“A Bad Man”: The Killing of Henry Bushman

German immigrant Henry Bushman led a troubled and short life, marred by frequent run-ins with the law and fueled by alcohol, which eventually led to a fatal encounter with his nephew in Uhrichsville, Ohio.

When someone lived as short a life as German immigrant Henry Bushman (1852-1883) did in the 19th century, it is often difficult to track down many details of their life. Luckily, Bushman was no stranger to the newspapers of his day, so we are able to piece together some of his life in the United States. Henry was born in Baden, Germany in 1852 and, prior to 1870, immigrated to the United States. By the time he was recorded on the 1870 census for Wheeling, West Virginia, he worked in a bakery and resided in the baker’s home.

That Henry was not alone when he immigrated was indicated by later newspaper references to his half-sister Rachel Frederika Sweigert (1842-?) who married a fellow German immigrant and baker named Philip Fuhr (1832-1906) in Maryland around 1858. Henry made his way to Wheeling, West Virginia where he managed to get into plenty of trouble with local law enforcement on both sides of the Ohio River throughout the 1870s and early 1880s. Usually his illegal behavior was the result of too much alcohol, which made Henry violent.

While Henry Bushman was getting drunk and incarcerated in Wheeling, West Virginia his half-sister Rachel and her husband Philip Fuhr were running a successful bakery in Uhrichsville, Ohio. Whenever Henry ran out of drinking money, he would travel the Tuscarawas Road from Wheeling to Uhrichsville and demand money from his half-sister, often under threat of violence. During one such visit he became so violent that the family fled their own home in order to avoid harm.

Henry made another trip to Uhrichsville in the fall of 1883, after being released from a thirty day jail sentence, to empty the Fuhr’s money-till yet again. This time, however, the Fuhr’s eldest son was determined to turn him away. George J. Fuhr (1862-1910) worked in his father’s bakery and, when a drunken Henry arrived and attempted to break into the family home, George ordered him to go away and not come back. George’s resistance infuriated Henry Bushman and he soon determined to find another way into the home.

Henry made his way down a nearby alley and entered the home through its attached buggy shed. George, now having armed himself with a revolver, warned Henry that if he came any further that he would shoot him. Henry continued towards George, menacingly, uttering threats. George Fuhr fired one shot that pierced Henry’s chest, hitting his heart before exiting out of his back. The shot killed Henry instantly and he fell to the floor. George turned himself in immediately after and was released on an $800 bond.

There was great public sympathy for the Fuhr family, and George Fuhr particularly. When the grand jury met a month later, in November 1883, they refused to indict George Fuhr in any way for the killing of Henry Bushman. George Fuhr would go on to marry, open his own bakery in nearby Dennison, Ohio and, coincidently, would accidently shoot himself twenty-seven years later. George Fuhr died from the wound in November 1910 and was buried in Union Cemetery in Uhrichsville, Ohio.

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© Noel B. Poirier, 2024.