Robert E. Bonner

{{Infobox person

| image = Portrait of Robert E. Bonner.jpg

| image_size =

| name = Robert Bonner

| caption =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1824|04|28}}

| birth_place = Ireland

| death_date = {{death date and age|1899|07|06|1824|04|28}}

| death_place =

| occupation = {{hlist|Businessman|Newspaper columnist, publisher|Standardbred racehorse owner|philanthropist}}

| spouse = {{Marriage|Jane McConlis|May 21, 1850|April 2, 1878|end=d.}}

| children = 3 sons, 3 daughters

}}

Robert Edwin Bonner (April 28, 1824 – July 6, 1899) was an American publisher, now best known for The New York Ledger, a weekly story newspaper. He owned famous trotting horses and he was a prominent supporter of the Presbyterian Church and Pastor John Hall.{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/breedersportsma351899sanf/#page/n26/mode/1up|title=Breeder and sportsman|date=July 2, 1882|publisher=San Francisco, Calif. : [s.n.]|via=Internet Archive}}

Bonner was born in Ireland, in the town of Ramelton, Co Donegal; his ancestors were Scottish Presbyterians. He arrived in America in 1839, where his uncle owned land in Hartford, Connecticut. Bonner became an apprentice in the printing trade and worked at the Hartford Courant. There he was an extraordinarily fast compositor. Completing his apprenticeship in 1844, he moved to New York and worked for the organ of the new American Republican Party (later Native American; Know-Nothing) while he lived by "practicing the most rigid economy". When it suspended operation he found work at The Evening Mirror, a daily launched in 1844. He began writing and contributed to various newspapers in other cities.

He worked at The Merchant's Ledger, a financial weekly, in the advertising department and became involved with printing that newspaper. He purchased it in 1851 and changed the name to The New York Ledger in 1855, when he sought a wider readership by running articles by well-known writers. He also used advertising to raise the profile of the paper and increase the circulation.

Harness racing owner

File:Coat of Arms of Robert Bonner.svg

File:Grant & Bonner - Dexter's best time 2.16 1-4 LCCN2004669682.jpg racing in a carriage in New York, as depicted in an 1868 lithograph|upright=1.3]]

Around 1856, Bonner became interested in horses and, in particular, the "trotting" form of harness racing. He paid large sums for his horses; one of the most famous was Dexter, a gelding that cost him $35,000.{{cite news |title=Dexter is Dead|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1888/04/22/106318706.pdf|access-date=May 1, 2015 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=April 22, 1888}} He did not gamble or race for money, but there was a rivalry between Bonner and Commodore Vanderbilt over who had the best horses.{{cite news|title=Mr Robert Bonner|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1888/12/26/106203030.pdf|access-date=April 10, 2015 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=December 26, 1888}} At one time, he was president of the New York Driving Club. In 1893, he was presented with a silver sculpture of his trotting horse, Sunol being driven by Charles Marvin.{{Cite news |date=December 22, 1893 |title=Honors to Robert Bonner; The Veteran Horseman Presented with Statuette |pages=6 |work=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1893/12/22/archives/honors-to-robert-bonner-the-veteran-horseman-presented-with-a.html |access-date=December 9, 2022}} A bronze copy of the Cyrus Dallin sculpture is in the collection of the Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame in Goshen, New York.

Bonner was a philanthropist who preferred not to make his donations public, but he was a known supporter of Princeton University and contributed $131,000 towards the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church.{{cite book|last1=Jessup|first1=Henry Wynams|title=History of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church of New York City, from 1808 to 1908|date=1909|publisher=Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church|location=New York|page=55|url=https://archive.org/stream/historyoffifthav00jess#page/54/mode/2up|access-date=April 10, 2015}} He was also president of the Scotch-Irish Society of America.{{cite book|title=The Scotch-Irish in America|date=1895|publisher=The Scotch-Irish Society of America|page=1|url=https://archive.org/stream/scotchirishiname07scotiala#page/n15/mode/2up|access-date=April 10, 2015}}

Bonner married Jane McConlis in 1850 and they had six children although one child, Martha Agnes, died in infancy. Bonner's wife Jane died in 1878.{{cite news |title=Mrs Robert Bonner|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1878/04/03/81724080.pdf|access-date=April 10, 2015 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=April 3, 1878}}

In 1887, he passed the Ledger to his three sons. Robert Bonner's Sons published dime novels, too.

Pastor John Hall died in September 1898 in Ireland and one son, Andrew Allen Bonner, died in December 1898. According to his obituary, Bonner never recovered from the shocks; his health and interest failed. He was confined to a bed at times during June and he died on July 6, 1899. He was survived by sons Robert Edwin and Frederick and daughter Mrs. Francis Forbes.

Bonner is the namesake of the city of Bonner Springs, Kansas.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tpJw0rNEuJwC&pg=PA320 | title=History of Wyandotte County, Kansas: And Its People, Volume 1 | publisher=The Lewis Publishing Company | author=Morgan, Perl Wilbur | year=1911 | pages=320}}

Upon his 1899 death, he was interred in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

References

{{reflist|25em |refs=

{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4710754/the-new-york-times/ |title=Robert Bonner is Dead |newspaper=The New York Times |page=1 |date=July 7, 1899 |access-date=August 19, 2020 |via=Newspapers.com}}

{{cite web |last1=Shields|first1=Kevin|title=Robert Bonner|url=https://sites.google.com/site/rameltontidytowns1/robert-bonner|website=Ramelton Tidy Towns|access-date=April 10, 2015}}

}}

External links

[http://www.scotch-irishsocietyusa.org/ Scotch-Irish Society of the USA]

Category:1824 births

Category:1899 deaths

Category:19th-century American newspaper editors

Category:American racehorse owners and breeders

Category:American Presbyterians

Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent

Category:19th-century American newspaper publishers (people)