According to his obituary, Michael Bushee was born in June of 1853 in Zurich, Ontario, Canada. Zurich is a small village located near the shores of Lake Huron, just east of St. Joseph, about 100 miles N-NW of Detroit, Michigan.

I should mention here that an attempt to locate his birth family in the 1871 Ontario Census failed. I checked all the families with the spellings Bushe, Boushee, Boushey and Bouchee. There were none of these family names in Zurich or any of the surrounding townships. There was also no one named Michael or Maxine, a name Michael sometimes used, with one of those last names living any where in Ontario. So the only information I have on his birthplace is what is stated in his obituary. Zurich is also listed as the birth place of his son Joseph on Joseph's death certificate. So I have to believe it is correct but cannot state for certain that it is.

Michael grew up in Zurich where he met and married Josephine Laporte on October 4, 1875. At the time of their marriage Michael was 22 and his wife was 15. They settled there and began raising a family that would eventually grow to seven children.

The first of these children was Clarice who was born in 1879 in Canada. Her birth was followed in February of 1880 by the birth of the couples first son, Joseph. Late in 1880 or early in 1881 Michael and Josephine left Canada and moved, with their two young children, to Huntsville Township in Polk County, Minnesota. Huntsville lies just to the southeast of East Grand Forks in NW Minnesota just across the Red River from Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Michael was joined in East Grand Forks by his younger sister Mary who married John Sheratte and farmed in Huntsville. By my count (in 1905) they had five children. Mary (b: 1863)was approximately ten years younger than Michael. According to his obituary he also had a brother and sister living in the Detroit, Michigan area.

Michael seemingly lived a double life, or should I say went by two names. Land records, and immigration records and some Census records list his name as Maxine Boushey. I know it is the same one because the death dates match. Cemetery records list him as Maxine and his obit says Michael. Also, The same names and ages are given for Michael's children and wife on Census records no matter what his name is listed as. So they were one in the same.

In the 1895 Minnesota State Census there was also a Mary Bushee living down the street from Michael in Huntsville township. She was 58 years old at the time. This made her 16 years older than Michael. I was unable establish a relationship between the two of them but am sure there was one. Incidentally the 1910 Census indicates that an Alex Boushey was living on a farm between Maxine Boushey's farm and his son Edward's. Again I have been unable to establish a relationship between Alex and Maxine (Michael) but I have to believe there was one. Alex was 10 years younger than Michael.

Upon their arrival in the US Michael homesteaded on a piece of property in Huntsville Township. He soon began buying up surrounding lands in southern Huntsville and was running several farms before too long. He continued to expand his operation until his holdings exceeded five hundred acres in Southern Huntsville. There are also indications that he owned land in Bygland Township as well. Bygland lies to the south of Huntsville. While I was unable to locate any land records pertaining to Michael' purchase of the land in Bygland he did sell some land located there to his son Joseph in 1903. Meanwhile Michael and Josephine continued to build their family. Their 3rd child, and second son, Edward was born in September of1886.

By the end of the century the family had grown to seven children: Clarice (Clara), (b:1879); Joseph(1880); Edward(1886); Paul(1889); Mary (1891); Ida May (1895); and Bonnilla (Pearl), (1898). Pearl was listed as Bonnilla in the 1900 Census but all other references to her I have found list her as Pearl.

According to the 1900 US Census, Josephine had given birth to eight children, seven of whom were still living. The span between the births of Joseph and Edward (6.5 years) leads me to believe that the deceased child was born during this span. There was also a span of five years between the marriage of Michael and Josephine and the birth of their first child.

I have no other indication of an eighth child. There is no indication of another child in the 1885, or 1895 State census. Since the entire 1890 US Census was destroyed in a fire in the 1920's and there are no other Census sources to search. According to records I have obtained there is no indication that a Bushee child was buried in the family cemetery in Grand Forks.

Other possible sources are birth records from the time (but you need an exact year of birth for those), and Baptism records. These records, which I have obtained from St. Michael's Church in Grand Forks, do not show another child either. St. Michael's was the only church in the area at the time.

