Butte County
Biographies
MAJOR LON BOND
MAJOR LON BOND.—A truly self-made man who has worked his way, step by step, to his present position of prominence, and who possesses nothing that he has not earned by strenuous effort, is Major Lon Bond, who was born in Bangor, Marshall County, Iowa, on September 13, 1876, the son of Rueben Bond, a native of Randolph County, Ind., born on July 16, 1831. Major Bond is the sixth generation removed from Joseph Bond, a native of Wiltshire, England, who migrated to Pennsylvania about 1735. The family were members of the Society of Friends. Joseph Bond removed to Roan, now Guilford County, N. C., about 1751, and there he passed away before 1760. His son Samuel, spent his entire life in North Carolina, but Samuel’s son Joseph C. removed to Indiana about 1812, where he died. His son Darius was Major Bond’s grandfather. He was born in North Carolina and removed to Indiana, where he married Betsey Hockett. Darius Bond died in 1837, and in 1838 the family removed to Henry County, Iowa. Reuben Bond attended the public schools in Henry County, where he grew up on a farm. In 1852 he set out for California via the Isthmus of Panama, and after his arrival in this state engaged in mining for three years, after which he went back to Iowa. The next year, 1856, he married and settled there as a farmer. In the terrific contest between brother and brother in the North and the South, he enlisted in the Eleventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry, Company B, and served as sergeant for three years, or until the close of the war. On his return to Iowa, he resumed farming until 1893, when he moved to Chico, Cal. There, in 1903, he died, a noted horticulturist. The Major’s mother had been Miss Nancy Herring before her marriage, and she came from Hamilton County, Ind. Her grandfather Herring had moved to Iowa, and there her mother was brought up. Mrs. Reuben Bond died in 1900, the mother of seven children, five of whom are living.
The youngest of the children in the family, Lon Bond attended the public schools in Iowa and Chico, and in November, 1894, began to study law under Judge C. G. Warren, of that town. Then he studied under Richard White, the attorney, and was finally admitted to the bar on December 31, 1898, whereupon he began the practice of law on his won account, opening an office at Chico. In 1906, Mr. Bond was a candidate for the office of district attorney, having been nominated on the Democratic ticket, and in that office he continued to serve the public from January, 1907, until the beginning of 1911. Since his retirement as district attorney, Major Bond has enjoyed a fine civil practice.
The Major was married in Chico to Miss Helen Ivy Woods, a native of Yolo County, who was reared in Chico, and by her he has had two children, Helen and Reuben. Mrs. Bond’s father, David H. Woods, was born in Ohio. He was a pioneer of California, having crossed the plains, and in the pioneer days was a noted artist in Sacramento and San Francisco. The Major belongs to Chico Lodge, B. P. O. Elks, and is also an Odd Fellow, a Forester of America, a Woodman of the World, and an Eagle. As a Democrat, he was for years a member of the Democratic State Central Committee.
It is as a soldier-citizen, however, that Major Bond has come into prominence. In 1894 he enlisted in Company A, then a part of the Eighth Infantry, but which the following year was made a part of the Second California Infantry, National Guard. From being corporal he was made, in 1897, a second lieutenant, and in 1899 he was made captain, and commanded for two terms of two years each. In 1904, having previously retired, he was elected major of the regiment. He accepted the commission and held it until 1910, when he was made colonel. This office was given him by choice of his fellow soldiers. At the call on June 19, 1916, he went with his regiment to the Border, and was in command at Nogales. He went down there with one thousand two hundred thirty-seven men, and when he returned to California all but one were living and well, the one having been accidentally killed in the train yard. As an officer, he strictly enforced sanitary measures and saw that his troops were well cared for and provided with all attainable comforts. The regiment was ordered back to Los Angeles, and was mustered out in November, 1916. He resigned his commission the latter part of December, 1916, to give all of his time to the practice of law, as he had gained a large clientele, who occupied his entire attention. Upon the declaration of war on Germany, however, Mr. Bond immediately requested to be placed on active duty, but found the only way he could enter the service again would be to enter a training camp, which he did on August 27, 1917, at the Presidio in San Francisco. He won a commission as captain on November 17, that same year, and was sent to Camp Lewis and attached to the Three Hundred Sixty-third Infantry. He remained there till March, 1918, when he was sent to Camp Fremont. He was commissioned Major of Infantry on May 17, 1918, and is now serving over seas with the Thirteenth Infantry.
Transcribed by Sharon Walford Yost.
Source: "History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C.
Mansfield, Pages 1322-1323, Historic Record Co, Los
Angeles, CA, 1918.
©
2009 Sharon Walford Yost.
Golden Nugget Library's
Butte County Biographies