Bushnell, Edward R. (Edward Rogers), 1876-1951

Edward Bushnell (1865-1944) was born in Fremont, Ohio, to Ebenezer and Cornelia K. Woodruff Bushnell. Bushnell's father, an acquaintance of President Rutherford B. Hayes, was a Presbyterian minister and secretary-treasurer of Western Reserve College in Cleveland, Ohio. Because of Ebenezer Bushnell's work with the college, the family relocated to Cleveland in the 1880s and three of his sons, George, Thomas H. and Edward attended the school.

Edward Bushnell received his B.A. and M.A. from Western Reserve College in 1887 and 1889 respectively. He was admitted to the bar in 1891 and joined the firm of Sampliner and Bushnell in 1896.

After serving with the firm of Cleveland and Bushnell from 1900-1901, Bushnell chose to practice alone until 1918 when he joined the firm of Cook, McGowan, Foote, Bushnell and Lamb. At the time of his death he was still a member of the firm, though its partners were Burgess, Fulton and Fullmer.

Bushnell's legal work was limited mainly to the administration of estates. Among those were the Bradford and Carter, Haydn, Haines and Coit, Cleveland, and J. Jared Tracy estates. The administration of the estates of some of the city's wealthier families was made easier by Bushnell's social credentials. He was married to Maude Kidder Sherwin, and was a member of the Union, University, Country, and Pepper Pike Clubs. Although Bushnell limited his activities mainly to the legal community, serving as president of the Cleveland Bar Association in 1933, he did periodically venture outside of such vocational boundaries. Most important, he served as a member of the Cleveland School Board in 1914-1917, including service as president from 1915-1917. His tenure on the School Board came at the time of the Cleveland Foundation's School Survey (1915) and during the upheavals occasioned by America's entry into World War I.

Other social interests of Bushnell included active participation in alumni affairs of Western Reserve College lifelong membership in the Nisi Prius legal club, and a continued interest in the affairs of his college fraternity, Delta Kappa Epsilon.