Roger Ellis Bonney
World War I Veteran
By Camille Arbogast
Roger Ellis Bonney was born on December 24, 1894, in Dedham, Massachusetts. His father, Daniel Weston Bonney, was also born in Dedham. His mother, Eva (sometimes reported as Evangeline) Melissa (Wetmore), was born in Clifton, New Brunswick; her mother was originally from Massachusetts. Eva immigrated to the United States in 1868. She and Daniel married in March 1886, in Hyde Park. They had six other children: Daniel, Jr. born in 1889, Samuel in 1898, John in 1892, Eunice in 1897, Ruth in 1898, and Sarah in 1901.
Daniel changed careers frequently and appears to have suffered some financial troubles. In the 1880s, he served “several years” in Dedham as “Constable, Engineer, and Janitor of High School.” His occupation on his marriage record is machinist, his father’s profession. In 1893, he was appointed a Weigher of Hay and Coal in Dedham. That same year, he was listed in the Dedham directory as a clerk in C.S. Churchill’s coal office. He was a salesman at the time of Roger’s birth. In 1899, he worked in Norwood as a builder’s finisher while residing on Curve Street in Dedham. He was a farmer the next year, living with his family in a rented house in Duxbury; a farm laborer boarded with them. By 1904, the Bonneys were again living in Dedham, at 114 Oakdale Avenue, and Daniel was a clerk, the occupation he kept for the rest of his life. A year later, in 1905, he declared bankruptcy. He declared bankruptcy again in 1910; a business he started with son Daniel, D.W. Bonney & Son, real estate and insurance brokers, had failed.
In 1911, Roger graduated from Oakdale Grammar school. He may have become an apprentice optician around this time. In October 1911, it was reported that a Roger Bonney “has returned to his duties with the Boston Optical Co, after a serious operation.” As early as 1913, the Dedham directory listed his occupation as an optician. His employer in 1917, was the Federal Optical Company, of 387 Washington Street in Boston.
In 1916, the family moved to Dorchester, purchasing 18 Edson Street. The following year both Daniel, Sr. and Daniel, Jr. died. Sometime prior to the First World War, Roger served three and a half years in the state military.
During the First World War, Roger was a Sergeant in Battery C of the 71st Artillery, Coast Artillery Corps (CAC). The 71st Artillery was formed out of pre-existing Coast Defense companies in May 1918. Battery C was stationed at Fort Andrews on Peddocks Island in Boston Harbor.
On July 31, 1918, in a pouring rain, Roger sailed for Europe, leaving from Pier 3 in East Boston on the HMS Margha, one of nine hundred and ninety-two men on board. In France, they trained in Saint-Sylvan, near Angers, Maine et Loire. The 71st was still training when the Armistice was declared on November 11, 1918. Roger returned to the United States on the transport ship Manchuria, sailing from Saint-Nazaire, France, on February 11, 1919, and arriving in Hoboken, New Jersey, on February 22. At Camp Devens, he witnessed naturalization papers for a number of his subordinates who became American citizens.
After the war, Roger returned to 18 Edson Street and resumed work as an optician and lens grinder. His younger sisters were stenographers. Also living with the family was his sister-in-law, Hazel M. Bonney, his brother, Daniel’s widow, who was a telephone company clerk.
In the mid-1920s, Roger moved back to Dedham, living with his mother and youngest sister, Sarah, at 99 Munroe Street, which they owned. Lodging with them in 1930 was Frances Thumin, a public school teacher. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Roger occasionally appeared in Dedham news accounts. When a friend was seriously injured, Roger donated blood for a blood transfusion. He was a member of The Society in Dedham for Apprehending Horse Thieves. Founded in 1810 to combat horse thievery, by the 20th century it was a purely social organization. In 1933, he was appointed a Rider with the Society, a position open only to men weighing more than 200 pounds, so as to be heavy enough to sit on a horse thief and prevent his escape.
Roger was married in 1938 to Jean C. (Hird) Davidson, a widow whose first husband had died a year earlier. In 1940, they resided at 94 Monroe Street. Living with them was 18-year-old student Elizabeth Davidson, a sister-in-law according to the 1940 census. Still working as an optician and lens grinder, Roger was employed by the Pinkham & Smith Company of 286 Boylston Street in Boston.
Roger died on December 22, 1949. A funeral service was held for him at Saint John’s Methodist Church in Oakdale Square, Dedham. He was buried in Brookdale Cemetery in Dedham, in the Bonney family lot.
Sources
Birth Record, Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts; Ancestry.com
Family Tree; Ancestry.com
1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940 U.S. Federal Census; Ancestry.com
Boston and Dedham directories, various years; Ancestry.com
Marriage Record for Daniel Bonney & Eva Wetmore; Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts; Ancestry.com
Historical Catalogue of the Dedham High School, Dedham MA: High School Association, 1889: 89; Books.Google.com
“Business Troubles,” Boston Globe, 6 May 1905: 9; Newspapers.com
“Business Troubles,” Boston Globe, 11 February 1910: 13; Newspapers.com
“Appendix of School Report,” 275th Annual Report of the Town Officers of Dedham, Massachusetts and the Town Records for the year Ending January 31, 1911. Dedham, MA: The Transcript Press, 1922; Books.Google.com
“Boston,” The Optical Journal and Review of Optometry, 12 October 1911: 881; Books.Google.com
World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration; Ancestry.com
Lists of Outgoing & Incoming Passengers, 1917-1938. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985 The National Archives at College Park, MD; Ancestry.com
Elder, Bowman, compiler. An Illustrated History of the 71st Artillery (CAC). Indianapolis: Press of Wm. S. Burford; HathiTrust.org
“Two Hurt as Auto Hits Wrecked Cars,” Boston Globe, 29 Aug 1927: 3; Newpspapers.com
“What, No Horses Stolen! Yet Society Keeps Vigil,” Boston Globe, 7 Dec 1933: 14; Newspapers.com
Massachusetts Vital Records Index to Marriages [1916–1970], Department of Public Health, Registry of Vital Records and Statistics; Ancestry.com
Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration. Records of the Selective Service System, National Archives and Records Administration; Ancestry.com
“Morning Death Notices,” Boston Globe, 24 December 1949:12; Newspapers.com
Roger E. Bonney, FindAGrave.com