In fact St. Michael's had no records of the Bushees at all. Maybe there was another church in the area but this would run contrary to the local histories I have read. Sacred Heart Church in EGF did not open until 1893 and their records do not start until 1907. So I have reached a dead end here.

Naturalization records obtained from the State Historical Society of North Dakota show that a Maxine Boushey filed for citizenship in Grand Forks County on November 19, 1881.This was approximately one year after his arrival in the country. Before 1920 only adult males over the age of 21 needed to apply. Females and minor children were automatically granted citizenship with the adult male.

Michael continued to run a large farming operation in Huntsville until 1913. It was then, at the age of 60, that he retired and moved to East Grand Forks with his family. There they bought a house at 124 South 6th Street. He and Josephine continued to live there until her death on Saturday, June 1, 1928 at the age of 68. Michael died four years later on Monday, October 17, 1932 at the age of 79.

Meanwhile the children grew into adulthood and began to build families of their own. The oldest child, Clarice married John Cariveau and they farmed in rural Polk County.

Edward married a Matilda (maiden name unknown) in 1914 and ran a farm near the original family homestead in Huntsville. Edward went by the name Boushey in adulthood. According to the 1920 US Census Edward had two children, Leonard and Ralph. Leonard was born in 1916 and Ralph a year later.

Paul, too became a farmer. In 1913 he married the former Leonida Burton and began farming in the Minnesota Point area outside EGF. They raised eight children and continued to farm the land until his death in June of 1949, one month before his 60th birthday. His wife survived for another 24 years before dying in 1973 at the age of 81.

Mary, the second oldest daughter, Married G.E. Aakhus and moved to Plentywood just across the North Dakota border in NE Montana. She lived there until her death in November 1974, at the age of 83.

Ida married a McFarland (1st name unknown) and had a child Michael born in June 1916. Her husband must have died between 1916 and 1920. In 1920 Ida was listed as a widow, Ida McFarland, and she and her son Michael McFarland were living with Michael and Josephine. This is the only record I have on this marriage. In the 1910 Census Ida was not yet married. Ida later married P.J. Emard and settled in Red Lake Falls, Minnesota.

Pearl, the youngest child, was also living with her parents in 1920. She later married EJ Lussier and settled in EGF where she was a hairdresser. On Joseph's obit and also Paul's, she is listed as Mrs. Val Anderson so I assume she was widowed and remarried.

My great-grandfather, Joseph Bushee, married Josephine Genereau on November 13, 1903 at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in East Grand Forks. A month before his marriage Joseph bought a parcel of land from Maxine and Josephine Boushey in Bygland Township. The land was located along the banks of the Red River of the North just south of the Bygland - Huntsville border. He and Josephine moved there after their marriage.

Wedding Photo - Joseph Bushee & Josephine Genereau - Nov. 1900

Josephine Genereau was born on December 21, 1879 in Meade Township, Huron County, Michigan. She was the 3rd oldest of six children born to Paul Genereau Jr. and Celina Lepisier who married in Meade Township in 1874. If you think of Lower Michigan as a mitten, Huron County is located at the tip of the thumb. Port Arthur lies on the tip and Meade Township just to the south of there. Ironically, it is just across Lake Huron from Zurich, Ontario, the birthplace of Joseph Bushee.

Paul Genereau Sr. was born in Canada about 1819. I first located him living in Meade Township, Huron County, Michigan in the 1880 Census. He and his wife Sarah had six children born between 1848 and 1875. Incidentally, the cemetery records I received from Grand Forks indicate that a S. Genereau was buried in Calvary Cemetery in 1916 at the age of 86. This would match the birthdate of Paul's mother Sarah. This is the only indication I have however that she joined her son there. Perhaps when she died her body was brought there for burial. The possibility exists, however small, that it is not even she. Census Records show no Sarah Genereau living in Polk County in 1910.

The first child of Paul and Sarah was Paul Genereau Jr., the father of Josephine Genereau. Paul Jr. was born in Canada in May of 1848. Little is known (at least by me) of the family's Canadian roots only that they entered the country in 1866. They were the first of any of the families in this history to come to America.

