My Genealogy Hound

C. W. Bonner is the youngest of four children born to Thomas L. and Mary L. (Ferguson) Bonner, who were born November 27, 1797 and 1803 and died October 23, 1833, and 1841 respectively. Their son, C. W. Bonner, was born in Wilson County, Tenn., on the 15th of June, 1825, and as he was left an orphan at an early age, and was obliged to support himself by laboring on a farm, his early education was neglected. He acquired a good education after becoming grown, and in the fall of 1842 entered Enon College in Sumner County, and remained there until June, 1845. He attended this school on borrowed capital and immediately began teaching school to pay his debts. His health soon failed, owing to confinement, and he, in 1852, engaged in farming. March 12, 1846, he married Mary L. Austin, daughter of W. D. and Amanda T. Austin, and by her is the father of the following children: Thomas J., Amanda F. (Mrs. R. W. Dickerson), Wilkerson A., M. H. (Mrs. J. W. House), Mary L. (widow of W. A. Gilbert), and Robert B. Mr. Bonner is worth about $3,000, all of which he has made by his own exertions and the assistance of his wife. In 1861 he joined Company D Second Tennessee Cavalry, and was slightly wounded at Harrisburg. His regiment was in forty-three engagements; he participated in forty-one of them. He and family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and he is a member of the Masonic order, Lodge No. 356. He is a Democrat and a Prohibitionist.