printer’s ink

Edward W. Bushyhead House - San Diego, California

When I began dabbling in some family research, making all of the amateur genealogist mistakes, I was surprised to learn that my father’s Cherokee lineage included folks who were in the newspaper business.  Since my father began in the Roy, New Mexico high school printshop and worked for newspapers all of his life, this was interesting news to me.  I worked for New Mexico and Colorado newspapers.  My brother worked  several years for newspapers (New Mexico and Colorado).  My father’s brother – ditto (in New Mexico and Arizona).

But to learn that my paternal line had printer’s ink in their DNA for a hundred years (or so), was a revelation to me.

The snapshot above is of  the Edward Wilkerson Bushyhead house in San Diego.  It  was not open to the public when we visited the San Diego historic district in the early 1980s; this is the only snapshot in my Stack of Forgotten Photographs I’ve been searching (and it is not a very good photo at that).

Edward Wilkerson Bushyhead was a nephew to my direct ancestor Richard Bark Foreman.  Richard Bark’s half-brother Reverend Stephen Foreman worked alongside Elias Boudinot on the Cherokee Phoenix.

Edward “Ned” Wilkerson Bushyhead (1832-1907) – Miner, publisher, and lawman, Bushyhead was born near Cleveland, Tennessee. Part Cherokee Indian, he was the son of a Baptist preacher, who he accompanied from Georgia to Indian Territory on the Trail of Tears at the age of seven. When his father died in 1844, the 12 year-old went to work as a printer with the Cherokee Messenger and later worked in Fort Smith, Arkansas. In 1850, the 18 year-old headed to California where he landed in Placerville seeking his fortune. Having some luck as a miner, he soon allocated his resources and became the publisher of the San Andreas Register in October, 1867. This; however, was short lived, as he then moved to San Deigo, where he became the “silent” publisher of the San Diego Union which was first published on October 10, 1868. In 1873, he sold the newspaper, which continued until 1927, and was resurrected for five years between 1942 and 1947. In 1882, he ran for sheriff of San Diego County and served two terms and in 1899 became the Chief of Police in San Diego, California, a position he held until 1903. Due to health reasons, he moved to Alpine, California in 1907, where he died on March 4, 1907. His body was returned to Oklahoma, where he was buried in the family cemetery at Talequah.

[copied from Legends of America]

printer’s ink in the blood