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| Birth: | 4 Jun 1803 in Lake Kayuga, New York 1 |
| Death: | 2 Jul 1864 in Sauvies Island, Columbia Co., Oregon 2 3 |
| Sex: | F |
| Father: | Ashel (Ira) Halstead b. 24 Mar 1776 in Goshen Township, Orange Co., New York |
| Mother: | Elizabeth Wood b. 3 Sep 1777 |
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| Burial: Buried: Vancouver City Cem., Clark Co., WA |
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| John Bonser (Husband) b. 8 Nov 1803 in Bonser's Run, Scioto Co., Ohio
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| Marriage: | 27 MAR 1827 in Louisville, Kentucky |
| Children: | |
 Lewis Bonser b. 1828 in Scioto Co., Ohio
 Stephen Decatur Bonser b. 8 Apr 1830 in Portsmouth, Scioto Co., Ohio
- James Halstead Bonser b. 3 May 1832 in Bonser's Run, Scioto Co., Ohio
- Jacob Bonser b. About 1834 in Ohio (?)
- Martha Jane Bonser b. 17 Sep 1837 in Springfield, Pike Co., Illinois
- Julia Bonser b. 1839 in Pike Co., Illinois
- Elizabeth Halstead Bonser b. About 1840 in Pike Co., Illinois
- Abigale Bonser b. About 1843 in Pike Co., Illinois
- Hannah Bonser b. Feb 1847 in Savannah, Andrew Co., Missouri
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Individual:
Continuation of John Bonser Biography.....................................see first part in "more about notes" for John Bonser.
John's nephew Bilton Bonser had purchased the Johnson donation claim immediately upriver of John's farm and west of the Reeder place. The Hilton Bonser farmland was more suited to a variety of cash crops and in conjunction with the original claim which was most suitable for cattle and dairying, the family's operation became more profitable. Hilton established a large family and a successful farm which still produces crops today.
Clinton Bonser after spending a successful time in California, had married Mary Ann McQuinn, who had come into the McQuinn Donation Claim and they successfully farmed this claim on the higher ground along the Willamette Slough. He was later to buy property on the banks of the slough near Scapoose, which became the home farm.
John and Rebecca were good friends with many on the Washington side of thr river. Rebecca's sister was married to Ira Patterson, a respected farmer and an early representative in the Legislature and they were especially close. Rebecca was also a special friend of the wife of Judge Columbia Lancaster and the Peter Crawfords were visited often at the Lewis river settlement. Rebecca Bonser was a trained midwife and local healer and was often called out to tend the sick, and her skills were well known as far as Vancouver. She kept a medicinal herb garden near the house and dried many for later use.
Sauvies Island had once been home to a number of Indian villages, one of the largest at Willow Bar near the Bonser claim, had been the center of a very large Indian population. Between 1800 - 1840, however, the newcomers diseases such as measles and scarlet fever had decimated the villages and the early settlers talk of piles of unburied bones at the old village site. During certain times of the year, however, family bands from other areas and tribes were still a common sight. They would come to harvest the wappato which grew in the shallow island lakes and it was a common sight to see and Indian woman clinging to the side of a canoe as they felt with their feet for the tubers.
While the settlers and Indians normally aboided each other, there could be problems. Bands of young Indian "toughs" were particularly annoying and sometimes dangerous. A homestead with no one home would be found ransacked when the owner returned, and crimes at the isolated homesteads, rightly or wrongly, were sometimes blamed on them. A family story tells of a time when the men were away and Rebecca and her children received an unwelcome visit. She locked herself and the children in the cabin while the visitors went through the outbuildings and threatened her through the door. They finally ripped the door off it's leather hinges, but Rebecca was able to keep them at bay by throwing ladles of boiling water at those who tried to enter. The armed men returned about this time and the assailants melted away.
The Bonser lifestyle is well described in various memoirs and was typical of frontier life. The rambling two story house with a fireplace in every room was filled with homemade furniture and was designed to withstand flooding. The families living on the farm were sometimes required to move everything to the second floor until the flood waters subsided, after which the lower floors were cleaned and normal life resumed. Some of the barns and silos were built on stilts as were some of the outbuildings and the boat landings were built at different heights to account for water levels. A bunkhouse for hired hands was above the main house and a special building was set aside near the John Bonser house for several large looms and was a favorite gathering place for the family's ladies. Glass windows were never installed in the original house and the windows were closed with shutters.
All the frontier skills were practiced; soap making, spinning, weaving and food preservation. Everything was made on site and John even had a forge and smithy. He was know to build his own boats and usually had tow or three of various sizes bobbing at the landing.
In 1862 one of the young daughters, Abigail, was married to William Castro, and soon the young couple determined to move north to the Squak Valley near Seattle. They were among the first settlers in the area and established a successful business manufacturing hoop poles. Shortly after, Elizabeth was married and moved to Vancouver. Stephen Decataur Bonser, the oldest son, had moved to his own land on Sauvies Island and James Halstead Bonser had taken a claim in eastern Oregon.
