Jonathan Crane Bonnel III was born May 8, 1860 in Chatham, New Jersey, the oldest child of Jonathan Jr and Emily Russell Bonnel.  Jonathan was followed by two sisters–Jeannette who never married, and Eloise who died at age six in 1871.

This Bonnel family was instrumental in the development of this area of New Jersey.  Jonathan III’s great-grandfather, also named Jonathan, founded Bonneltown which later was renamed Stanley.  His grandfather, Jonathan C. Sr who went by “Crane”, played an important part in getting the railroad to run a line through what is now Summit, New Jersey.  Jonathan and his father, Johnathan Jr, continued to develop the area economically in the years since.

In 1875, Jonathan’s mother died at the age of forty-three.  His father remarried in 1879 to Sarah English, the daughter of a prominent local doctor.  Unfortunately, that marriage only lasted about a year as Sarah died in 1880.

Jonathan himself married just once.  On June 27, 1892, he married a woman named Carrie in Kings, New York.  Not much is known about Carrie other than she was born in 1856 in Wisconsin, her parents were born in New York and she was likely married once before Jonathan.  There were no children born to this marriage and Carrie disappeared after the 1910 census.  There is some evidence that she might have relocated to Los Angeles.  Jonathan is listed as divorced in the 1915 New Jersey Census.

For several years Jonathan was in poor health.  He was hospitalized when his father died in February 1916.  His sister Jeannette was left control of the family estate and charged with her brother’s care.  Jonathan succumbed to his illness in November 1916.  He is buried in the New Providence Presbyterian Churchyard in New Providence, New Jersey.

Jonathan Crane Bonnel III was my 4th cousin 5x removed on my dad’s side.

REFERENCES

• United States Census, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910
• New Jersey State Census, 1885, 1895, 1905, 1915
• New Jersey Death Index
• New York Extracted Marriage Index
• Find A Grave website
• The Chatham Press – December 2, 1916 & February 12, 1916 via Newspapers.com
• The Central New Jersey Home News  – February 7, 1916 via Newspapers.com
• New Jersey Marriages
• US Newspaper Extractions form the Northeast