James Valarus Bonnette, M. D., Winn Parish, Louisiana Greggory E. Davies 120 Ted Price Lane Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Dr. James Valarus Bonnette, M. D. James Valarus Bonnette was born at Atlanta, Louisiana, May 22, 1865, eldest of a family of ten children, nine boys and one girl. His parents, James Randolph and Susan Rebecca Simms Bonnette, were born, reared, and educated in Louisiana. His father served with honor and distinction in the Confederate army throughout the Civil War, being decorated for bravery. He was a man of high moral character and impeccable integrity. He was possessed of a kind, genial disposition, and was a devout Christian, both he and his wife being life long members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Doctor Bonnette was graduated from Atlanta Male and Female Institute in 1884, winning the A. M. Wailes medal and being the valedictorian of his class. The two years following were spent in teaching in the public schools. In 1888, he finished a course in commercial science in the Kentucky University, of Lexington, Kentucky, winning the Wilbur Rush Smith diploma of honor. Entering the Kentucky School of Medicine in 1889, he was graduated in 1893, leading a class of 224; and with the added distinction of being awarded the Orendorf medal. During this time he also took a special course in diseases of women and physical and differential diagnosis in the Louisville Medical College under Doctors Kelley and Ritter, receiving their certificate in 1892. Doctor Bonnette took post-graduate courses in the New York Polyclinic and Hospital Medical College in 1899, in the Physicians and Surgeons Chicago Clinical School in 1900, and at different times three special courses in the new Orleans Polyclinic of Tulane University of New Orleans, Louisiana. Doctor Bonnette began the practice of medicine at Pollock, Louisiana, August 8, 1893, where he remained for fourteen years, showing great intellectual ability and skill in his profession, and winning the love, confidence and respect of all who knew him intimately. Here he served as assistant coroner for two years, after which he was coroner for the remaining twelve years of his residence. In 1906, he moved to Alexandria, Louisiana, where, after a year of general practice he opened the Bonnette Sanitarium, of which he was founder and sole owner. This was one of the cleanest and best equipped little institutions in the South. The doors were open day and night to every reputable practicing physician and to patients of every nationality. No one was ever turned away because of his poverty. Doctor Bonnette's hobby has always been surgery and diseases of women and children, and his great success along these lines has won him an enviable reputation. Due to failure in health in 1914, he closed the sanitarium, but after a long an needed rest he regained his strength and returned to practice. During the World War he volunteered for overseas service, passing all required examinations and was ready to sail for Europe when the armistice was signed. Doctor Bonnette married Miss Irene Lucille Thrasher, of Atlanta, Louisiana, in 1894, who died in January, 1897, leaving an infant daughter, Lucile Vivian, who is now the wife of E. R. Solomon, a traveling salesman of Alexandria, Louisiana. In 1906 he married Miss Helen Elgin Saunders, of Waco, Texas. She died in 1918, leaving a son James Saunders Bonnette, born August 14, 1910. On June 25, 1924, he married Miss Gladys Allen, of Natchitoches, Louisiana. All his family were devout members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and Doctor Bonnette was a member of the Maccabees, the Moose, the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. Doctor Bonnette was always been studiously neat in his habits, immaculately clean and well-dressed, so much so that in 1924 he was adjudged in an open contest the neatest and the best dressed man in the whole of Rapides Parish. (Source: Chambers' "A History of Louisiana", 1925. Submitted by Greggory Ellis Davies, Winnfield, Winn Parish, La.)