Ohio Governor, Business Executive. Born in Rome, New York, he moved to Ohio with his parents in 1846 and settled near Cincinnati. He moved to Springfield, Ohio in 1852 and found employment at a dry goods store. During the Civil War, he helped to organize a company of volunteers for one hundred days service. The company elected Bushnell as its Captain and was assigned as Company E with the 152nd Ohio National Guard Infantry. They were sent to West Virginia and Maryland for picket and garrison duties. After the war, he returned to Springfield and became a partner in a business that manufactured agricultural equipment, the Warder, Bushnell, and Glessner Company. He was also a bank president and an executive member of the Springfield Gas Company. He supported the Republican Party and became a Presidential Elector for Ohio in 1884. He was appointed as Chairman of the Republican State Executive Committee in 1885. In 1896, he was nominated by  Joseph B. Foraker and  George Cox to run for governor. Elected as Ohio’s 40th Governor, he served from 1896 to 1900. As Governor, laws were passed to improve working conditions for women and to limit child labor in factories and mines. Reelected in 1898, he quickly mobilized Ohio troops when a call for volunteers at the start of the Spanish-American War was issued. He was not a candidate for reelection in 1900 and returned to his equipment company in Springfield. Bushnell later sold his interest in the company to a corporate merger that became the International Harvester Company. He died in Springfield in 1904 when he was 69 years old. (bio by: K Guy)  Family links:  Spouse:  Ellen Ludlow Bushnell (1836 – ____)*  Children:  Fanny Bushnell McGrew (1858 – 1932)*  Harriet Bushnell Dimond (1860 – 1947)* *Calculated relationship