FRANCIS H. BONHAM, farmer, Sec. 34; P. O. Lancaster; has 160 acres and 40 acres of timber in Harrison; was born Sept. 11, 1806, in Wythe Co., Va., son of Nehemiah and Isabella (Scott) Bonham. Mr. B. came to Grant Co. in 1827, and made several trips to Virginia, and in 1840 brought his family and settled at Hurricane Grove, and engaged in mining until 1844, when he removed to his farm where he has since made his home. On Dec. 23, 1830, he was married by Rev. Mr. Watters, in Pike Co., Mo., to Mary Ann, daughter of William and Lucy (Oglesby) Nevel, of Shelby Co., Ky., where she was born May 24, 1812; they had nine children - Euphema J., now Mrs. D. D. Utt, seven children; William N., married Lizzie Parker, of Salem, Oregon, where they now reside, with three children; Matilda I., now wife of Samuel J. Shelton, of Salem, Oregon; Calvin R., married Anna Myers, of Salem, Oregon, he having previously married Sophronia Sears; Charles W., married Dolly Parker, of Canyon City, Oregon, has two children; Mary F., wife of Reuben G. Brooks, of Vermont, now at Hopkinton, Iowa, one child; Martha Ann, wife of C. M. Jackson; Lenora, wife of Mark Baldwin, died in the spring of 1878; James H. (his second son), died March 12, 1860, at 22 years of age. Mr. Bonham is a Protestant; in politics is a Republican, and participated in the meeting when the Republican party was organized in Grant Co.; he has in his possession a sword brought to America by his great-great-grandfather over 200 hundred years ago (he having been an officer in the British navy); the father of Mr. B. was an officer in the war of 1812. Mr. B. is a hearty, jovial old gentleman, and has for twenty years held the office of Justice of the Peace and several other offices, and states that when he settled here, there were no houses between his place and Lancaster, and that he cut the first tree to make the Lancaster road, and that there were only three or four houses on the Potosi road, 7-1/2 miles, and says he has been frequently in the sugar camp of old Black Hawk. Mr. and Mrs. B. celebrated their golden wedding, and received a number of very fine presents, a very fine easy chair from the "Potosi delegation," a $20 gold piece, etc.

This biography generously submitted by Roxanne Munns.