Texas Family Group Sheet for the James Isaac BONNER Family


Husband: James Isaac BONNER
Birthdate: 6 Nov 1828
Birthplace: Clairborne, Monroe Co., AL.
Death date: 19 Dec 1900
Place of death: Eureka, Navarro Co., TX.
Burial: Eureka Cemetery in Eureka, Navarro Co., TX.
Father: Dr. John BONNER
Mother: Eliza Feribee WILLIAMS

Marriage date: 1 Oct 1851
Marriage place: Wilcox Co., AL.

Wife: Martha BONNER
Birthdate: 26 Nov 1832
Birthplace: Wilcox Co., AL.
Death date: 14 Apr 1907
Place of death: TX.
Burial: Eureka Cemetery in Eureka, Navarro Co., TX.
Father: William BONNER, Sr.
Mother: Ann Lee JOELL

CHILDREN

Child No. 1: Martha Irene BONNER
Sex: F
Birthdate: 14 Nov 1852
Birthplace: Stewards Mill, Freestone Co., TX.
Death date: 2 Aug 1870
Place of death: Freestone Co., TX.
Burial: Bonner Cemetery in Freestone Co., TX.
Marriage date:
Marriage place:
Spouse's name:

Child No. 2: Sallie Belle BONNER
Sex: F
Birthdate: 22 Feb 1859
Birthplace: Freestone Co., TX.
Death date: 9 Apr 1949
Place of death: Palestine, Anderson Co., TX.
Burial: East Hill Cemetery in Palestine, Anderson Co., TX.
Marriage date: 12 Feb 1879
Marriage place: Fairfield, Freestone Co., TX.
Spouse's name: William Walter Brice ROBINSON

Child No. 3: Annie Williams BONNER
Sex: F
Birthdate: 7 Jan 1861
Birthplace: Fairfield, Freestone Co., TX.
Death date: 23 Jul 1940
Place of death: TX.
Burial: Eureka Cemetery in Eureka, Navarro Co., TX.
Marriage date: 29 Jan 1902
Marriage place: Freestone Co., TX.
Spouse's name: A. Dowan ANDERSON

Child No. 4: James Andrew BONNER
Sex: M
Birthdate: 7 Jan 1866
Birthplace: Stewards Mill, Freestone Co., TX.
Death date: 5 Nov 1947
Place of death: TX.
Burial: Eureka Cemetery in Eureka, Navarro Co., TX.
Marriage date: 8 Dec 1887
Marriage place: Fairfield, Freestone Co., TX.
Spouse's name: Mattie Adline BARNETT

Child No. 5: Mary Eliza BONNER
Sex: F
Birthdate: 22 Jan 1869
Birthplace: Freestone Co., TX.
Death date: 26 Sep 1904
Place of death: TX.
Marriage date: 27 Dec 1892
Burial: Fairfield Cemetery in Fairfield, Freestone Co., TX.
Marriage place: Freestone Co., TX.
Spouse's name: William Evans RICHARDS

Child No. 6: William Pierre BONNER, Sr.
Sex: M
Birthdate: 6 Mar 1873
Birthplace: Freestone Co., TX.
Death date: 7 Sep 1940
Place of death: TX.
Burial: Eureka Cemetery in Eureka, Navarro Co., TX.
Marriage date: 4 Oct 1896
Marriage place: Freestone Co., TX.
Spouse's name: Fannie Adriance SIMS
 