In November of 1864 word was brought to John that his beloved daughter, Abigail, her husband and a nephew of Rebecca's, John Halstead, had been murdered by the Indians. John and a son went to the Seattle area with vengeance in mind. There was nothing to be done, however, as the killers from the Snohomish tribe had been followed and killed by Aleck, a Klikitat indian who had worked for the Castros. John brought Abigail and William's bodies to Seattle where they were buried.
It is interesting to note that Aleck and his wife accompanied the party back to the island and until Aleck's death were welcome at the Bonsers. They would return in the summer, build a shelter near the Bonser home and gather wappato and camas root. The Bonser family album contains a picture of them both.
On February 11, 1864, Rebeccas was called across the river to attend to the ill Lancaster family. After several days there, she rowed herself back across the river and was badly soaked in a freezing rainstorm. Within a week she was dead, probably of pneumonia. John was left along in the house and was beside himself. He moved to the Clinton Bonser home and the houses near Willow Bar stood empty. The land continued to be farmed by Stephen, Clinton and Hilton, but eventually was sold except for a small parcel at Willow Bar. John had earlier come into the donation land claims of a son-in-law, Marquis DeLafayette Armstrong and his brother Daniel Boone Armstrong, which comprised part of Oak Island across Sturgeon lake from his original claim. A small house still existed there and the now 61 year old John moved into it, to be near his son Stephen, who farmed the other half of Oak Island.
Further bad news was to follow. In 1865 John and Rebecca's other young daughter, Hannah, was lost in the wreck of the "Brother Jonathan" off the coast at Crescent City, California. Hannah and her husband were returning from San Francisco and the mishandled and overloaded coastal steamer had gone down in a storm with a loss of over 300.
Hannah Bonser Knowles, John's granddaughter, said that this series of losses took the "heart" out of him, and with advancing age, John began to slow down. Hannah told her daughter, Ruth Knowles Thompson, that Grandpa Bonser was adored by his many grand children, that he was ajolly man who would wrestle and play games and his visits were much anticipated. he was troubled with arthritis in his old age and she remembered he would do tricks with his cane.
As the years progressed, John began to rotate living with his now well established children and grandchildren, most of whom lived in Clarke County, Washington, near Vancouver.
On a visit to Olympia, John married Ruth M. Dow, the widow of an old family friend and she and her son, Frank, came to live on Oak Island. Frank and his family were energetic farmers and the farm was successfully built up over the next 30 years, primarily as a dairy farm called "Meander".
As John aged, he and Ruth became active travelers often visiting children and friends all over Oregon and Washington. John was fascinated with the steam boats which were everywhere on the rivers by the 1880's and although the railroad had come in 1874, the steamer was still to be an important form of transportation until about 1900.
Most of the Bonser children and grandchildren followed the river trade and served in many capacities. John H. Bonser, was anoted skipper at Portland and the Lewis River. He was later to be called north by the Hudson Bay Company, and was instrumental in opening Northwest British Columbia. Others owned or brokered boats and ferries and others served as everything from deckhands to masters and pursers. John was an investor in the shipyards at Columbia City, later called the Soderstrom Bros. Shipyard. As late as 1885 when he was 82 years old, he and his nephew Hilton and son Stephen, built the "Lena" a small steamer built to serve the island and the Lewis River trade.
An article in the St. Helens paper, March 20, 1885:
"Mr. Bonser of Sauvies Island (probably Stephen Bonser) has built a farm wagon of a new description, she is a steamboat, sternwheeler, cog rigged, direct action, plenty housing, 20 tons burden, 45 feet overall, 9 feet beam, 3 feet depth of hold, draws 18 inches of water, and is named the Lena. She is admirably adapted for the purpose of her owner who loads farm truck, apples, vegetables, etc., on this river wagon and goes all over creation, independent."
About this time John lost the use of his legs and until his death was forced to walk with crutches. A special platform with a chair was built for him, just below the wheelhouse on the Lena and Joh became a familiar sight as the small steamer moved about it's business.
In 1887, Ruth Dow passed away and the farm on Oak Island was signed over to John's stepson, Frank Dow. John's health had begun to decline and he began to spend more and mre time on the home farm.
In 1893 he died at age 90. The steamer Kellogg was chartered to carry the body to Vancouver and several hundred friends and family members accompanied the body and attended the funeral. He was buried in the old post cemetery and later the Vancouver City Cemetery.
After this time, the only Bonser living on Sauvies Island, was Ewell Bonser, a grandson, who lived in a small house onf the land at Willow Bar retained by John when the donation land claim was sold. Ewell was a locak character, who ran a well-known still, lived alone and finally died in 1921.
The entire western half of the island was annexed over the years by the state of Oregon as recreational land. On the western side of the island the state land begins at the eastern boundary of the original Bonser claim, which is also the Columbia County line. Nothing is left of the original homes, but the race track may still be vaguely descerned and rock piles which may come from the foundations are in the locations shown as structures on early maps. Several foundations and trails may also be found on Oak Island.