According to the 1870 US Census Paul Genereau Sr. ran a farm in Meade Township. His oldest son, Paul Jr., was 22 years old and living with his parents. At the time he was working at a local sawmill. The younger children were all either in school or helping on the farm. Meanwhile his future wife, Celina Lepisier, was living with her parents on another farm in Meade Township. She, like her future husband, was born in Canada in May of 1848.

Eventually the siblings of Paul Genereau Jr. settled throughout the country. Andrew in Wisconsin and Henry and Zilma in the Seattle, WA area. His brother James went to Minnesota. First to Huntsville Township and later moving on to Hibbing, MN. His sister Mary joined Paul in EGF where she married Leon Morisette circa 1904. They had five children born between 1905 and 1916.

I have not followed the Lepisiers past 1880 when they were all still in Meade Township. In the 1870 US Census Celina was listed as the 3rd oldest of five children. She had two older brothers(Alexander Jr. and Peter) and two younger sisters (Josephine and Minnie). Most likely this is where Celina got the names for her two daughters.

In 1874, after his marriage to Celina, Paul moved onto a farm located next to the one being run by his father in Meade Township. While they were living here the first three children (John, Minnie, and Josephine) were born. In 1882 Paul moved the family to Huntsville Township, Polk County, Minnesota where he homesteaded on a farm in southeastern Huntsville, in the area known as Minnesota Point. This property lied just east of the Michael Bushee farm.

While they were the first of the families in this history to arrive in America they were the last to arrive in Polk County, Minnesota. Paul continued to live on the farm for the remainder of his life. Celina died in East Grand Forks on the 28th of November 1917. She was 69 years old. Paul followed her in death in Dec. of 1926. He was 78.

With the exception of John, who moved to the Milwaukee, WI area late in life, all of the Children of Paul and Celina remained in EGF for the remainder of their lives.

John, The oldest child, married a Sarah (maiden name unknown) in the late 1890's and bought a farm in Huntsville Township. This farm was located one farm up from that of Michael Bushee. I do not know exactly when John and Sarah married but they were not married in 1895 and their first child was born in 1900. He remained there until the early 1960's when, too ill to care for himself, he moved to Milwaukee to join his children. He died there in May of 1966 at the age of 90. John and Sarah had four children (three girls and one boy). The oldest of these, John Jr. died in Milwaukee in 1987 at the age of 87.

George, the second oldest son and the first of the children born in Minnesota (B.1882), drowned in the Red River while in his early twenties. According to his nephew Linus he was rolling some logs down the River when he slipped and fell. An exact date of death is not known at this time. He never married.

Minnie, the oldest daughter, married Jerry Driscoll in 1897 and settled in rural EGF. They had three sons. Linus, George and James. Minnie died on June 25, 1949 in a Grand Forks hospital. Two days after his sister-in-law Minnie died, Joseph Bushee suffered the loss of his brother Paul.

William Genereau, the 5th child of Paul and Celina, married the former Gertrude Cariveau in 1907. They had ten children, five girls and five boys. They ran a farm in Rinehart Township, south of East Grand Forks. William died in 1957 at the age of 73. His wife followed him in death eight years later. William was survived by eight of his ten children Their son Lawrence was killed in action in WWII. Another son, Duane, died in 1951.

Two of William's daughters, Myrtle and LaVerne, married brothers Rene and Robert Greenwood and settled in EGF. Their son Leonard married the former Florence Jeffery, also of rural Polk County, and moved to Milwaukee. He still lives there. Their son Arthur married and moved to Detroit where he died a few years ago. His widow still lives in Detroit. Arthur went by the name Genereaux in adulthood. Linus married the former Margaret Porteous in San Diego while he was in the military. They still live in Grand Forks.

Joseph, The youngest child of Paul and Celina, lived his entire life in the EGF area where he did farm work. Joseph died in a Crookston Hospital in 1954 at the age of 67. He never married.

Joseph and Josephine Bushee moved onto the farm in Bygland Township after their marriage and began raising a family that would eventually grow to 10 children. All of the children eventually married and settled in Polk County.

The first of these children was born in 1901 and the last was born in 1916. All of them grew up on the farm in Bygland Township where Joseph moved after his marriage.

