My Great Grandfather - Stephen Harrison Bonham

From the "History of Luzerne County Pennsylvania"

Stephen Harrison BONHAM, farmer, P.O. Prichard, was born April 24, 1841, in Union township, where he was educated at the common schools. He is a son of Nelson and Barbara A. (Wilkinson) Bonham, the former born in Union township February 18, 1821; the latter in Ross township in 1818. He worked at home on his father's farm until the war of the Rebellion; the Civil War; broke out.  In the following year he volunteered to defend his country's honor at the price of life, if need be, and was mustered into the United States service as private in Company F, One Hundred and Forty third P.V.I., for the term of three years. He displayed fortitude and patriotism in such battles as Chancellorsville, Wilderness, Gettysburg and many other well-contested battles. (From the words of his daughter Elizabeth) “Bullets passed through his hat and clothing but he was never wounded.  His younger brother Henderson was taken prisoner by the Confederates at the Battle of the Wilderness and starved in prison.  While in the war father sent his money home and his father bought a rough stony farm of 110 acres and after the war he settled on it.” He was promoted to sergeant and discharged as such. On his return from the army he engaged in agriculture on his own account, in what is now Hunlock Township, on one hundred acres of native soil. He displayed his energy and pluck in subduing this wild land and producing out of it a beautiful and productive farm, equipped with buildings of modern style and finish. Mr. Bonham was twice married, first time in 1867, to Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Amos and Lydia A. Kittle, and she bore him one child, Amos D. This wife died in 1873, and Mr. Bonham, for his second wife, married, in 1874, Miss Frances, daughter of John P. and Elizabeth Wagner, by which union were born four children: Elizabeth, Josiah, May and Hugh. Mrs. Frances (Wagner) Bonham died in August 1890. In 1889 our subject purchased a house and lot in Nanticoke, to which place he removed, and there remained one and one-half years. He is a worthy gentleman, a practical farmer and a loyal citizen. Politically he is a Republican, and in religious faith he is a consistent member of the M.E. Church.

(To conclude with words of Elizabeth) “Father was first married to Sarah Elizabeth Kittle September 30, 1867.  October 1, 1868 a son, Amos Daniel Bonham, was born.  His first wife died August 28, 1873 and the 26^th of April 1874 he married Frances Ann Wagner, my mother.  She had been a schoolteacher.  They had four children, myself, Josiah Wagner, Mattie Mae, and Hugh Wilmer.  They worked hard on this farm and cleared it of debt.  About 1884 they built an eight-room home on it.  In 1889 they leased the farm and moved to West Nanticoke for schooling for the children.  Father was never happy away from the farm.  After my mother’s death in 1890 they moved back to the farm and stayed there until his death March 19, 1911.”