San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JOSEPH WILLIAM BONNET
The owner of a forty-acre ranch in
the third voting precinct of Ripon, where he conducts a dairy and farm under
the South San Joaquin Irrigation District, and where he has resided since 1902,
Joseph William Bonnet was born at Boerne, Kendall County, Texas, March 7,
1884. He is the son of the late John
Charles Bonnet, who was born on the Alsace-Lorraine border, in Germany, and
died in Texas in 1892, being then sixty-five years old. He was the second husband of Joseph Bonnet’s
mother, and served in the Civil War as first lieutenant. There were five children born to Mr. Bonnet’s
parents: Lillian Ann, wife of E. A.
Schrader, a rancher near Ripon; Joseph William, of this review; Louise, wife of
J. L. Kiernan, in the fuel and ice business in Turlock; Kate, wife of E. D.
Hughes, a rancher six miles east of Turlock; and Alice, wife of Ray Watson,
newspaper man at Fresno. Kate and Alice
are twins. The mother’s maiden name was
Catherine Chambers. She was born in
County Mayo, Ireland, and came to America and married Sebastian Farschon, her
first husband, in Chicago where he was a brick mason. Later they went to Texas where Mr. Farschon
died, leaving four children, namely:
John W., formerly the blacksmith at Ripon (see his sketch in this work);
George P. (deceased in Texas), who was married and left a widow and four
children; William Austin, a rancher a ditch-tender near Ripon, where he owns
forty acres; and Mary, who became the wife of Charles Moser, of Monterey, Old
Mexico, where she died leaving no children.
Joseph William Bonnet lived in Texas
until sixteen years old. He came to
California in 1900 and became a helper to his half-brother, John W. Farschon,
in his blacksmith shop at Ripon. Two
years later the mother and the rest of the family came out to California and
they settled on the farm now owned and operated by Mr. Bonnet, which has been
the Bonnet home place since 1902.
Mr. Bonnet was married at Stockton
in 1909 to Miss Ethel W. Whitesides, a daughter of
John L. and Mollie E. Whitesides, who came from Texas
where Mrs. Bonnet was also born. Her
father came from Kentucky, as was also her mother. Mr. and Mrs. Bonnet have six children: LeRoy S., Thelma M., Mildred A., John Joseph,
Vera Amy, and James Alton. Mr. Bonnet
has loyally lent his help and influence in furtherance of the general welfare,
particularly so in the development of the South San Joaquin Irrigation
District. He and his interesting family
are highly regarded and mingle with the best families in the Ripon district.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1331. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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