By By LYDIA GRIMES Feature Reporter
You all know how hard we worked on the Heritage of Escambia County, Alabama book and it always helps to know the series of books are causing good things to happen. I recently heard from Paul Keane who works with the publishing company and I thought I would tell you about it.
'If we had not had the book, I don't think we would have been chosen. The first two buildings that will be restored are the old Brownfield State Bank and Collins Department Store. We are told from the last renters that the old State Bank building is haunted! In the 1920s, a banker killed his brother and then turned the gun on himself in that building.'
For those of you who are interested, there are a few copies of the Escambia County Heritage book. I have all the copies here at the office and they are on sale through Jan. 15, for $40.20. With shipping and handling, they are $48.20. When these are gone there may be a long wait for a reprint, so don't wait too long.
I am going to start to tell you about another family that has ties in the area. When we were gathering the material for the book, a story was sent in about the Bush family. As I have Bush ancestors, I thought I would see if there is any connection between the lines.
Some years ago I learned that there were two books in the South Caroliniana Library on the campus of the University of South Carolina that covered the Bush families. Not knowing which one was mine, I called the library and asked them some questions. The lady I was talking to could not help much but she did agree to copy both books as they were small. She sent them to me and sure enough, one of them contained my family. The other is connected to the Bryan family of North Carolina and I had thought that might be the one I was looking for. Anyway, the two books cover a good many Bush lines and there are probably descendants of both in this area.
I will relate a funny story about the Bush research. I have recently seen a story in one of the heritage books that did not go far enough to find this out.
My ancestor was named Prescott Bush. As President George H. Bush's father was named Prescott, I thought maybe they might be connected. I wrote to President Bush and after some time forgot about it. Then one day, I found a note in my mailbox to come to the post office to pick up a package. When I arrived at the post office, it was very crowded. I figured I would have a long wait, but someone behind the desk recognized me and called out that I had a package from the White House. Of course I got some looks from the crowd.
Unlike the person that wrote the story in the book, I took the time to find out that President George Bush was not related. His father was named Prescott for the same reason as mine, their mothers were Prescotts.