FREDERICK CARL BONNETT is engaged in general merchandising at Sykesville, and is one of the leading 
representatives of commercial interests in that place.

   Born August 24, 1864 in Henderson township, Jefferson county, Mr. Bonnett is a son of John F. and Caroline 
(Priester) Bonnett, natives of Germany.  His father was born April 28, 1833, in Charlottenburg, Prussia, a son of 
H.C. and Maria (Elizabeth) Bonnett. His ancestors were from France, and at the time of the persecution of the 
Protestants by Catherine de Medici, they fled to Germany, where Queen Charlotte, who was one of their faith, 
gladly received them and gave them land on which to make a new home.  They afterward went back to France 
in order to try to recover their possessions left in that country, but were unsuccessful in this, and the family lived 
peacefully in Germany until 1849.  The father of our subject, until eight years of age, attended school for half of 
each day and worked in a mine the remainder of the time. He was employed in a silver mine for about one year, and 
then, with an older brother, who was married, started for America.  They embarked on a sailing vessel, March 5, 1849, 
and reached New York after a voyage of fifty-one days, April 28, 1849, which was the sixteenth anniversary of Mr. 
Bonnett’s birth.  He went by boat to Albany, thence by rail to Erie, Penn., by canal to Beaver, then on to Pittsburg, 
and up the Allegheny river to the mouth of Red Bank creek.  This circuitous route consumed almost as much time as 
the ocean voyage. Mr. Bonnett secured employment in the Pike Furnace Iron Works, where he was employed for nearly 
eleven years. He then went to Reynoldsville, Jefferson county, and purchased eighty acres of wild land in Henderson 
township, which he cleared and improved with the aid of his children. His wife was born in Germany, and their children 
were: Louis L., who died at the age of nineteen; Frederick C., Bertha M., wife of Daniel Wise, proprietor of a hotel in 
Sykesville; Charles A. and Jacob J. who were farmers of Jefferson county; Caroline, who is keeping house for her two 
brothers, Henry A., at home; and Mary S., wife of A.D. Lydick, a merchant of Mahaffey, Penn., and two others, deceased.

   Frederick Carl Bonnett, whose name opens this article, resided with his parents until twenty years of age, during which 
time he worked for his father, and for others in the neighborhood.  He also attended the public schools and pursued a 
course in the commercial college of Mahaffey in 1890.  On leaving home he was employed on a drilling machine, hauling 
and peeling logs, etc. On attaining his majority he went to Kansas, but after a year spent in the West returned home, and 
conducted a store for his brother-in-law, A. D. Lydick, in Clearfield county, for a year and a half.  He was afterward in the 
employ of J.H. Ake, of Sykesville, for two and a half years, when he returned home, and in the following autumn entered 
school in Mahaffey. For two and a half years he was employed as a salesman in a store at that place, and on the expiration 
of that period he came to Sykesville, where he has since engaged in business on his own account. He carries a larg and 
well-selected stock of general merchandise, and his enterprise, careful management and excellent business ability are 
bringing to him success.  He is progressive in his methods, honorable in his dealings, and has won the public confidence, 
and therefore the public support.

   Our subject is a popular member of the Knights of Pythias fraternity of Sykesville, and of the Odd Fellows Lodge in 
Mahaffey. He also belongs to the Reformed Church, and in his political belief is a Democrat. He is an intelligent, broad-minded 
man, possessed of considerable poetic talent, and has written many able articles for a number of the leading journals 
throughout the United States.  In 1892 he was married to Laura I. Dickey, of Brady township, Clearfield county, Penn., a 
respectable young lady, and an active member of the Reformed Church, to whom active work Mr. Bonnett owes much of 
his success in the mercantile business.  Three children have been born to them, namely: Rachel C.C., born July 7, 1893; 
Ruth V., born May 9, 1895; and John F., born July 2, 1897.

Source: Commemorative Biographical Records of Central PA including the counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson & Clarion; 
Chicago, J.H. Beers and Co., 1898, Transcribed by Pamela Myers-Grewell