HISTORY OF BONO
City of BONO, Arkansas
The information contained is this History of Bono sheet was obtained by Nancy Dobbins from newspaper articles in the verticle file at the Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library and from historical books on Craighead County located in the Arkansas Genealogy Room at the public library. Information was provided generously by Bono Mayor LM Duncan from the city's historical document file. For more information on Bono, visit the Public Library in Jonesboro.
Bonnerville was established about the time the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis Railroad began operation in Craighead County in 1883. The railroad company wanted to establish a station to serve the large Big Creek Farming community.
Mr. Alfred Bonner, a well-to-do farmer who owned land on the right of way, offered to donate the cite for the railroad station and post office if the town was named after him. Since Mr. Bonner also owned a good deal of the virgin timber in the Cache River Valley he realized the importance of locating a railroad station in the area. Mr. Bonner worked as a "tie hacker"-one who cuts railroad ties be hand with a broadax. The residents of the area agreed to name the town Bonnerville in honor of Mr. Bonner.
When the town first started, it consisted of a small grocery store, a depot, several churches, section houses, a few small houses, tents, and a sawmill. The town became one of Craighead County's most important business centers for the time. The first stores were located in the Jim Rains building, where a saloon was conducted, and W.R. Benix commissary.
The Bonnerville post office which had been in operation unofficially since October 4, 1883, was discontinued on February 5, 1884 after the application to establish the post office was denied by postal authorities in Washington, D.C. The application was denied due to confusion caused by the other similarly named towns of Banner and Booneville. In the official notice from the Postal Department there was reference to the "late Bonnerville" and in the same handwriting the name Bono had been written in. After much discussion by local residents, the town's name was changed from Bonnerville to Bono. Postal authorities approved of the new name and the Bono post office was established on November 20, 1884 with Mr. James M. Fisher in charge as postmaster. The railroad continued to use the name of Bonnerville to identify the station until the railroad lines were acquired by Frisco lines in 1901, and in 1909 the station name was changed to Bono. Bono was later incorporated in 1916.
At the turn of the century a tram road line that connected to the Frisco railroad lines was built by Mr. Sedgwick(father of Mr. L.M. Sedgwick) to haul logs and cross ties. The train was known as the Bonnerville Southern railroad line. It would start in Jonesboro and travel the main line to Bonnerville where it would switch over to the Bonnerville Southern tracks. The trian was nicknamed Old Fred's Train named after the conductor Fred Mickleweight. The railroad was built in stages and eventually extended all the way to Grubbs. The tram road prospered as long as the timber lasted. When the sawmills closed down, farming operations didn't furnish enough traffic for it to remain profitable. In 1919, Mr. L.M. Sedgwick decided to give the tram road to Frisco, who continued to operated the line as a freight line until 1929.
The Bono Mercantile Campany was established in 1911 by Berl Broome and George Lamb. The general store provided everything from clothing to harness and feed for horses and mules. The store used a hand powered elevator at the rear of the store to take merchandise from one floor to the other. The store was sold to the Craft family in the 1930's. The Craft family operated the store until the 1970's when it was sold to the Tate family and then purchased by the current owner Ron Kelley in 1982.
On February 24,1932 the Bank of Bono was robbed. The robbers thought that this robbery would be an easy job to pull since it was in such a small"hick" town. What they didn't anticipate however, was how strong town was. When a local citizen discovered that a robbery was in progress, he alerted the other citizens and businessman of the town, who grabbed their guns and joined forces with local law officials and set out as a posse to capture the would be bank robbers. After passing back and forth a few bullets and a good long chase, the robbers were subdued. All except$83 of the $3,211 stolen was recovered from the robbery. The robbers also had some cash with them from a robbery that they had pulled earlier in Missouri. All of the robbers and their accomplices served prison time for their part in the robberies.
In April of 1935, the Mckinney Brothers, who had purchased The Bank of Bono, moved it to Jonesboro and changed its name to the Citizen's Bank of Jonesboro-which was later named Boatman's Bank and now currently named Bank of America in Jonesboro. Around this time the highway department started constructin on U.S. 63 to Hoxie, which would shorten the distance from Bono by ten miles. By the mid 1930's, Bono was recognized as being one of Craighead County's most important business centers with sereral fine stores, post office, a bank, hotel, gin, school and several churches.
Mayors of Bono, AR.
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1916-1921
1921-1923 1923-1925 1925-1926 1926-1928 1928-1932 1932-1933 1933-1934 1934-1935 1935-1936 1936-1937 1937-1938 1938-1939 1939-1941 1941-1943 1943-1945 1945-1948 1948-1958 1958-1966 1966-1970 1970-1974 1975-1981 1981-1983 1983-1986 1987-1989 1989-1999 1999- |
George A. Lamb
W.H. Smith T.J. Thornton R.M. Watkins J.D. Buttry A.G. Hines G. Hamilton A.G. Hines J.N. Hammond W.H. Dye C.H. Cook J.H. Elliot H.H. Smith No minutes C.C. Coward Mack Castleberry Vernie Cook Jack Gillihan L.E. Spicer H.T. Nutt V.E. Tate Elmer Barnes Joan Richey Ralph Lee Danny Pfeifer Ralph Lee L.M. Duncan |
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