If it’s hard getting to know George Andrew Bushman through normal searching, it’s nearly impossible to learn about his wives, Mary Kepner and Anna Wolf, even through deeper research. Both of these women were married for significant times to a prominent and powerful man—a man who was active in local politics, served as a sheriff in his township, and had one of the most prominent farms in the region that was regularly noted in the local papers. His first wife, Mary, bore all four of his children. His second wife did much of the raising of those children, while supporting George through his political positions and his farm work.

Mary Kepner, the second child of Jesse Kepner and Susan Hess, was born in Abbottstown, Adams County, Pennsylvania, in approximately 1810. (Jesse and Susan would have five children in all before Jesse’s untimely death in 1817.) The Kepners were prominent members of Adams County society. Mary’s grandfather, Tobias Kepner, was perhaps the most prominent attorney in the county during his era. He was frequently called upon to handle wills and estates, and his notices to settle estates are all over the Adams County newspapers. Tobias was also a notable and active member of and donor to the local Saint James Lutheran Church. In 1829, just three years before Mary and George would join in matrimony there, the Church burned to the ground. Tobias immediately formed a committee to rebuild the Church, and the committee released an unequivocal statement that the Church was the victim of arson and said arson was not done by the hand of any Saint James member.

Tobias outlived several of his children, including Jesse, Mary’s father. He mentioned Mary and several other grandchildren by name in his will—his lengthy will dispensed lands, possessions, and hundreds of dollars to his wife, his surviving children, and his grandchildren.

The committee must have succeeded in its aims—on August 8, 1832, George and Mary would take their vows in the new building. Over the next seven years, Mary gave birth to all four of the Bushman children: Lewis Adolphus, Henry W., and twins Althedore (boy) and Altheda (girl). With her father dead at a young age, it’s likely that George asked Tobias for his granddaughter’s hand. It’s also likely that he met Mary, who apparently went by Polly because who knows, through activity in Saint James Church. Tobias was clearly a survivor and a hearty man, which makes his death, though at the advanced age of 79, a bit of a surprise. The local press noted this.

A gig was a light, two-wheeled, horse-drawn carriage. Like most wagons and carriages of the time, it had no safety features, and accidents were frequently fatal, as was the accident that ended Tobias’s life in 1836.

Then, in 1839, when Lewis was 6 and Althedore and Altheda were 2, Mary died, leaving George a widower. From the time of Mary’s death to his marriage in 1850 to Anna Wolf, George Bushman appears to have raised his four children alone. Naturally, he had family throughout the county and probably had a lot of support from both Bushmans and Kepners. Even so, it was unusual for a widower of his status to remain unmarried as long as he did. We can only speculate as to why.

At some point, probably through Saint James Lutheran Church, George met Anna Wolf of Berwick Township, Adams County. As it happens, Anna was from the same township as Tobias Kepner. Even less is known about Anna than about Mary. Their marriage was recorded in typical town records as follows:

Genealogists have been unable to say definitively who Anna’s parents were, though the marriage record suggests that her father was Andrew Wolf, and her mother was . . . well, unfortunately, calling her by her husband’s name gets us nowhere. The Census records of 1820, 1830, and 1840 are equally useless in helping us solve the mystery. Andrew Wolf of Berwick and his household are featured on the last full line of this 1830 Census record.

The women and children are all numbers and rendered nameless.

When Anna joined the household, Lewis was 16 and Althedore was 12. Neither Henry nor Altheda show up in that Census with the family nor in any future records, making it likely that both died very young. Anna, who apparently became known as Anne to the locals, raised the other two children to adulthood.

Besides Census records, our next notice of Anne is in a very curious mention in the local newspaper about a year before George’s death.

More than likely, Anne had a stroke, but that stroke did not take her at the time. She lived another 8 years, lasting 7 more years than her husband, before passing in 1900.