In the early 20th century, the island was ringed by dikes, and the flooding problem was solved. The present farms o the eastern half of the island are still productive and many of the descendants of the original settlers still live there. The descendants of John and Rebecca are numerous in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere, and the memory of the early settlers is honored in many branches of the family.
SOURCES:
1. Reminiscences of Hannah Bonser Knowles, a granddaughter of John Bonser, an extensive manuscript in possession of the author.
2. History of Sauvies Island, Omar C. Spencer.
3. Various articles from the weekly and daily Portland Oregonian extracted from vertical files, Oregon Historical Society.
4..Various articles St. Helens, Oregon papers, some in possession of the author, some from OHS.
5. Various articles Vancouver Independent.
6. Various articles Vancouver Columbian.
7. Oregon Donation Land Claims and Supplements, Genealogy Society of Portland.
8. Bertha Stephenson Reminiscences MS. OHS.
9. Hilton Bonser Biography, Pacific Monthly 1901.
10. Various extracts of wills, Multnomah County Court House and OHS.
11. Various extracts of wills, Columbia Count, Oregon.
12. Seattle Post Intelligencer, various articles 1866 - 1893.
13. History of King County, Washington. OHS.
14.Various records, minutes of Oregon Pioneer Assoc. OHS.
15. U.S. Census 1840- 1900.
16. 1853 Washington County Oregon Census.
17. Bonser Family Bible, possession of Rhome Thompson, Bend, Oregon.
18. Impression and observations of the Journal Man, Fred Lockley, various interviews, Oregon Journal
19. Index to Provisional Govt and Territorial Papers, OHS.
20. Biography file. OHS.
21. DAR Cemetery listing Masonic Cemetery, St. Helens, Washington
22. DAR name index, Multnomah County, Oregon
23. Cayuse to Cadillac: Landerholm
24. DAR application of Lillian Bonser Akins with family history, possession of the author.
25. Washington County, Oregon index to courst records and record extracts.
26. Various articles Oregon Spectator, 1851.
27. Autobiography of Ann Lee, MS of 1898. Letter of 1893, Ft. Vancouver Historical Society.
28. Scioto County, Ohio wills.
29. Abstracts 1809 - 1836 Scioto Co., wills.
30. Bonser Train Centennial Observed, Letter to editor, 1947 by Bonser descendant. OHS.
31. Paul L. Reeder letter to OHS; Old homes on Sauvies Island.
32. History of the Williamette Valley pg. 301.
33. Various extracts, Pioneer File, OHS.
34. The History of the Columbia from The Dalles to the Sea; Portrait and Biographical record.
35. Columbia County, Oregon Charter.
36. Scrapbook file. OHS.
37. Indian War Pension Application. OHS.
38. Clarke County, Washington land records: Clarke Co., Gen. Society.
39. Old City Cemetery of Vancouver, Mildred E. Porter; Genealogy Forum of Portland.
40. All existing Sauvies Island maps: OHS.
41. Stern Wheelers Up Columbia: Randall V. Mills.
42. Early Portland Stump Town Triumphant; Eugene E. Snyder.
43. Washington State Place Names; Jane W. Phillips.
44. Oregon Geographic Names; Lewis A. MacArthur.
45. Williamette Landings; Corning; OHS.
46. Oral history; History of Armstrong, Bonser and Sturgess family. In possession of author; reminiscences of Doris A. Dyker and Mildred Armstrong Richardson 1975.
47. Scioto County History
48. Steamboat History of the Lewis River; Curtis Gardner MS Clarke County Historical Society.
49. Lewis and Dryden's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest.
50. Clarke County History; B.F. Alley and Monroe Frazer.
51. Journals of Peter Crawford; Ms. Bancroft Library, Berkeley.
52. Letter of James Halstead Bonser in possession of the author.
53. Various articles Clarke County Histrorical Society.
54. Various articles Columbia County Historical Society.
55. Memoirs and letters of Henry and Hannah Thomas MS possession of author.
56. Gonser Family Photo Albums (4) possession of author.
57. Memoirs of Cora Ann Bonser MS; possession of author.
58. Go To The Cowlitz; Peter Crawford; Camella Summers.
Need further clarification as to just where they were married:
Their daughter in her Travelogue stated they were married in Louisville, Kentucky.
Knapp Mortuary Funeral records for Lewis W. Bonser, grandson of John and Rebecca Halstead, stated John and Rebecca were married in Springfield, Illinois.
The genealogy file I rec'd from John Burton of South Dakota, states they were married in Scioto Co., Ohio.
Until further proof is found, will leave it Louisville, Kentucky.
Dwight Halstead file, copy I have, state Scioto Co., Ohio.
Source: Marriage Index; Selected Counties of Ohio 1789 - 1850 states married in Scioto, Ohio.
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| Sources | | |
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- Family records of Martha Jane Bonser Armstrong
1860 Census record. Columbia Co., OR. Sauvies Island
- Title: Roger Knowles Thompson, Tucson, Arizona
- Note: Oregon Donation Land Claims, Vol. II.
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