- published: 01 Jun 2015
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Bush Brothers and Company is a family-owned corporation based in Knoxville, Tennessee, best known for its baked beans and more than forty other related products. It operates plants in Augusta, Wisconsin, and Chestnut Hill, Tennessee.
The company was founded in 1908 by A.J. (Andrew Jackson) Bush, along with his oldest sons Fred and Claude, as a tomato cannery. The company was incorporated in 1922 and expanded quickly by adding three packing plants. It prospered until 1943, when it faced a setback by the Tennessee Valley Authority, who seized the company's major plant by eminent domain, and flooded all the Bush farmland. One year later, the company purchased the Arkansas-based Blytheville Canning Company.
Over the years, the company has slowly expanded, finally reaching nationwide distribution in 1993 and Bush's products have become the nation's top selling baked bean brand.[citation needed] "Bush's Original Baked Beans" is based on a secret family recipe that the company guards closely. The company's recognizable advertisements feature company spokesman Jay Bush and his Golden Retriever named Duke, who frequently offers to sell the secret family recipe. Jay Bush is the great grandson of founder A.J. Bush, as are brothers Kristian Bush of the country music group Sugarland and Brandon Bush who is the touring keyboardist for Sugarland.
John Ellis "Jeb" Bush (born February 11, 1953) is an American politician who served as the 43rd Governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. He is a prominent member of the Bush family: the second son of former President George H. W. Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush; the younger brother of former President George W. Bush; and the older brother of Neil Bush, Marvin Bush, and Dorothy Bush Koch.
Jeb Bush was born in Midland, Texas. When he was six years old, the family relocated to Houston, Texas.
Following in the footsteps of older brother, George, Jeb Bush attended high school at the private Massachusetts boarding school, Phillips Academy Andover. At the age of 17, he taught English as a second language in León, Guanajuato, Mexico, as part of Phillips Academy's student exchange program. While in Mexico, he met wife, Columba Garnica Gallo.
In 1973, Bush graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Texas at Austin with a BA in Latin American Studies. He completed his coursework in two and a half years with generally excellent grades. After considering a career in Hollywood, he instead chose to pursue politics.