 
Documentation:
* Book - Biographical Sketches from Limestone, Freestone, and Leon Counties, Texas. Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1893. p. 107-108.
"DR. J. I. BONNER. This most excellent gentleman and highly respected citizen is a physican and surgeon of Fairfield, Freestone County, Texas, and is a member of one of the largest, oldest and wealthiest families in the state.
    "He is the son of DR. JOHN BONNER. The latter was born in Abbeville District, South Carolina, in 1794, where he was reared and educated. He had a thorough collegiate course and graduated with great credit. Among his classmates were General Longstreet, afterward of Confederate fame; Judge Lipscomb, afterward of the Supreme Court of Texas; A. P. Bagby, afterward governor of Alabama and other less distinguyished, but very worthy men. He read medicine under the celebrated Dr. Waddell of South Carolina and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania.
    "Dr. Bonner began his practice in St. Stpehens County, Alabama, in 1817, and was in practice there and in Claiborne and Dallas Counties of that State until 1850 when he came to Texas. He first settled in Williamson County where he bought a large tract of land about seven miles north of the newly-created county seat of Fairfield, lying on Cottonwood Creek, and opened an extensive plantation, owning a large number of negroes. His time was entirely occupied with agricultural pursuits and he never practiced his profession after coming to this state, except among his relatives and close friends. From 1853 until the outbreak of the War he managed his large plantation, but he lost most of his property, especially his negroes and personal property, in the War. He then divided the land among his children and lived in retirement, dying at the home of his son, our subject, in 1879, in his eighty-fifth year. He ranked well as a physician and enjoyed a good practice. He was a cultured gentleman, largely imbued with those aristocrartic views which were prevalent in that portion of the country at his time of life. Late in life he joined the Presbyterian Church, in which he had been reared, and lived consistently the rest of his life within its teaching.
    "Our subject's mother was ELIZA F. WILLIAMS. She was born in Fayettesville, North Carolina, but her parents moved to Clairborne County, Alabama, where she met and married Dr. JOHN BONNER. She died in Freestone County some years before her husband. JOHN and ELIZA BONNER had nine children, seven of whom became grown, the eldest being the subject of this sketch. Of the others: JOHN L., is a farmer of Freestone County; ANDREW died in 1865 from disease contracted in the Confederate Army; OLIVER A. and IRVIN H. are farmers and stockmen of Freestone County; ELIZA, the eldest daughter, died unmarried; and ARABELLA is now the wife of W. H. McCRERY of Freestone County.
    "J. I. BONNER was born in Clairborne County, Alabama in November 1828, and was reared in Dallas County of that state. He graduated from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa in 1847 and then read medicine under his father, and later spent one year under Dr. GEORGE B. WOODS at the University of Pennslyvania. He did not graduate because he became ill with cholera at the end of his first year. He returned home and later completed his medical education at the Charleston Medical College, Charleston, South Carolina, graudating in 1850. For two years he practiced in Camden, Alabama, but moved to Dallas County in 1852 and a year later to Texas, where his father's family had preceeded him.
    "Dr. J. I. BONNER settled in Freestone County six miles north of Fairfield, near his father, but stopped active practice in his profession to turn his attention to planting. He was engaged in this occupation at the beginning of the War. In 1861 he enlisted as a private in the Confederate Army in Timmon's Regiment and was appointed Surgeon of the Terrel's Regiment, serving with it along the Gulf Coast and up to the Louisiana line. He was promoted to be Brigade Surgeon and served as such until 1864, when he resigned because of illness and returned home. For some time after the end of the War he gave his attention mostly to farming. He later left the farm and moved to Fairfield, where he again began the active practice of medicine and continues to do so at the present time.
    "Dr. BONNER was in the general practice of medicine as a country doctor and has become well known and beloved far and wide. He has pursued his professional duties with zeal and has met with a reasonable degree of success. Connecting himself with several medical associations as have been within his reach, he has always availed himself of the opportunities profession and imparting to his brethren whatever he has learned. He has made some contributions to the medical journals, but these have not been extensive, nor of that interest to the fraternity had his opportunities for observation been better.
    "Dr. BONNER married October 1, 1852 Miss MARTHA BONNER, a cousin, and daughter of WILLIAM BONNER, an early settler of Freestone County, who had come to Texas with his brother, JOHN BONNER, in 1853. Mrs. Bonner was born in Wilcox County, Alabama, where she married, before coming to Texas. They have had a family of five children: SALLIE B., now the wife of W. B. ROBINSON, of Palestine, Texas; ANNIE W., MARY, JOHN A., and WILLIAM P.
    "Dr. BONNER has been a member of the Masonic fraternity for more than thirty years. Although a man of Chrisitian impluses, he has never joined any religious organization."
* Book - The Bonner Family History, by Sue Bonner Thornton, 1972, by Texan Press in Waco, Texas. Library of Congress # 72-75823. pg. 92-93.
* <unknown Source - assume Fairfield Recorder newspaper>
* <unknown date - assume just after her death on 14 Apr 1907>
* "Tribute to Mrs. Martha Bonner
Entered into life.
After seven long months of sufffering, rest - God's rest - came to Mrs. Martha Bonner.
    Hers was a life of which truth, service, charity and Christianity were the keynote. Tho' an earnest and consistent member of Presbyterian church, Mrs. Bonner did not confine her good deeds to the members of any religious faith. Her generous Christian heart full of milk of human kindess, responded promptly to every cry of suffering and distress. If but one rose could be offered by each whose life has been brightened by her, a mountain of flowers would rise above the newly made grave. Mrs. Bonner was a native of Alabama, having been born in Wilcox County. Of two sons and four daughters born to the union, the sons, Mr. J. A. Bonner of Eureka, Mr. W. P. Bonner of Wichita Falls, and two daughters, Mrs. W. B. Robinson of Palestine, and Mrs. A. D. Anderson of Fairfield, now remain. The father, two sisters, and now the dear mother, have finished their day's work, but not their lives. The soul, freed from the body, has returned to the God who gave it - to the land of eternal day, peace and joy....".
 

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