Today I have a rather complicated entry to make. I'll try to make it easy to read. Great Grandfather, Thomas Henry Bonner had a brother named Henry Bonner. Henry married Amanda Pond. I wrote about them on February 24, 2011. They had four children: Robert Douglas, Ernest Alfred, Austin and Henry. In the Feb. 24 entry, I mentioned that I had information about everyone except Austin Bonner. I have since gained information about Austin Bonner. Oddly enough what sent me in the right direction was the obituary of his brothers, Robert Douglas Bonner and Ernest Alfred Bonner. In Robert's obituary in 1933, Austin is mentioned as a surviving brother. In Ernest's obituary it states he is survived by his neice, Mrs. Helen Bonner McInnis of Portland ME. What confused me was that I had never heard of Helen and I was surprised that the obituary didn't name the four children of Ernest Alfred Bonner.
Here is his obituary from the Portland Maine Telegraph, March 16, 1947.
I still don't know why his children aren't mentioned except perhaps the person writing the information wasn't aware of them. Ernest had been divorced since about 1920 from his wife Belle Hazelton Bonner. I began searching Helen Bonner McInnis and found that in 1910 Helen Bonner was age 6 and living at Swans Island, Maine with Hattie and Horace Stanley. She also lived with Hattie Stanley in 1920. I'm not sure of their relationship because the census stated that Helen was a boarder, even at age 6. So by backtracking in the Maine Deaths and Marriages for someone with the last name Bonner, I found Helen's parents. They were Nellie M. Cook and Austin Bonner. Nellie Bonner died in October 1903 at Swans Island after giving birth to Helen in July 1903.
Helen first married Charles Parker in 1923 and they had one child Edna Hilda Parker. Secondly she married Horace McInnis. Helen died in 1994 in Portland ME and in her obituary she is survived by her daughter Edna and it states her parents were Austin Bonner and Nellie Cook Bonner.
Although I have only gained one additional shred of information about Austin Bonner, I don't know what happened to him after his wife Nellie died. It appears that he left Swan Island and perhaps remarried, leaving his daughter in the care of Hattie Stanley. There is still no census information or death information that I've found about Austin after the 1903 death of Nellie Cook Bonner, until he is mentioned in the 1933 obituary of his brother.
I found a nice photo of Hattie Stanley, the woman who raised Helen Bonner McInnis.
I will keep searching for Austin Bonner, just don't quite know where to look.
