Ozaukee County Documents

This biography was part of "Bonniwell Genealogy 1650 - 1978" sent to and contributed by Martin W. Johnson. It was sent to him in 1979 by George Bonniwell and has been contributed to the Frank L. Weyenberg Library (Mequon/Thiensville).

One of the pioneers of Ozaukee county, Chas. Bonniwell, has within the past few weeks come to the city and is now at the residence of his grand-daughter, Mrs. Wm. E. Patterson. Since 1836, Mr. Bonniwell was a resident of the town of Mequon, Ozaukee county, and the recent sale of an 80 acre farm which he bought 63 years ago terminated his connection with what was known as the "Bonniwell settlement." Mr. Bonniwell is the oldest of 10 children, and the last survivor. He will be 94 yrs. old next Sept. 6th. He has lived to see two great-great-grandchildren and is as merry an old gentleman as is often seen.

Mr. Bonniwell's story is as follows: "I am a ship carpenter by trade," said he, "and a native of Chatham, Kent county, England, which has been called the garden of the world. I was born Sept. 6, 1806. My father and several of my brothers were ship carpenters. Two or three of my brothers came to America, and they wrote back such glowing reports that the rest of the family decided to come. America was all the rage in England 68 or 70 yrs. ago. So it came about that we started for America from the London docks Aug. 11, 1832."

They had a memorable voyage. "First we lay off the Downs over night and then when we were off Dover, we struck a head wind, so that we had to tack for a long time. We noticed that the channel fleet was tacking too, and when they ran into the harbor of Torbay we followed. A man was lost off one of the channel fleet, and though they threw out a life buoy and lowered a boat, he was not rescued. Next day a favorable wind came up and we pulled up our anchors and started along. Soon after passing Land's End, we ran into a storm and lay by for a day and a night. We came to Quebeck finally and were stopped by the quarantine officers. Although the ship had a clean bill of health, we had some delay about landing."

"When we landed, we walked about the streets, observing the scenes of the lower town and the upper town. The streets were several feet lower than the sidewalks, and my mother fell off the sidewalk and sprained her ankle. We picked her up and took her into a drug store and got a doctor. When we got to Montreal, my father was taken down with Asiatic cholera and died. We buried him there, myself and my brother, James, being the only ones who followed him to the grave."

"The family received letters from the brothers who had located in New York to come there without delay, and so they lost no time in making the trip by way of Lake Champlain and Whitehall. At Albany resided my sister with her husband, Philip Moss, and there we saw the first friendly faces. I went to work in New York where my brothers had employment in the navy yard. Everything went well with us, but we used to get together in the evenings and talk over affairs."

"We had all come to America intending to become farmers and yet we found ourselves working at our trade as we had been in the old country. We decided that we would carry out our original plan, and my brothers, James & George, went exploring as far as the valley of the Ohio. While they were gone, I read a good eal about Wisconsin, and when they came back with their reports of the lands they had visited, I told them what I had read. The result was that they all came to my way of thinking, and we decided to come to Wisconsin."

"In the spring of 1836, we started West by way of Albany and the Erie canal. The party consisted of my mother, Mr. & Mrs. Philip Moss, my brothers James, William, Henry, George, Alfred and Walter Bonniwell, my wife and child and myself. When we reached Buffalo, we found that the steamer Illinois, under command of Capt. Blake, was waiting for a trip hand we took passage for Milwaukee. We had rough weather on Lake Huron and ran under the lea of Mackinaw Island for shelter."

"In due time, we reached Milwaukee and when the steamer anchored in the bay, the family came ashore in a flatboat. We found a boarding house, and walked about taking in the city. After a while, we met Peter Turk, who said he knew just the place for us. He took us up into the town of Mequon where he had a sawmill. Our family found shelter the first night in the sawmill. The first thing we did was to get some lumber and build a little house for mother. Then we looked around for some farms and we secured them all adjoining. The family occupied 880 acres in all. Each of the 7 sons had 80, Philip Moss and my mother had 160 each."

"It was heavy timber land, beech, maple, oak, and walnut. We began clearing as soon as we built our log cabins. As soon as we had little openings, we planted potatoes and later wheat."

"Our first crop of wheat ripened, but we had no thresher. So we beat the wheat over a log to separae it from the straw and threw the grain up into the air to get rid of the chaff. The wheat in that day was full of smut. After the wheat was cleaned, the question of making flour from it troubled us considerably, as there was no mill thereby. I had an old coffee mill and we ground our flour in it, making flapjacks and pancakes that were very good. We ground corn in the same mill and ate it in milk."

"After a little while, old Mr. Hilgen came from South Carolina and Cedarburg was established. A sawmill was built there and I helped put it into running order, for though a ship carpenter by trade, I was handy at other trades. While I was orking on this mill at Cedarburg, I leaned what fever and ague was. As I was working in the second story of the mill, I slept there till night and when I got up and went to the boarding house they told me I had ague. The disease was a common thing around there in those days."

Mr. Bonniwell helped build the first grist mill at Grafton. He went to California with several of his brothers in 1849, and after remaining 3 or 4 years, returned to the "Bonniwell Settlement". He went overland by the old trail through Nevada and returned by the Isthmus of Panama. For many years, he has been the only representative of the family in Mequon. His brother, James, moved to the town of Lake, and the other brothers went to Hutchinson, Minn. Philip Moss owned the land at 5th & Sycamore Sts. now occupied by the Davelaar flats.

Mr. Bonniwell is the last surviving member of the Bonniwell band, a pioneer musical institution. The cornet played by James Bonniwell is now in the Public Museum, having recently been donated. Charles Bonniwell was married in England a short time before sailing for this country. His wife, who was a native of Dover, died 5 years ago at the age of 85. Their family consisted of 8 children, of who three survive - Mrs. Posson and Augustus (Gustavus) Bonniwell of Sheboygan and Mrs. Reese of San Jose, Cal. The group picture shows 5 generations of the Bonniwell family, Charles Bonniwell, aged nearly 94, Mrs. Eliza Hofford, who died in 1855, Mrs. Mary Patterson, Mrs. Carrie Judin and Helen Judin, age 3 years.

**Additional information from a slip written by mother: Eliza Bonniwell Hofford born in Dover, England, August 19, 1831; Charles Bonniwell, born in Chatham, England, Sept. 6, 1806; Sophia Elizabeth Munn Bonniwell born Dec. 18, 1809.

**It said in the above article that Chas. Bonniwell was married a short time before he sailed in Aug. 1832, but this wasn't true as our grandmother was born in Aug. 1851. It also said that he returned home from California by way of the Isthmus of Panama, but mother always said he sailed home around Cape rn and found enough gold in California to pay for his long voyage home. It also said that he had 8 children, but he had 10 children, 7 of whom lived to grow up.