Early Oregon Cousins – James Monroe Bond

Again I am posting a copy from the article previously published in 2011 in Trees From the Grove, the Cottage Grove Genealogical Society periodical. James Monroe Bond was a 1^st cousin of James Howard Bond, my gt-grandfather, so was my 1^st cousin 3 times removed.

Cousin James Monroe Bond was the third son of William and Hannah (Hayes) Bond, born 17 November 1847 in Marion County, Iowa. His oldest brother, Daniel born in 1842, had died sometime before the 1850 census was taken, so Seth age 5 and James age 3 were the two children in the household with their parents in Marion County, Iowa on 10 September 1850. It was the next month when another son, Ebenezer, joined the family.

William’s family, including their three young boys, left Iowa in 1853 with a number of other relatives and traveled the long route over the Oregon Trail heading to the Oregon Territory. James was almost 5 ½ when they left in April. I wonder if James was old enough to realize that his mother was expecting another child. But he certainly would have been aware when on August 24^th the train traveled to Lees encampment in the Blue Mountains and a baby sister, named Emma Augusta, was born. The train “layed by” the next day and continued their travel on the 26^th. By September 14^th they had arrived at Summit Prairie on the slopes of Mt. Hood and it was there that James’ mother Hannah died. A number of years later his cousin Harvey related that Emma was cared for by her Hayes grandparents and the three boys were cared for by William’s brother Solomon and his wife Huldah, who was Hannah’s younger sister.

James’ father William did settle on a Donation Land Claim of 110 acres in Linn County in September 1855. On the 1860 census taken in June, William Bond was listed as a farmer in Linn County, post office Harrisburgh, with three sons: Seth 15, James 13 and Ebenezer 10. Emma was listed on the census with her grandmother Hayes.

Just two years later, 1862, brought a big change to the family when in September William married Talitha (Belknap) Starr, a widow with eight children. It appears that William’s family moved to the Alpine area in Benton County where Talitha and her first husband had their Donation Land Claim. It’s probable that Emma also moved there. But sadly, sometime within the next year, at age 9, Emma died from scarlet fever and was buried in the Simpson Chapel Cemetery, also known as the Alpine Cemetery. William and Talitha had one child together, a daughter, Irene Grace, born in August 1864. But then less than a year later, Talitha again became a widow when William died in May 1865 and he was also buried in Simpson Chapel Cemetery.

Now James was not quite 18 and had lost both parents. After his brother Seth had his 21^st birthday in October of 1866, Seth was appointed by the Benton County Court as guardian of his two younger brother, James and Ebenezer, who were still minors. They each had a one-fourth interest in the land in Linn County left by their father.

But the next month, just before his 19^th birthday, on 11 November 1866, at Simpson Chapel, James married Sarah Starr, the 15 year old daughter of Talitha. Nine months later, 27 August 1867, James and Sarah’s first child, Emma Augusta (named after James’ deceased sister) was born.

It was probably the next year, in 1868 that James and Sarah moved to California. By the 1870 census James and Sarah, with two children, were living in San Joaquin Township, Stanislaus County, California, Crows Landing post office. James was a farmer and his brother Seth, a school teacher, was living next door. Bureau of Land Management records show that James M. Bond purchased 160 acres of government land in Stanislaus County in 1873. A biography published in 1905 stated that they moved farther south, near Lemoore, California, in 1877.

By the 1880 census, James and Sarah and their six children, Emma, William, Ernest, Elmer, Frank and Walter, were living in Lemoore Township, Tulare County, California, along with his brother Ebenezer and his wife, Ebenezer’s brother-in-law and a servant. This area became Kings County in 1893. Both James and Ebenezer were farmers. Seth was also in Tulare County at Visalia, teaching school. The Great Register for Tulare County in 1890 showed James Monroe Bond, age 43, born in Iowa, had registered to vote in Lemoore Precinct on 12 September. Ebenezer registered 17 October.

According to his obituary, James “felt that he was called to minister to the sick.” He studied nursing and then about 1890 he entered the California Eclectic Medical College in San Francisco and graduated in 1893. He practiced a year there and then moved to Hanford, Kings County, California, where he was listed on the 1900 census as a physician and surgeon. Seven of his ten children were living at home: Elmer 26 (also a physician and surgeon) Frank 23, Walter 21, Edith 17, Jessie 15, Charles 11, and Harry 8. Enumerated next to them was James’s oldest son, William 30, a farmer, with his wife and three children.

James ran a sanitarium in Hanford until 1906 (the year of the San Francisco earthquake) when the family moved to Arizona and he opened a sanitarium in the Phoenix area. They were listed there on the 1910 census with James as physician at the Arizona Sanitarium, which was a Seventh Day Adventist institution. Sarah and their married daughter Edith Dillon 28 were nurses and Edith’s husband was listed as a minister for the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Three of the younger of the now eleven children were also in the household: Jessie 25, Harry 19 and Mildred Grace 11. The biography stated about James, “both the doctor and his wife are enthusiastic Seventh Day Adventists and have reared their family in the same belief.”

About 1911 James moved back to California and worked as chaplain and associate physician at the Healdsburg Medical Home in Sonoma County. His youngest son, Harry Cecil, died in 1912 and was buried at Oak Mound Cemetery in Healdsburg. His daughter, Edith (Bond) Dillon died in Arizona in 1913 and was also buried at Oak Mound. When James died 22 March 1914 in Healdsburg, he was buried at Oak Mound Cemetery and all three did not have markers.

Sarah was listed as a widow, occupation practical nurse, living with her daughter Emma Wheeler and doctor son-in-law in Fresno, California, on the 1920 census. Sarah’s obituary stated that she had married her brother-in-law Ebenezer after he became a widower, then she again became a widow when he died. She died 23 May 1936.