Biography of John C Bone, Independence Co, AR

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SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northeast Arkansas. 
Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1889.
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page 645 

John C. Bone, dealer in furniture, sash and doors, coffins and
undertakers' supplies, Batesville. The business men of Batesville are a
pushing, active, persevering and enterprising set, and “the weakest must go to
the wall.” Certainly Mr. Bone is not one of the latter class, for, to all in.
tents and purposes, he is an ideal business man. He is a native of Izard
County, Ark., born October 20, 1849, and after remaining on the farm until
twenty years of age engaged in the mercantile business as clerk, following it
for a number of years. He then studied law, and was admitted to the bar in
1877, at Batesville, but never practiced. He again returned to mercantile
pursuits, which he followed two years, and then took charge of his present
business, which was run by his father-in-law, Charles L. Gorsuch, who was
killed by having a house fall on him during a fire. Mr. Bone has since
continued the business, has erected a planing-mill, and now carries it on in
connection with his other interests, employing several hands. [p.645] He is
self-educated and self-made in every respect. He was married on the 12th of
December, 1877, to Miss Nettie M. Gorsuch, and they have two children living:
Charles E. and Harry C. Mr. Bone is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Chapter
and Council. He and wife are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and
are esteemed and respected citizens. His parents, Elihu C. and Charlotte J.
(Jeffrey) Bone, are natives of Wilson County, Tenn., and Izard County, Ark.,
respectively. The father immigrated to Izard County, in 1841, locating near
Barren Fork one year, entered land at Mount Olive, Izard County, and there
followed agricultural pursuits. He was also a Cumberland Presbyterian minister.
By his marriage, which occurred in 1844, he became the father of seven
children, four living: Miles N., John C., Levisa J. and Henry F. The remainder
of the children died when young. The parents died when the children were quite
young, and they were obliged to look out for themselves. The maternal
grandfather, Jehoiada Jeffery, and his wife Mary, settled at what is now Mount
Olive, in Izard County, in 1816. They were originally from North Carolina and
Tennessee, and after living in Jonesbore, Ill., for some time, they moved to
Arkansas, coming through by land on pack-horses. They were the first settlers
of Izard County, their nearest neighbors being about thirty-five miles distant.
He was a member of the Territorial legislature of Arkansas, about 1824, from
Independence County, and afterward from Izard County, when he introduced the
bill creating Fulton County.