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HON. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN RUSH.
The name of the Hon. Benjamin Franklin Rush needs no introduction to the readers of this work, for to an unusual
degree he has figured for years in the growth and development of this section of our favored commonwealth, contributing
in many ways to the advancement of its normal and legitimate growth. Equally noted as a citizen whose useful career
has conferred credit upon the community and whose marked abilities and sterling qualities have won for him much
more than local repute, he holds distinctive prestige as one of the most progressive and successful men who have
here inaugurated and carried forward large and important undertakings. Although modest and unassuming and always
easily approached, he possesses a strong and vigorous personality and in the best sense of the term is a leader
of men and well fitted to manage important enterprises. Measured by its accomplishment, its beneficence and its
helpful optimism, the life of Mr. Rush has had wide and emphatic significance.
Benjamin Franklin Rush was born in Sacramento county, California, on the 12th day of October, 1852, and is the
son of Hiram and Sarah (Inwood) Rush. The Rush family was originally from the state of Pennsylvania, whence Mr.
Rush's paternal grandparents moved to the state of Ohio. Later they settled in South Bend, Indiana, where their
son Hiram secured his education, after which he was employed as a clerk. Hiram Rush had within him those qualities
of which men of action and definite accomplishment are made, for, not satisfied with the local outlook for individual
advancement and with a farsighted vision of the possibilities lying in the far west, he, in 1849, purchased a small
herd of cattle and started across the weary expanse of plains and mountains lying between him and the Golden West,
his objective. He must have been a man of character and force, for he was chosen captain of the train with which
he traveled and the long journey was accomplished successfully under his direction. On reaching the Sacramento
valley he and his family were so well pleased with the country that they decided to go no farther and stopped there,
the rest of the company going on to other locations. The cattle which they had brought with them were turned out
into the magnificent grass and Mr. Rush at once engaged in the hotel business, establishing what was known as the
Fourteen Mile house, which at once demonstrated the wisdom of the venture, for it became a popular and well patronized
stopping place for the weary travelers on their way into the state. Eventually, Mr. Rush found it necessary to
give his attention to his rapidly increasing herd of cattle and Mrs. Rush took over the operation of the hotel,
in which she succeeded most admirably. They were eminently successful in both their lines of effort, but in 1852,
owing to unsatisfactory climatic conditions, they decided to seek a more healthful location, and accordingly they
came to Solano county, locating in the Protrero hills, in the southwestern part of the county, where also they
found fine range for the cattle. In the following year they moved their home to Suisun, which was the family home
for many years.
Hiram Rush was a man of keen business sagacity and quick action and his operations during these early years were
crowned with splendid success, so that in a few years he became recognized as one of the wealthiest and most influential
men in Solano county. His cattle increased in number to about three thousand head, in addition to which he had
several hundred head of horses, and his land holdings amounted to fifty one thousand acres, a portion of which
tract was located in Monterey county, besides an interest which he held in the Luco grant in Suisun. In 1865, in
order to give the children better educational advantages, the family residence was established in San Francisco,
where a comfortable home was purchased. Mr. Rush's untimely death occurred on October 4, 1869, at the age of sixty
years, when he fell from a vehicle while crossing a stream, and his passing was considered a distinct loss to the
entire community, for, aside from his important business connections, he held to a very marked degree the respect
and admiration of the people generally, being a man of fine personal qualities and likable character. He was twice
married, first to a Miss Inwood, by whom he had two daughters, Eleanor and Sarah. After her death he married her
sister, Sarah Inwood, and to them were born three children, namely: Benjamin Franklin, the immediate subject of
this sketch; Mary, who became the wife of W. K. Fletcher of San Francisco, and Kate, also of San Francisco. Hiram
Rush was for many years an appreciative member of the Masonic order, the beneficent principles of which he exemplified
in his own life.
Benjamin F. Rush was a baby of but two years when the family came to Solano county and was thirteen years of age
when they established their home in San Francisco. In the schools of the latter city he secured his elemental education,
attending also the public schools of Oakland. He then attended the Oakland Military Academy and rounded his educational
training by taking a course in Heald's Business College in San Francisco. His first employment was as a bookkeeper
for the firm of Titcomb & Williams, with which house he remained about five years, at the end of which time
he resigned in order to take charge of his father's estate, to which he thereafter devoted his entire time and
attention. During the subsequent years he has carried on and extended the operations for which his father had established
so fine a foundation and he too has been eminently successful in all his operations. He has taken a great interest
in the raising of stock - cattle, sheep and horses - and enjoys a well earned reputation as one of the leading
stock raisers of the state of California. He has carried on his work in a systematic and scientific manner, ever
maintaining high standards and striving for continual improvement. His efforts and accomplishments have been widely
recognized and appreciated and he has been honored by appointment to positions of great responsibility in connection
with the agricultural interests of the state. At one time Mr. Rush ran as many as five thousand cattle, all high
grade stock, and many sheep. He has been keenly interested also in the breeding and raising of harness horses,
in which line he has attracted considerable attention, having sold a number of speedy trotters, among which were
"Mamie R.," which sold for six thousand dollars; "Ben F.," 2:07 1/2; "Solano Boy,"
2:07 1/4; "Benervo," 2:06 3/4; "Ben Rush," 2:10 1/2; "Nemonio," 2:09 3/4; and "Miss
Winn," 2:10 1/2; the dam of "Mono Wilkes," 2:07 1/4; "Aerolite," 2:05 1/2 at three years
old, that was sold for eight thousand dollars, and a number of other good horses.