In October of 1936 Josephine died of a heart attack at the farm in Bygland Township. She collapsed while sitting around the table talking with my grandparents. My mother and her little sister Barbara were also present. Josephine was holding Barbara at the time it happened. When she took ill, she handed Barbara to my grandmother. My grandfather and Joseph then helped her into the bedroom where she died. This is as my mother recalls it.

Joseph Bushee continued to farm the land in Bygland Township. He survived until New Years Eve 1961, when a gastrointestinal hemorrhage took him at the age of 81. At the time of his death he was living with his daughter, Blanche in EGF. Three of his children (Lillian, Vincent and Agnes) precede him in death. Today, none of the children survive.

Combined their ten children gave Joseph and Josephine 54 grandchildren. The oldest of the children, Violet, married Leo Cariveau and gave birth to 15 children. Four others (Jim, Pat, Blanche and Lillian) had eight children each, Bud had five while John and Agnes had one each.

Blanche Josephine Bushee, the second oldest child, married Conrad Lysne in 1926. They had eight children born between 1926 and 1947. Conrad Lysne died in November of 1981 shortly before his 78th birthday. Blanche, despite being the second oldest, was the last of the Bushee siblings to die. She died in 1992 at the age of 88.

Lillian Marie Bushee married Gordon Bridgeford in 1921. They had eight children born between 1921 and 1936. Lillian died suddenly on her 51st birthday her husband died in 1993 at the age of 91.

The oldest son, James Bushee married the former Agnes Cariveau and settled in East Grand Forks. As mentioned above they had eight children( three boys and five girls). James and Agnes later moved to Wahpeton in southeastern North Dakota. James died there in April of 1969, 62 years and six months, to the day, after he was born. After spending a period out west living with her daughters, his widow returned to EGF where she still lives today.

Agnes Bushee, the 3rd daughter of Joseph and Josephine, married Marvin "Red" Fladland and they had one child Beverly. Agnes died in childbirth in 1934 at the age of 23.

illiam A. "Bill" Bushee, the second oldest son, married Helen Enright, the daughter of Michael and Annie Enright, in 1941. Bill served in the Army during WWII and participated in the D-Day invasion of Normandy. He made a living as a carpenter in the EGF area where he died in 1984. His wife died in 1989. They are buried in Resurrection Cemetery in EGF. William and Helen Bushee had no children.

John Paul Bushee, the 3rd oldest son of Joseph and Josephine Bushee, began a potato business, the John P. Bushee Potato Company, in 1934. This business eventually grew to several thousand acres and was a major employer in Polk County for several decades. He was a leader in both the civic and business communities of Polk County for nearly 50 years. He married Monica Laboda in 1933 and was left a widower when she died in 1963. They had one child, Monica Jo. John married Ann Marie Glimsdahl in 1968. They were married for 11 « years when John died at his East Grand Forks home in 1990 just 12 days before his 81st birthday. His widow still lives in East Grand Forks.

My grandfather, Patrick George Bushee, married Mary Enright, Helen's younger sister, in Oct. of 1934. Pat spent his adult life working for his brothers John and Bud in the potato business. Except for a few years in the mid 1970s when he moved to Southern Wisconsin to be near his children, Pat spent his entire life in East Grand Forks. He died in a Grand Forks Hospital in August of 1980. In 1964 his wife Mary, having previously separated from her husband, moved to Madison, Wisconsin. There she joined her oldest daughter Mary Lou who had moved there in 1961 with her husband Alan Voiss. Mary died there from a stroke in November of 1983. She and Pat never finalized their divorce.

Clarence J. "Bud" Bushee, the youngest surviving child (only Vincent was younger), married Ava Marie Townsen on Sep.16, 1940 in Ellendale, ND. Bud spent most of his life running a potato farming business. He also did some carpentry work. Bud died in 1988 having outlived his wife, who died in 1963, by some 25 years. They had five children born between 1942 and 1953.

Vincent Paul Bushee, the youngest child of Joseph and Josephine, died in April of 1918 at the age of 18 months. He fell and hit his head while being pulled in a wagon by a sibling at the Bygland Farm.

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