My Genealogy Hound

J. A. Bodenhamer is a native of North Carolina, born in Davidson County, near High Point, March 1, 1827, his parents being William and Rebecca (Jester) Bodenhamer. Christian Bodenhamer, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was the first of the family to come to America, having emigrated from Holland in the last century. His son, Jacob Bodenhamer, grandfather of our subject, was in the Revolutionary War, and William, father of J. A., is still a resident of the old homestead in North Carolina. He was born in 1802, and married Rebecca Jester, a native of Guilford County, N. C., as were also her parents, but her grandfather was from Scotland. Their son, J. A., was reared in North Carolina until twenty-three years of age, when he went to Texas, locating at first in Houston, but his last place of residence in this State was in Limestone County, where he resided two years. He came up through Missouri in 1851, and in 1872 he purchased land in the east end of Newton County, where he lived until coming to his present residence in 1882. Mr. Bodenhamer was first married in Surry County, N. C., to Miss Ehiza Bodgett, who died in Texas in 1854. He was again married, in Benton County, Ark., in 1875, to Miss Nancy Hutchinson, who was born and reared in Southwest Missouri. In 1862 Mr. Bodenhamer enlisted in the Southern army, in the First Regiment of Eleventh Brigade, Texas Troops. serving in that command. He was elected lieutenant-colonel, served in Texas and Louisiana, and was afterward transferred to the signal corps. He served until the surrender of the Southern army. Mr. Bodenhamer is a Democrat in politics, and has been one of the county committee of that party since 1876. He has been a justice of the peace two years, collector of taxes of Van Buren Township while the township was under township organization, and is a man much liked. He has 230 acres of land, of which 120 are cleared and as good as any in the county.