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Family
Marriage: Children:
  1. Almira Bonney: Birth: 20 DEC 1799 in Cornwall, Litchfield Co., Connecticut. Death: 12 OCT 1850 in Des Moines, Polkn Co., Iowa

  2. Orphia Bonney: Birth: 10 NOV 1801 in Cornwall, Litchfield Co., Connecticut.

  3. Hezekiah Bonney: Birth: 23 SEP 1803 in Cornwall, Litchfield Co., Connecticut. Death: 18 MAR 1834 in Portage Co., Ohio

  4. John Bonney: Birth: 24 FEB 1806 in Cornwall, Litchfield Co., Connecticut. Death: 19 NOV 1889 in Shalersville, Portage Co., Ohio

  5. William Bradford Bonney: Birth: 3 JAN 1808 in Cornwall, Litchfield Co., Connecticut. Death: 8 SEP 1858 in Bellevue, Eaton Co., Michigan

  6. Hannah O. Bonney: Birth: 13 JUN 1810 in Cornwall, Litchfield Co., Connecticut.

  7. Sherwood (Samuel Sherwood) Bonney: Birth: 28 FEB 1812 in Cornwall, Litchfield Co., Connecticut. Death: 30 MAR 1908 in Sumner, Pierce Co., Washington

  8. Timothy Stone Bonney: Birth: 1814 in Portage Co., Ohio. Death: 8 AUG 1852 in on Oregon Trail, near Boise, Idaho


Sources
1. Title:   Records of births, marriages and deaths in the town of Cornwall, CT - 1732-1933

Notes
a. Note:   John Bonney was the son of Titus Bonney and Anna Pierce. He married Orilla Sherwood, daughter of Ebenezer Sherwood and Hannah (Bradford) Sherwood on November 2, 1799 in Cornwall, Litchfield County, Connecticut. On November 19, 1804 John Bonney was appointed Constable and Collector of Taxes for Cornwall (Cornwall Town Records, page 212). At a town meeting on November 4, 1805 he was again appointed Constable and Collector of Taxes (Cornwall Town Records, page 218).
  On May 19, 1813 John Bonney sold to Timothy Stone the "rights of dower which John had in the homes land and estate of Ebenezer Sherwood [his father-in-law] late of Cornwall, deceased" in Cornwall. The deed was recorded October 30, 1813 (Cornwall Deed Book 9, page 495). On July 10, 1813 John Bonney and his wife, Orilla, sold land to the First Ecclesiastical Society in Cornwall. The deed was recorded March 16, 1814 (Cornwall Deed Book 9, page 503a).
  In 1813, John and Orilla Bonney were included with their family in a party of venturesome pioneers, consisting of Deacon Joshua B. Sherwood, Titus Bonney, Wells Clark, David Beardsley and a few others, who immigrated to Connecticut's Western Reserve in Ohio. The journey in those days was one of hardship and exposure; the experience of John and Orilla being compounded by having a family of seven small children. They went via Pittsburgh, through Trumbull County, and on the last day of the journey, were overtaken by a rain storm which forced them to camp in the woods.
  On July 21, 1814, John Bonney purchased, from Uriel Holmes (who was a representative, judge and member of Congress from Litchfield County, Connecticut), a parcel of 317 acres in Nelson township, Portage County, Ohio. The parcel was described as follows "the whole of lot # twenty nine in Nelson township being township # five in the sixth range in the Connecticut Western Reserve". It contained a small clearing, fenced with logs, and a log house and barn. The timber was mostly oak, and 25 acres were girdled and sap rotten. Straight log fences log fences surrounded the lots. On the side of the farm was a cranberry marsh. During a dry season this caught fire, and everything on the farm was burned, except the house and barn, which were barely saved.
  In the fall of 1814, John died leaving Orilla with eight children to provide for. On one occasion, the family existed for three days and nights on the milk of one cow and a quantity of soft maple sap until they were helped by some of the women residents of Windham township who, after learning of their need, came and brought them bread and cakes. About this time, Buffalo was burned by the British, and John Bonney Jr., then a child, remembered in later life, hearing the cannonading on Lake Erie. Orilla's brother, Thomas Bradford Sherwood, served as the administrator of the estate of John Bonney. In order to pay out the debts of John, he had to sell 108 acres to Solomon J. Payne in July 1817.
  Widow, Orilla Bonney, married Alpheus Streator in 1816. He was a widower with six girls. They had four children three boys and one girl. The girl, Orilla, married Wilson Messenger, and moved to Michigan.
  Bears, wolves, and other wild game were then plentiful. At a hunt participated in by the inhabitants of the Nelson township area, twenty five bears, six wolves, and small game in abundance were bagged. In 1824, John Bonney Jr., then 18, and his younger brother, William Bradford Bonney, cleared and fenced five acres of the old family farm, and that year raised twenty-six bushels of wheat to the acre. _____
  The following journal was transcribed by Ariel Cargo Neidringhaus as a part of the paperwork she submitted in her application to join the Mayflower Society. The transcription was done during the years 1930-1932 in Washington, D.C. when Mr. Neidringhaus was a congressman from Missouri. The journal documents the move of the Bonney family from Cornwall, Connecticut to Portage County, Ohio. They passed through the towns of Sharon, America, Washington, Beckman, Fishkill. They crossed the Hudson River at Newberg, and continued through Bloomingrove and Chester, then on to Hamberg and Easton in New Jersey. They crossed the Delaware into Pennsylvania and went through Bethlehem, Whitehall, Reading, Harrisburg, Carlisle, Shippensburg, and across the Three Brothers mountain range in south central, Pennsylvania. Here John Bonney's journal ends, but Ariel's map shows them proceeding through Bedford, Pittsburg, and Beaver, PA and into Ohio through Youngstown and Warren until they came to a stop in Nelson, Portage County, Ohio where they bought land and settled.
  THE MIGRATION TO OHIO
  In 1813 tales were told in Cornwall of the good land which could be obtained, at a reasonable price in what was then the Western Reserve of New Connecticut, now the northeastern part of Ohio. During that year the church records show that forty families departed for the from Cornwall. On June 10, 1813 John Bonney, his wife, Orilla (Sherwood) Bonney and family of seven children, (Almira, Hezekiah, Orpha, John, William Bradford, Hannah and Sherwood), with a party of several families, including Joshua Bradford Sherwood and family, started . The story of that journey made with team and wagon has been preserved for us in a diary, written by John Bonney. The following is a transcript.
  JOURNAL
  1813. June 10th. Left our habitation for N_ Connecticut.
  June 11th. We were escorted by a number of our friends and neighbors to Deacon Malley’s where a prayer was said by the Rev. Timothy Stone. We then parted with deep affection. Proceeded to Sharon. At Jackson’s booked dinner. Proceeded to America. Cook’s put up for the night. Had myself a very sick day and night.
  Saturday June 12th. All in good spirits except myself but little better. Took dinner at Washington, Duchess County.
  Sunday 13th. Beckman town tarried last night. I think all in good health except myself very unwell. No disasters yet.
  Monday morning 14th June at Fishkill. Myself better. Mother quite unwell. Crossed to Newburg 10 o’clock. Found Norman Judson’s wife there. Found no feed until we arrived at Bloominggrove Williamson. Put up for the night. Treated well.
  Tuesday morning 15th. Mother and myself better. Horses out and gone. 12 o’clock horses found. Chester put up for the night at Randolph’s. treated well [crossed out in copy].
  Wednesday 16th moved to New Jersey. Some of us tarried at [not readable] poor accommodations.
  Thursday 17th. Took dinner at poorish house. Tarried all night near Sussex. Good home.
  Saturday morning 19th. All in pretty good spirits.
  Sunday morning 20th. 17 miles from Cartown. Tarried all night at Blair’s. a dirty place and a rascally fellow. Myself and William quite unwell today.
  Monday 21. 9 o’clock crossed the Delaware at Easton. Monday tarried at Bethlehem. Here is a society of Moravians. Their church is large and magnificent. Their dwelling houses and barns are large and compact. Bethlehem contains, I should say, about 150 houses. The property of the Moravians belongs to the society and I am informed that their rules are much the same as the Shakers.
  Tuesday dined at Whitehall.
  Wednesday 23rd. obliged to lay by on account of my health.
  Thursday I am some better, and moved to Redding. A large country town on the Schuylkill. We forded the river, some few things lost in crossing but no lives lost. Some of the women and children much frightened.
  Friday 25. Passed through 2 or 3 thickly settled villages. The houses in most of the towns are built with logs hewed on 2 sides and filled out smooth with lime morter and sticks. The inside is plastered and are very neat houses.
  Saturday 26th. Passed small villages, put up for the night. In 1 1’2 hr. light Eben and Hannah fell from a bridge 6 feet from the water. Hannah’s head considerably hurt. She went under the water but got her head out herself.
  Monday 27th. Passed some villages.
  Tuesday 28th. Passed some thick settled towns..
  Thursday 30th. Passed Shipensburg & thick settled town. Mr. Clark’s children Silas and Hannah supposed to have the measles. Same day began to climb the mountains called the Three Brothers.
  Saturday we find bad roads.
  Sunday morn Mr. Clark’s family overtake us. The children better.
  Here the diary ends, but we learn, through the autobiography of John Bonney Jr., that they went through Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Warren, Trumball County, Ohio, and Southington to reach Nelson, Portage County, Ohio. A long, tedious journey, full of hardships and privations. The last night out they were caught in a hard rain storm, and had to camp in the woods.


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