This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Willard Bonner Williams McCrery Odom Burks Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/AiB.2ACE/1144 Message Board Post: DR. JAMES ISSAC BONNER 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 physician 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 distinguished, 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. Stephens 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 cul! tured gentleman, largely imbued with those aristocratic 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." WILLIAM BONNER, JR. Book - Biographical Sketches from Limestone, Freestone, and Leon Counties, Texas. Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1893. p. 76-77. "WILLIAM BONNER, one of the pioneer setters of Freestone County, was born in Alabama in 1820, son of WILLIAM and ANN (JOEL) BONNER, natives of South Carolina, who had married there before moving to Alabama. JAMES BONNER, father of WILLIAM, was a native of Ireland who came to the colonies before the Revolutionary War and took part of it on the American side. JAMES BONNER married MARY LAIRD, also from Ireland, and they reared a family of nine children: WILLIAM, JOHN, ANDREW, SAMUEL, JAMES, MARGARET (married ROBERT JONES); MARY (married JOSEPH JONES); ELIZABETH (married SAMUEL YOUNG) and SARAH who died unmarried. William and John came to Texas; James moved to Indiana in 1836, where he settled eighty miles south of Indianapolis, and no other member of the family went any further west than Alabama. In 1818 WILLIAM BONNER moved to Alabama, bringing his family there the next year. He lived in Monroe, then in Wilcox counties, and in 1852, came to Texas, first to William County and to Freestone County in 1854. He was a farmer; served in the War of 1812, (was a Captain), was in the Battle of New Orleans, and died July 1, 1877, in this county at the age of ninety-five years. His wife died in 1842 at the age of forty-four. Both were members of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. They reared a family of twelve children, two dying before maturity. These were: ELIZA, widow of JAMES ROBINSON; MARY, widow of Rev. JOSEPH McCREARY; our subject; Rev. THOMAS J., of Palestine; MARGARET, deceased, wife of Rev. PRESSLY ROBINSON; SALLY, deceased, wife of ROBERT HYNES; JAMES, a resident of Alabama; MARTHA, wife of Dr. JAMES I. BONNER of Fairfield; SUSAN, widow of ANDREW BONNER; KEZIAH, widow of ARCHIBALD HUCKABY, and SAMUEL, died as a child. ..." JAMES AARON WILLARD Book - Biographical Sketches from Limestone, Freestone, and Leon Counties, Texas. Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1893. p. 98. "J. A. WILLARD, farmer of Fairfield, Freestone County, was born in 1833 in Cannon County, Tennessee. He was the son of W. W. WILLARD who also lives in this county. The latter was born in 1811 in Tennessee, and married LOVIE DUGGIN, daughter of JAMES DUGGIN. The Willard family was from Virginia and the Duggins from North Carolina. W. W. and LOVIE WILLARD had these children: MALINDA, wife of ELISHA HOBBS of Fairfield; our subject; J. B., who lives in Tennessee; W.B., lives in Ellis County; DEBBIE, married a DAVENPORT and PEGGIE, married WILL H. ARSON. W. W. WILLARD's first wife died when our subject was a child, and he married ELIZA SUMMERS. The children of this marriage were: NELSON, NATHEW, BERT, DREW, MARY, SUSIE, ELIZA, LENA, FRANK, BENJAMIN, and SALLY. In the fall of 1861 J. A. WILLARD enlisted in Colonel Bartos' Regiment of Confederate troops and was sent to Mississippi to do guard duty on the New Orleans Railroad. After eleven months service he returned home and did not re-enter the army. He was not in sympathy with the war and engaged in it only when there seemed to be no other course. When the war was over, he determined to get away from the destruction wrought in his native state and seek a new and better place to live. Texas seemed to possess the greatest possibilities and he came along with little more than means to pay for the trip, in other words nothing but his children. He bought his first 200 acres at $5 an acre and has since added enough to make 388 acres, 160 of which is well improved. Besides his farm products, Mr. Willard sells surplus horses, cattle and hogs. He never fails to make all the corn he needs. He allows the politicians to fight their own battles, being content to remain on hi! s farm. He is in favor of public education and strives to get the most possible good out of the system for the youth of this country. In the fall of 1857 Mr. Willard married HANNAH ODOM, the daughter of W. C. ODOM, and their children are: W. C., J. M., LOVIE, who is the wife of BEN BURKS. His first wife died in 1861, and the next year he married NANCY ODOM, a sister to his first wife, and the children from this marriage are: C. B.; JOHN, deceased; NANCY, wife of RICHARD BURKS; MAGGIE, wife of FRANK DUGGINS; F. H.; BERTIE; BESSIE; and BENNIE, who is deceased. The family are members of the Baptist Church and are highly respected citizens.”