The Bonnel Homeplace

Bonnel Family, undated

This tintype is one of the images in Grandma Bonnel's Photo Album. It is labeled "Bonnel Family" and is presumably the parents, and some of the brothers and sisters of Eva Bonnel Whitaker. The family moved to Kansas from Platte County, Missouri around the time of the Civil War, settling near Effingham in Atchison County.

In the 1900 census Charles and Mary Catherine (Mollie) Bonnel had their four youngest surviving children living at home, Charles (aged 22), John (aged 20), Henry (aged 18) and Laura (aged 16). The same children are the only ones shown in the household in the 1895 Kansas State Census. The 1900 Census states that Mary C. Bonnel bore 16 children, 12 of whom survived. My research indicates there were eight surviving daughters and four surviving sons. The four who died as children and are buried with their parents at Noffsinger Cemetery in Atchison County.

Though undated, I believe the photo was taken about 1894 at the family home. Only one young girl appears in the tintype. Their youngest daughter Myrtle died in 1893, so I am assuming Laura, born about 1884, is the girl and that the picture was taken after Myrtle's death. By 1895 their oldest son and seven older daughters were all married, leaving only the four children named in the 1895 census at home. The older girls in the picture are probably daughters Josie (born about 1874) and Kate (born in 1876) who married in late 1894 or 1895.

Sources
Whitaker, Eva Bonnel. Bonnel Photo Album. c. 1885 - 1960. Privately held by granddaughter of E. B. Whitaker, McCook, NE. 1994.

"United States Census, 1900," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MMT9-Z3X : accessed 31 May 2013), Mary ? Bonnel in entry for C F Bonnel, 1900.

Blue Skyways, Kansas GenWeb, "1895 Census Atchison County," database, The KSGenWeb Project (http://www.skyways.org/genweb/ : accessed 30 May 2013), Bonnell, C. household 164; citing Center Township census, page 22.