Butte County
Biographies
LON BOND
The name of Lon Bond has long figured prominently in
Chico in connection with the practice of law and the substantial measure of
success which he now enjoys has been earned by strenuous effort and the wise
use of his innate powers and talents. Born in Marshall county,
Iowa, September 13, 1876, he is a son of Reuben Bond and the sixth in line of
descent from Joseph Bond, a native of Wiltshire, England, and a member of the
Society of Friends. About 1735 he settled in Pennsylvania and about 1751
removed to Roan, now Guilford county, North Carolina,
where he spent the remainder of his life, passing away before the year 1760. He
had become the father of a son, Samuel Bond, who always resided in North
Carolina, but his son, Joseph C. Bond, went to Indiana about 1812 and made his
home in that state until his death. His son, Darius Bond, the grandfather of
Lon Bond, was born in North Carolina and accompanied his parents on their
removal to Indiana, where he married Betsey Hockett.
His demise occurred in 1837 and in the following year the family settled in
Henry county, Iowa.
His son, Reuben Bond, was born in Randolph county,
Indiana, July 16, 1831, but spent the period of his boyhood on the farm in
Henry county, Iowa, and attended the schools of that locality. In 1852 he came
to California by way of the isthmus of Panama and
proceeded to the gold fields, where he spent three years, returning to the
Hawkeye state at the end of that time. A year later in 1856, he married Miss
Nancy Herring, a native of Hamilton county, Indiana. Reuben Bond engaged in
farming in Iowa until he became a Union soldier, enlisting in Company B of
the Eleventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and serving as a sergeant for three
years. At the close of the Civil war he was mustered out and returned to Iowa,
where he followed agricultural pursuits until 1893, when he journeyed westward
to California, locating in Chico. Here he spent his remaining years, becoming
widely known as a horticulturist. He was called to his final rest in 1903 and
for three years had survived his wife, who passed away in 1900. Their family
numbered seven children: Lydia J., deceased the wife of John H. Adamson, an
Iowa farmer; A. W., a carpenter and contractor; Etta, who is Mrs. H. J. Hunds and resides on a ranch in Oregon; Mary, the wife of
H. F. Kyte, a railroad employe
of Yakima, Washington; Lon; Harvey, who died in infancy; and Annie who died in
1880.
Lon Bond is indebted to the public school system of Iowa
for his early educational advantages and after removing with the family to
Chico, made preparation for his chosen vocation by obtaining employment in the
office of Judge C. G. Warren in November, 1894. Later he studied law under
Richard White, a local attorney, and was admitted to the bar December 31, 1898.
He at once began the practice of law on his own account, opening an office in
Chico, and soon won recognition as an able advocate and wise counselor. His
clientele steadily increased and in 1906 he was the democratic nominee for
district attorney. He was elected to the office, which he occupied from
January, 1907, until January, 1911, and in 1912 was admitted to practice before
the United States supreme court. In the presentation
of a cause he is always well fortified by a comprehensive understanding of the
legal principles applicable thereto, and the extent and importance of his
clientele indicates his status as an attorney. He was alone until 1917, since
which time he has been senior member of the firm of Bond & Deirup, engaged in general practice. They are attorneys for
the First National Trust & Savings Bank of Chico and the Peoples Savings
& Commercial Bank of Chico, and are considered one of the leading law firms
of Butte county. Mr. Bond for many years has been a
director of the First National Trust & Savings Bank, a strong and
substantial financial institution, which has materially furthered the
development of Chico and this district.
In the life record of Mr. Bond there is an important military
chapter. In 1894 he enlisted in Company A, then a
part of the Eighth California Infantry but which in the following year became a
unit of the Second Infantry of the California National Guard. He was made a
corporal and in 1897 was commissioned a second lieutenant. Two years later he
was promoted to the rank of captain and thus served for a period of four years.
In 1904, having previously retired, he became major of the regiment and held
that commission until 1910, when he was made colonel through the choice of his
fellow soldiers. At the call of June 19, 1916, he went with his regiment to the
border and was in command at Nogales, Arizona. On that expedition he took one
thousand, two hundred and thirty-seven men and when he returned to California
all were living and well except one who met an accidental death in a train
yard. As an officer he strictly enforced sanitary measures and saw to it that
his troops were properly 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 as he desired to
give his entire attention to the practice of law. However, when the United
States declared war on Germany he immediately requested to be placed on active
duty but found that the only way he could again join the service was to enter a
training camp, which he did on August 27, 1917, at the Presidio in San
Francisco. On November 27 of the same year he received a captain’s commission
and was assigned to duty with the Three Hundred and Sixty-third Infantry, at
Camp Lewis, Washington, where he remained until March, 1918, when he was sent
to Camp Fremont. He was commissioned major May 17, 1918, and served overseas
with the Thirteenth Infantry. On the 9th of November, 1918, two days
before the signing of the armistice, he was in Brest, France, where he remained
until Christmas day, when he sailed for home.
Major Bond was married in Chico to Miss Helen Ivy Woods,
who was born in Yolo county but was reared and
educated here and previous to her marriage taught in Chico and other towns of
California. Her father David H. Woods was a native of Ohio and as a young man
came to the Pacific coast by the overland route. As a pioneer photographer of
San Francisco he was well known in art circles of that city and later engaged
in the same line of business in Sacramento, where he remained until his demise.
Mrs. Woods passed away at Chico in 1929. Mr. and Mrs. Bond are the parents of
two children, Helen, the wife of Grayson L. Price, formerly an educator but now
a student at the Hastings Law School; and Reuben who is attending the
University of California.
As a member of the democratic state central committee
Major Bond was for years an influential factor in California politics but he is
now nonpartisan, voting according to the dictates of his judgment. He belongs
to a number of fraternal organizations, including the Eagles, the Foresters of
America, the Chico Lodge of Elks and the local lodge of Odd Fellows. He is a
member of the California and American Bar Associations and has ever been
careful to conform his practice to the highest ethical
standards of the profession. Essentially a man of action, Major Bond has given
proof of his loyalty and public spirit in many tangible ways and represents a
fine type of American manhood and citizenship.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
29 April 2010.
Source: Wooldridge, J.W.Major
History of Sacramento Valley California, Vol. 2 Pages 118-120. Pioneer Historical Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010 Marie Hassard.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies