BOND, JAMES, a prosperous and successful farmer of Morgan County, Ill., now living partially retired in a very pleasant home in the village of Franklin, was born in Barrington, Somersetshire, England, November 8, 1840, the son of Thomas and Eliza Bond, who spent the entire period of their lives in their native land. Mr. Bond mastered the trade of a carpenter and builder under his father, who followed that vocation in England, and was thus employed until 1873, when he set sail for New York in an Inman Line steamer, made his way to Philadelphia, and thence traveled through the State in search of a favorable location. Returning to England in the summer of 1873, in the following year he emigrated with his family to America and settled in Leroy. Later, renewing his search for a good farm upon which to locate, he reached Marion Center, in Marion County, Kan., where he selected a promising farm of 320 acres upon which he paid a deposit only, as his capital at that time remained in England. As 1874 was the year of the grasshopper plague, Mr. Bond forfeited his deposit on the land, and returning to Illinois in the autumn of that year, bought a quarter section of land in Section 21, Town 14 North, Range 9 West, in Morgan County. Here he later built a good house, two large barns, planted trees and drained the land, living with his family on this farm until 1895, when he located on a tract of 400 acres, which he purchased in Sections 5, 6 and 7, Town 13, Range 9. In the fall of 1904 he rented his farm and settled in Franklin.

Mr. Bond was married in England to Elizabeth Hook, daughter of John Hook, of Newnham, Gloucestershire, and by this marriage two children were born in England: Alice Kate, wife of William Challans, and Nellie, deceased. Of those born in America three are living, viz.: Lois Maud, wife of William E. Laverick; Blanche Eliza and Lillian Gertrude, the last two living at home. Mr. Bond is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and in politics, a Democrat.