We are celebrating the 186th birthday of Asahel Bush II this weekend, with an Open House on Saturday from 1:00 to 4:00 pm at the Bush House Museum. There will be birthday cake, balloons for the kids, and stories about Mr. Bush. Please join us!
Asahel Bush II was born in Westfield, Massachusetts on June 4, 1826. In 1850, at the age of 26, he left Westfield for Oregon. He settled in Salem in 1853 and lived here for the next 60 years. He passed away in Salem on December 23, 1913.
When Mr. Bush was about to leave Westfield to come to Oregon he published the following poem as a farewell to his boyhood home and friends:
We do not know how much we love,
Until we come to leave;
An aged tree, a common flower
Are things o'er which we grieve;
There is a pleasure in the pain
That brings us back the past again.
We linger while we turn away,
We cling while we depart;
And memories, unmarked till then,
Come crowding round the heart.
Let what will lure our onward way,
Farewell's a bitter word to say.
Until we come to leave;
An aged tree, a common flower
Are things o'er which we grieve;
There is a pleasure in the pain
That brings us back the past again.
We linger while we turn away,
We cling while we depart;
And memories, unmarked till then,
Come crowding round the heart.
Let what will lure our onward way,
Farewell's a bitter word to say.
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