Adams County Wisconsin Genealogy

Transcribed by Robert Schieber

Source: Memorial and Biographical Record and Illustrated Compendium of Biography of Citizens of Columbia, Sauk and Adams Counties, Wisconsin, published 1901 by G. A. Ogle & Co., Chicago, 1901, Pages 740 - 743

David Thompson Bonnell, one of the most popular public officials of Adams county, was born in Mendon, Morris county, New Jersey, July 11, 1849. For nearly half a century he has been a resident of Adams county, and enjoys a large acquaintance and the respect of the entire community.

Mr. Bonnell was the youngest son born to Charles Pinkney and Jane (Garrabrant) Bonnell. His father was a brick mason and plasterer by trade, and followed it in Newark, New York, Brooklyn, and other cities of the east, and in 1853 moved to Wisconsin, settling on his farm in Adams county, and plying his trade in the town. He laid the foundation of several of the first buildings in Kilbourn, and was forced to abandon that line of work on account of an injury received by falling off a scaffold. He died November 14, 1876, aged seventy-one years. He led an honorable and useful life and was respected where he made his home. The mother of our subject was born in Morris county, New Jersey, and her ancestors were among the pioneer settlers of that state. Her death occurred in June, 1872, aged sixty-nine years. Mr. and Mrs. C. P. Bonnell reared a family of ten children, nine sons and one daughter. Seven sons served in the Civil war, and their service aggregated over nineteen years. John W. died in Detroit, Minnesota, in 1899; Charles H., deceased, the only one of the sons who did not enter the service; William T., deceased; Cornelius, of Rochester, New York, wounded in the knee at Fredericksburg; Aaron H., killed in the battle of Antietam, July 24, 1864; Edward J., wounded at Marietta, Georgia, now residing in Tomah, Wisconsin; Octavius, of Blanchard, North Dakota; Sarah J., now Mrs. Edward Lawrence, of Wonewoc, Wisconsin; and David T., our subject. One other son died in childhood. Four of the sons, John W., Cornelius, Edward J., and Octavius, re-enlisted as veterans, after the expiration of their first terms of service.

David T. Bonnell attended the public schools, and later Brunson Institute, at Point Bluff, and resided on the farm with his parents until he enlisted, July 24, 1864, in Company E, Thirty-eighth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. He was in the army of the Potomac and in active service through the closing campaigns of the war, at Petersburg, and Weldon R. R., and was discharged July 26, 1865. After the war he engaged in lumbering on the Wisconsin river for several years, and then followed the carpenter's trade fourteen years. He then purchased a dairy farm near Point Bluff, comprising two hundred and two acres, which he improved and still owns. He was elected county registrar in the fall of 1898, since which time he has been a resident of Friendship.

Our Subject was married October 3, 1869, to Marilla Morris, a native of New York, and a daughter of Morgan L., and Marilla (Butler) Morris, of Adams county. Mr. and Mrs. Bonnell are the parents of two children: Alfred L., a resident of Kansas City, Missouri; and Bertha Winifred, now Mrs. William Graves, of Hancock, Wisconsin. Mr. Bonnell is an honored member of Badger Post, G. A. R., and Quincy Lodge, A. F. & A. M. In political sentiment he is a Republican, and takes an active interest in the movements of his party. He has filled the office of town clerk in Springville township of many years, and is always awake to the general welfare of his community.