removed the same year. Two years later he entered into the newspaper and general publishing business, to which he has since devoted all his time. October 11th, 1871, Mr. Bushnell was married to Miss Agnes O. Tubbs, daughter of Dr. O. A. Tubbs, of Council Bluffs, now a resident of Des Moines. They have two children: Charles J. and Grace A. Mr. Bushnell removed to Des Moines, his present home, in 1870, and commenced the publication of the Des Moines City Directory, which he has published since that time. He has also published the history of a number of counties in Iowa during the past ten. years, and during the past five years has published the Iowa Commercial Gazette. This has recently been consolidated with the Iowa Homestead, the largest and oldest agricultural newspaper in Iowa, having been published in Des Moines nearly twenty-five years. This consolidation makes the Homestead a stronger and better paper than it has been, even under the former efficient management. Mr. Bushnell will still publish his Des Moines City and Polk county directories. He has also a work in press entitled "A Business and Household Manual," which, from its contents, we judge will become a popular work in every business house and household in the land. Mr. Bushnell is zealous in behalf of Des Moines, and is doing all he can by personal effort and through the press to aid in building up the city, believing that "Des Moines will not only remain the metropolis of Iowa, but in the near future will be the great railroad and commercial center of the northwest." From his youth Mr. Bushnell has ever been an active advocate of temperance. In religion he is a Methodist and in politics a Republican. He has that disposition and temperament which renders him, amiable, social, honorable, and humane, qualities which insure the respect and good will of all his friends and neighbors. He is sympathetic and benevolent, and conscientious in his intercourse with men. As a citizen he is honored by all who know him as an honest and trustworthy member of society.