Bonham, David

Date of Death: 23 Jun 1906
Subject: David Bonham
Source: Holt County Sentinel, 13 Jul 1906, p. 8

After a lingering illness of several weeks, Hon. David Bonham died at his home in King City, June 23, 1906, at the age of 72 years. For 40 years Judge Bonham had been identified with public affairs in Andrew county, having served with distinction for four terms in legislature, and twice served as the presiding judge of Andrew’s county court. He was an energetic leader in the Republican party, and while a member of the legislature, at the close of the war, he found the school fund had been looted of its every dollar by an act of the Democratic legislature, just before the war, and he was the author of the bill, creating a permanent school fund which was approved March 11, 1867, by a Republican governor and passed by a Republican legislature. This act appropriate $1,500,000 out of any moneys received from the Federal government. Thus our present school law had its origin with this splendid type of the rugged, honest citizen, of which the deceased was a splendid specimen. He was a native of New York, and located in Andrew county in 1856. He served in the Union army as quartermaster of the 4th Missouri Cavalry.