Victor Bushy was born in Patten, Maine in 1900. He was in the middle of ten siblings. He ran away from home at age 14 to work in the woods, first as a swamper and on the river drive for the Barker Lumber Company. He later worked for the Oxford Paper Company, Great Northern Paper Company, Hollingsworth and Whitney, and Old Town Canoe. He spent time in various positions but his favorite was that of cook and, next to that, teamster. In the late 1920s, he went to work on the railroads in Grindstone and Bangor, where he was living in 1972. He was married and had three daughters.