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From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin, publ. 1901 - page 51-52
ALEXANDER GRANT BONHAM. The family of BONHAM is of English lineage, the earliest American progenitors having crossed the water when the Colonies yet recognized their allegiance to the King. Several of the early BONHAMs fought with gallantry and distinction in the cause of American independence, and in the war of 1812. Of these it would be interesting to speak, but the necessarily narrow limits within which this narrative must be confined forbid the tracing of the genealogical line beyond the third generation.
Nehemiah BONHAM, the paternal grandfather of Alexander G. BONHAM, was a native of Virginia, and migrated thence to Missouri. His wife, whose maiden name was Isabel SCOTT, was born in Ireland. Of their union seven children were born, five sons and two daughters, James, Joseph, Harvey, Frank, Martin, Rebecca and Isabel. All have long since passed away, the last survivor of that generation having been Frank BONHAM, who died in February, 1892. The daughters married in Missouri, and remained there; but the sons, one and all, migrated to Grant county, Wis., where they became substantial and respected citizens. Nehemiah BONHAM also went to Wisconsin, and ended his long life at the home of his son Martin, whose filial care sustained him for many years, and rendered less hard his last days. His widow survived him for many years, but she, too, has entered into rest.
Joseph BONHAM, the second son, was the father of Alexander Grant. He was born in Wythe county, Va., and had attained manhood when his parents undertook their toilsome, tedious journey to Missouri. Before leaving that State to seek a new home in the Northwest, he was married to Leah FORD, of Tennessee, who was born Feb. 22, 1804, and was one of the family of eight children of Alexander FORD, a soldier in the patriot army of 1776. The others were Benjamin, George, Alexander, Joseph, Jane, Sarah and Elizabeth. Joseph BONHAM was the first of the family to come to Wisconsin. He visited the lead mining region in 1827, alone, and returned to Missouri. He was, however, deeply impressed by the resources and possibilities of the region, and made a second prospecting tour about the time of the Black Hawk war, going as far north as Galena, Ill. In 1834 he came as a permanent settler, bringing with him his wife and seven sons. Several children were born to them after they were established in their new home. They first settled in what is now the township of Lancaster, and the land which Mr. BONHAM pre-empted is called the "Thomas SHANLEY farm." For two years the family remained there, and at the expiration of that time removed to a tract which now constitutes a part of the farm of Alexander G. BONHAM, in Lancaster township. Here was located what his descendants love to call "the old homestead." A brick house - the first in the neighborhood - was built, the bricks being made and burned by Alexander. The building, rude and primitive as it was, is still standing, and in a fair state of preservation - a sort of monument, to remind the present of the achievement of the past. Joseph BONHAM was for many years employed in the lead mines, at the same time cultivating his quarter section of land. It was he who first discovered mineral on Pigeon creek, the locality being afterward known as "Pigeon Diggings," and there he was very successful. He was a man of rugged strength, incorruptible integrity and outspoken conviction. A stanch Jacksonian Democrat himself, he reared his sons in the same political faith. Of the large family of children born to Joseph BONHAM and his wife, only six are yet living, three sons and three daughters. Alexander Grant is our subject; Nehemiah Scott, deceased, is mentioned below; John James died at Bloomington July 16, 1897; Joseph Loyd is deceased; Abijah Abernatha was a miner, and died in Idaho; Carlyle, twin of Abijah, died when a child of three years; Sarah Ann and Melvina are living; George Calvin went to California to seek gold, and was killed by the caving in of a mine; William Henry Harrison, Harvey Holmes, and Rhoda Jane survive. Harvey was a gallant soldier in the war of the Union, a private in a Wisconsin regiment. The manner of Scott's death is pathetic. He went to Idaho to seek a fortune, and was found by his comrades lying unconscious upon the ice, presumably the victim of a paralytic stroke. Near him sat his faithful dog, who would suffer no one to touch his master, and whom the party had to lasso before the inanimate form could be approached.
