Freestone County, Texas
Biographies

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Biography of Dr. James Issac Bonner
    (6 Nov 1828-19 Dec 1900, buried at Eureka Cemetery)

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."