On the first Friday of each year Freed-Hardeman University, in Henderson, TN (my alma mater) hosts its Advisory Board Benefit Dinner, the largest fund r
aising effort of the year. In previous years featured speakers included actor and comedian Tim Conway, former Governor of Arkansas and Fox News host Mike Huckabee, Regis Philbin, Walter Cronkite, and former President and First Lady George H. W. and Barbara Pierce Bush (in separate years). This year's guest speaker is their son, former President George W. Bush.Bush served for two terms as the 43rd President of the United States. Before that he served as the 46th Governor of Texas, and the first to hold that position to consecutive 4-year terms. As president, according to the White House website, the "most significant event" of his presidency ...
"came on September 11, 2001, when terrorists killed nearly 3,000 people on American soil. President Bush responded with a comprehensive strategy to protect the American people. He led the most dramatic reorganization of the federal government since the beginning of the Cold War, reforming the intelligence community and establishing new institutions like the Department of Homeland Security. He built global coalitions to remove violent regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq that threatened America; liberating more than 50 million people from tyranny. He recognized that freedom and hope are the best alternative to the extremist ideology of the terrorists, so he provided unprecedented American support for young democracies and dissidents in the Middle East and beyond. In the more than seven years after September 11, 2001, the United States was not attacked again."
His father, George H. W. Bush, was a hero of WW II (awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery in action) and served in various elected and appointed positions including "a Representative to Congress from Texas ... Ambassador to the United Nations, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Chief of the U. S. Liaison Office in the People's Republic of China, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency" prior to serving two terms as Ronald Reagan's Vice President, and one term as the 41st President of the United States.
Other prominent members of the Bush family include former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (George W. Bush's younger brother) and Prescott Bush (George H. W. Bush's father), who served as United States Senator from Connecticut from 1952-1963.
So what is the connection between our family and the Bush family? As the following chart illustrates, each family can trace their ancestry backwards to a single couple, Henry and Agnes Butler Sherman. This would make Sen. Prescott Sheldon Bush and our grandfather, Orval Bishop Bragg, 12th cousins; Pres. George Herbert Walker Bush and our father, Don C. Bragg, 13th cousins; and Pres. George Walker Bush and our generation of the Bragg family 14th cousins.
"came on September 11, 2001, when terrorists killed nearly 3,000 people on American soil. President Bush responded with a comprehensive strategy to protect the American people. He led the most dramatic reorganization of the federal government since the beginning of the Cold War, reforming the intelligence community and establishing new institutions like the Department of Homeland Security. He built global coalitions to remove violent regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq that threatened America; liberating more than 50 million people from tyranny. He recognized that freedom and hope are the best alternative to the extremist ideology of the terrorists, so he provided unprecedented American support for young democracies and dissidents in the Middle East and beyond. In the more than seven years after September 11, 2001, the United States was not attacked again."
His father, George H. W. Bush, was a hero of WW II (awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery in action) and served in various elected and appointed positions including "a Representative to Congress from Texas ... Ambassador to the United Nations, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Chief of the U. S. Liaison Office in the People's Republic of China, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency" prior to serving two terms as Ronald Reagan's Vice President, and one term as the 41st President of the United States.
Other prominent members of the Bush family include former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (George W. Bush's younger brother) and Prescott Bush (George H. W. Bush's father), who served as United States Senator from Connecticut from 1952-1963.
So what is the connection between our family and the Bush family? As the following chart illustrates, each family can trace their ancestry backwards to a single couple, Henry and Agnes Butler Sherman. This would make Sen. Prescott Sheldon Bush and our grandfather, Orval Bishop Bragg, 12th cousins; Pres. George Herbert Walker Bush and our father, Don C. Bragg, 13th cousins; and Pres. George Walker Bush and our generation of the Bragg family 14th cousins.
| Henry Sherman & Agnes Butler | |
| Henry Sherman b.1546 | Edmund Sherman b.1548 |
| Samuel Sherman b.1571 | Edmund Sherman b.1572 |
| Philip Sherman b.1610 | Esther Sherman b.1606 |
| John Sherman b.1644 | Esther Ward b.1623 |
| Hannah Sherman | Daniel Burr b.1660 |
| William Bourn Jr. | Elizabeth Burr b.1696 |
| Hannah Bourn | Nathaniel Hull b.1726 |
| Anne Fitch | Ezekiel Hull b.1765 |
| Levi Pierce b.1797 | Platt Hull b.1787 |
| Elizabeth Slade Pierce b.1822 | Ezekiel Hull b.1813 |
| Mary Elizabeth Butler b.1850 | Rebecca L. Hull b.1841 |
| Flora Sheldon b.1872 | Frank Martin Bragg b.1867 |
| Sen. Prescott Sheldon Bush b.1895 | Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895 |
| Pres. George Herbert Walker Bush b.1924 | Don Cicero Bragg b.1920 |
| Pres. George Walker Bush b.1946 | |
* Picture from The Jackson Sun (Jackson, TN), 12-04-2010