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| Asa S. Bushnell |
Born: September 16, 1834
Died: January 15, 1904
Political Party: Republican
Term of Office: January 13, 1896 - January 8, 1900
Buried: Ferncliff Cemetery Springfield, Ohio
No. 31 of 58
Asa Smith Bushnell was born in Rome, New York in 1834. His family moved to Ohio when he was 11, then he moved to Springfield when he was 17. In Springfield, Bushnell married and became a partner in his father in laws drug store. He
joined the war effort in 1864 by being the Captain of a "hundred day infantry" in the Shenandoah Valley. After the war he returned home to become a popular and successful businessman. He had a lot of jobs serving as a President of the First
National Bank to President of the Springfield Gas Company.
He got involved in Republican politics and helped Joseph Foraker get elected Governor in 1885. His efforts paid off when Foraker helped get him elected to the Governorship in 1895 after William McKinley left to pursue the Presidency.
Bushnell served 2- 2 year terms as Governor. It was a great time of transition. It was the dawn of Progressivism. Legislation was passed to improve women's working conditions and limit child labor. In 1898 the Spanish American
War broke out and Bushnell was proud to of gotten the first volunteers organized to fight in that war.
After leaving the Governorship Bushnell resumed his business affairs. In January 1904 he went to Columbus to attend the Inauguration of Governor Myron T. Herrick. Afterwords he struck sick on the way to the train station and died in Columbus 4
days later.
Bushnell was the 2nd of 2 Governor gravesites that I visited on the Saturday before Labor Day 2016. I was taking the kids down to the Air Force Museum in Dayton and decided to pick up a couple of Governor's along the way. The first Governor
was Joseph Vance in Urbana. That was the hardest Governor gravesite to find so far. It took about an hour. As you can see. Governor Bushnell's tomb was much easier to find.
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My boys and I at the Bushnell Tomb
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