Alexander G. BONHAM was born in Pike county, Mo., Oct. 27, 1823, and was in his eleventh year when his parents removed to Wisconsin. Today he is approaching his eightieth year, yet he can recall the incidents of that long journey (a considerable part of it by water) and the appearance of the new country in which his future life was to be spent. Indeed, those were perilous times for the frontiersman and his family, the Indians having not yet been reduced to subservience, and the tomahawk and scalping knife being still among the possible dangers confronting the settler. During the third winter of the family's residence here a band of fifty aboriginines, with their ponies, appeared near their home, but made no hostile demonstration, although indefatigable beggars. The few roads that the settlers had were little more than Indian trails, and game of all kinds, and especially deer, was abundant.
As a boy Mr. BONHAM aided his brothers in clearing the land, his father' time being chiefly occupied at the mines. After reaching early manhood he divided his time between working as a hired farm hand and laboring as a miner. The life was a hard one, but he had youth, and health, and strength, and toil only served to develop and harden his naturally robust constitution. Today he owns a fine, highly cultivated and well improved farm, and in his handsome home is quietly passing his declining years, enjoying the fruits of his early labor and privations. He is the oldest of the original settlers of Lancaster township yet living, if not the oldest in Grant county. He has been prominently identified with the development, social and economic, as well as material, of the region, and as he calmly awaits the call to go to his reward he may well take pleasure in the thought that he will leave to his children, a treasure more precious than lands or gold - the stainless record of an honest life.
Mr. BONHAM was married, March 16, 1851, to Elizabeth Ann KILBY, a daughter of Abraham E. KILBY and Rhoda PARSONS. Mr. KILBY was a North Carolinian and his wife a Virginian. Between the family of BONHAM and KILBY there are several parallels. Both are of Southern origin; both of Revolutionary stock; both first migrated to Missouri, and afterward removed to Grant county, Wis., settling on adjacent farms. The KILBYs came in 1836, two years after their neighbors, and between the two families there always existed a warm friendship. Mr. KILBY died in 1874, and his widow in 1893. He was a successful farmer, and a man held in high esteem for his kindness of heart, his keenness of mind, and his inviolable integrity. Mrs. BONHAM is one of a family of four, three daughters and one son, two of whom - Jane and John - are deceased. The younger of the two surviving sisters is Mrs. Sarah Margaret BORAH, whose house is in Kansas.
To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Alexander G. BONHAM have been born three sons and five daughters: Charles Scott, Lemuel Eddens, Viola Jane (deceased), Lenora Margaret, Laura Ann, Laura Eldora, Lester Grant (deceased) and Mabel Claire.
Charles S. BONHAM, the eldest son, was born in 1852, was reared upon the homestead farm, and enjoyed excellent educational advantages at the public schools and the Institute at Lancaster, as well as at Blodgett College, Rockford, Ill., and at the Normal school at Platteville. For several years he was employed in teaching, but abandoned the chair of the pedagogue to become a salesman of school supplies for the well-known firm of Ivison, Blakeman & Taylor. In this line of work he was so successful that he was made general agent of the house for a territory covering Kansas, southern Nebraska, and Wisconsin. He remained with this concern for ten years, and then directed his attention to stock farming, his specialty being the breeding and raising of Short-horn cattle. In this pursuit, also, he succeeded in a surprising degree, but in 1900 he sold his valuable property, famous as the "Oakwood Farm," and is now leading a retire life. He married Flora E. HANNUM, a daughter of Rufus HANNUM, a sketch of whose life may be found elsewhere, and their union has been blessed with one son, Charles Lloyd, who was born May 5, 1892. Mr. BONHAM is a gentleman of culture and refinement, and is reckoned among Grant county's most successful and prosperous business men.
Lemuel E. BONHAM, the youngest son of Alexander G., has been for many years a resident of the far West, and has recently gone to Alaska.
This biography generously submitted by Carol Holmbeck