Mr. Rush has through the years of his active identification with business affairs contributed in many ways to the
prosperity and success of Solano county and its institutions. For a while he was interested in the management of
the Solano County Republican, one of the county's leading newspapers, and has long been a director in the Solano
County Bank, besides having other financial interests, and has long been identified in an official and public way
with the affairs of the county and state. He first held public office when, in 1882, he was appointed a trustee
of the Crystal school district, in Suisun township, a position which he still holds. In 1894 he was elected sheriff
of Solano county, serving in that office with honor until 1899. In 1906 he was elected to the state senate, where
he performed able and distinguished service and to which body he has been returned by successive reelections to
the present time, now being the senior senator in point of years of service. In the senate he has been time and
again honored by appointment to many of the most important regular and special committees, in all of which he has
distinguished himself by services of the highest order. He was a member of the special committee for selecting
a location for the state agricultural farm, securing a tract of nearly eight hundred acres at Davisville for the
agricultural department of the State University. He has served many times as chairman of the senate committee on
agriculture; as chairman of the committee on hospitals and asylums; was active in securing the necessary appropriation
for the state hospital at Napa and the Veterans' Home at Yountville; was a member of the committees on finance,
agriculture and dairying, drainage, swamp and overflow lands, mining and oil industries, fruit and vine interests,
and roads and highways.
Mr. Rush was the first president of the Solano County Agricultural Society and for many years has been a member
of the State Agricultural Society, which he served six years as president, during which period he was ex officio
regent of the state university. It is noteworthy that during this six year period the California State Fair first
became a stable institution, largely due to the indomitable efforts and business like methods of Mr. Rush, who
devoted himself heart and soul to the end that the fair should really be what it purported to be, an exhibit of
the state's products and industries, and its popularity as a fair dates from the realization of this idea. His
standing as one of the most progressive and advanced, as well as one of the most successful, stockmen and farmers
in the state gave him a well deserved prestige and his influence has always been exerted for the benefit of the
state at large. In addition to his extensive stock interests, Mr. Rush also raises great quantities of grain and
to facilitate the shipping of both grain and stock he constructed two boat landings, Rush's landing on the Suisun
slough and another on Montezuma slough, both of which have been of great benefit to the public. Mr. Rush has for
many years been actively interested in the Masonic order, in which he has taken the work of both the York and Scottish
rites, a Knight Templar in the former and attaining the thirty second degree in the latter. He is also a member
of Islam Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in San Francisco, and of the Knights of Pythias.
In 1876 Mr. Rush married Miss Anna McKean, who was born and reared in Astoria, Oregon, and to them were born the
following children: Richard I., who was graduated at Leland Stanford University with a degree in electrical engineering
and is now a ranch owner and stock dealer at Suisun; Frederick W., who also was graduated (civil engineer) at Leland
Stanford and is now cashier of the Kern County Land Company at Bakersfield, California; Eleanor, who is at home;
Mrs. Mary Gurnett of Fairfield, Solano county; Benjamin, who is connected with the Kern County Land Company at
Bakersfield, and Hiram and Annabelle, both at home. Mr. Rush is in the fullest sense of the term a progressive,
virile, aggressive man, thoroughly in harmony with the spirit of the advanced age in which he lives, and it is
not too much to say that his career has been one of honor and genuine worth, as well as of material success. He
has contributed freely to the maintenance of such institutions as make for the general good and many less fortunate
than he have been the recipients of his generosity. Both the community and the state have been dignified by his
noble life and splendid achievements and he has long stood as an honored member of a striking group of noted men
whose influence in the civic and economic life of the state has been of the most beneficent character. He has been
a close personal friend of Senator Hiram Johnson, with whom he has many ideas in common. A man of vigorous mentality,
strong moral fibre and a genial and friendly personality, he has a wide acquaintance throughout the state and many
warm and loyal friends. A notable instance of the esteem in which Mr. Rush is held was the banquet tendered to
him and to Frank L. Combs of Napa by their friends at Sacramento in 1925, when each was presented with a valuable
gold watch, suitably engraved, as a token of merit for services well performed.
From:
History of Solano County, California
BY: Marguerite Hune
and
Napa County, California
BY: Harry Lawrence Gunn
The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Chicago 1926
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