Historical Sketches of Kentucky by Lewis Collins, Maysville, KY. and J. A.
& U. P. James, Cincinnati, 1847. Volume 1. Reprinted 1968.  Fayette
County. Artists of Kentucky, pages 624-625.

     Of the native-born artists of Kentucky, the first in date of birth,
and the first in success and fame, was Matthew H. Jouett, already spoken
of.  The second in date of birth, and probably, also the second in
successful high art culture, was JOSEPH H. BUSH, a native of Frankfort,
Kentucky, in 1793, but for many years a resident of Lexington, where he
died, Jan. 11, 1865, at the ripe age of 72.  His parents were Phillip and
Eliza Bush (the latter nee Palmer, of a family of early emigrants from
South Carolina to Kentucky, and whose sister Catharine married Gov. John
Adair).  His grandparents, Philip and Mary Bush, came from Mannheim,
Germany (the home of Schiller, the great German poet, dramatist, and
historian), to Winchester, Va., about 1750 or earlier; for during the
French and Indian war, in 1755-6, Lieut. Col. (afterwards General) George
Washington, and several of his officers, while their headquarters were at
Winchester, boarded at the hotel of Mr. Bush - who ever after talked with
enthusiasm of the young colonel, of his noble dignity and the singular
power he acquired over all around him, and how, even while he was young,
his officers and friends, much as they loved him, were controlled and
restrained by his presence.  Bishop Meade, in his remarkably interesting
work on the "Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia," mentions
Philip Bush, among many of the marked men who emigrated to Kentucky at a
very early day; and Gen. Cass, in his "France, its King, Court, and
Government," p. 113, described him as he was in 1797, as portly, ruddy,
though advanced in life, with a large broad-brimmed hat, and with his full
clothes of the olden time, looking the very patriarch of his
establishment.  No resting place in all that valley was more coveted than
this, a model of neatness and comfort.  When the Duke of Orleans
(afterwards Louis Phillipee, King of France, from 1830-48) left France to
avoid arrest, during her great revolution, he and two younger brothers
stopped in 1797 at Mr. Bush's hotel. While their first meal was being
prepared, Mr. Bush and the king, who had recently visited Mannheim, talked
in German of the grand old town, its people and attractions.  As one
brother was indisposed, the king suggested a wish for his party to eat by
themselves - a touch of royal-blood exclusiveness that roused the
revolutionary blood of the old German to say - "If you are too good to eat
at the same table with my other guests, you are too good to eat in my
house; begone!"  And they went.
     It was on this tour, that the royal party visited Kentucky, entering
at Maysville, and stopping, also, at Lexington, Louisville, Bardstown, and
other points, on down to Nashville.  The duke was so delighted with his
reception at Bairdstown, as it was then called, that, forty years after,
when king, he sent to Bishop Flaget a clock for his cathedral at that
place. 
     Joseph H. Bush early developed a taste for sketching, and at the age
of seventeen was sent by his parents to Philadelphia, under the care of
their friend, Henry Clay, and placed under the art instruction of the
distinguished artist, Thomas Sully.  He remained there for three years,
pursuing at the same time his academic education.  New Orleans, Natchez,
and Louisville were the chosen points where he spent much of his
professional life, meeting with constant and gratifying success.
     His most noted paintings were those of Gen. Zachary Taylor (full
length), Gov. John Adair, Dr. Benjamin W. Dudley, Judge Thomas B. Monroe,
Gen. George Rogers Clark, and Gen. Martin D. Hardin.  That he was not
famous in the old world, and in the art world everywhere, was because he
had not that desire for travel abroad, and for free association with the
noisy and active ones of his profession, which would have given him a
prominence he did not yearn for.  He was content to know that the
emanations of his pencil were admired and prized by those he was proud to
call his friends.  He was never married.
     His brother, Dr. James M. Bush, for many years one of the leading
professors in the Tranylvania Medical School, was still in active practice
in Lexington, in July, 1874.

Jouett Bush Palmer Adair Washington Meade Cass Phillipee Flaget Clay Adair
Sully Taylor Dudley Monroe Clark Hardin
=
SC Germany VA France Maysville-Mason-KY Lexington-Fayette-KY
Lousville-Jefferson-KY Bardstown-Nelson-KY Nashville-Davidson-TN LA MS

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/fayette/bush.jh.txt