Edward William Bonney (August 26, 1807 – February 4, 1864) was a 19th-century adventurer, miller

Edward William Bonney (August 26, 1807 – February 4, 1864) was a 19th-century adventurer, miller, hotel keeper, city planner, counterfeiter, livery stable keeper, bounty hunter, private detective, postmaster, merchant, soldier, and author. He is best known for his undercover work in exposing the "Banditti of the Prairie", resulting from his investigation of the torture-murder of noted Illinois pioneer and frontiersman Colonel George Davenport.

𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞

Edward William Bonney was born in Essex County, New York. His father, Jethro May Bonney, a soldier, was stationed near the border of Lower Canada (present-day Quebec) at the time of his birth. "Capt. Jethro May Bonney." His mother was Lucinda Laurana Webster, a relative of Daniel Webster. In 1816 the family moved to Cortland, New York.

𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐲𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞, 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐚

Edward Bonney got married and moved to the frontier, in Elkhart County, Indiana, in 1835, with the intent of creating the city of Bonneyville, named after himself. In 1839, he was charged and fined for assault. Bonney built the Bonneyville Mill for grinding grain into flour and also built a sawmill. When Bonneyville failed to grow rapidly from a sleepy farm town into a bustling city, Bonney sold his most of the 80 acres he had purchased for his planned city in 1841. He later bought the Goshen Hotel in Bonneyville and not long after sold the hotel and both his mills.

𝐀𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠

Bonney was arrested on suspicion of counterfeiting on July 9, 1842, along with Henry Kellogg and Obadiah Cooley, in Gustavus Township, Trumbull County, Ohio. Authorities found "about half a bushel of base coin, half dollars and Mexican dollars.” in their log cabin shop. At his August 4 arraignment, he pled not guilty and posted bail of $1000 on the surety of John Adams, a resident of Gustavus Township. But he failed to show up for his November 1, 1842 trial in Ohio. On January 30, 1844, the state of Ohio issued a warrant to extradite Bonney from Indiana to stand trial on the 1842 counterfeiting charges. When Bonney fled Indiana for the Mormon city of Nauvoo, Illinois, in February 1844 he may have been just ahead of Joshua S. Smith, who bore the extradition warrant.

Mormon affiliation and offices held in Nauvoo, Illinois

Bonney eventually "fiddle-footed his way" to Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1844, a Latter Day Saint community on the Mississippi River, where he and his wife decided to settle. Between March 14 and April 11, 1844, he was chosen by Joseph Smith, the founder and leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, who was a friend, to be a member of the Mormon theocratic "Council of Fifty. He was one of three non-members of the Mormon Council that made important government and community decisions for the Nauvoo Saints. Bonney was chosen by Smith to be his aide-de-camp in the Nauvoo Legion from June 18 to June 27, until the murder of Smith.

After the murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith in Carthage, Illinois, in 1844, Bonney, who as a non-Mormon was considered an outsider by the Nauvoo church elders, lost his influential status among the Council of Fifty. He was released from his Council duties on February 4, 1845, and he left for Iowa. Bonney continued to be involved in fighting against criminal elements both outside and within the Nauvoo Mormon community. Bonney was also particularly antagonistic of the Mormon Danites.

𝐁𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐲 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐮𝐫 𝐝𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐞, 𝐈𝐨𝐰𝐚 𝐓𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲

In 1845, Edward Bonney moved across the Mississippi River from Nauvoo to Montrose, Lee County, Iowa Territory, now Montrose, Lee County, Iowa, where he operated a livery stable. During the next several years, he worked with law enforcement agencies, in Montrose and Lee County, to hunt down various criminals, in the area, as a sort of freelance bounty hunter. Bonney gradually attained a reputation as a skilled detective, adept at "piecing together odd bits of information and rumour, although he was often subject to suspicion and persecution for his Mormonism.

𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐢 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐥 𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭

The criminal investigations of Edward Bonney into the criminal activity occurring along the vast mid-river area of the Mississippi between 1843-1848, attributed to the organization known as the "Banditti of the Prairie", were claimed by Bonney to being carried out by outlaws who considered themselves "self-styled" Mormons conveniently seeking refuge in Nauvoo as persecuted "Saints" where they headquartered their criminal activities unhindered by law enforcement. It was not until going undercover within the organization, posing as a counterfeiter, that he was able to connect the gang to the torture-murder of Colonel George Davenport. After a four-month chase through Illinois, Missouri, Indiana and Ohio, he finally brought most of his murderers to justice. Of the eight men taken into custody, three of the four men involved in Davenport's murder, Granville Young and brothers John and Aaron Long, were convicted and hanged. The fourth man, Robert H. Birch, agreed to turn the state's evidence and escape jail. After learning "crime doesn't pay" Birch finally became an honest man and twelve years later, was one of the founders of the Pinos Altos gold mining camp in 1858 the New Mexico Territory.

𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐢 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬

In 1850, Edward Bonney wrote and published a sensational account of the Banditti of the Prairie, titled The Banditti of the Prairies: or, The Murderer's Doom, a tale of Mississippi Valley and the Far West, which was an immediate success and went through eight editions until 1858. Although it is thought Bonney may have been assisted by a ghostwriter, most likely Henry A. Clark, the book, though poorly written, by an amateur writer, is considered remarkably accurate, when compared with official court records and other official evidence. The Bonney book was not specifically anti-Mormon but reflected his criticism of organized religion.

𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐥 𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥

Following the trial and execution of Granville Young and the Long brothers, Edward Bonney returned to Lee County, Iowa Territory the following year. He was indicted by the local district court for murder and later acquitted. Bonney lived in Rock Island, Illinois for a time before moving to Chicago in Prospect Park in DuPage County where he was appointed as the second postmaster of the town. before settling in Aurora, Illinois around 1852.

𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐂𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐥 𝐖𝐚𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞

In 1862, Edward Bonney was living in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois and continued working, as a bounty hunter and detective. In the same year, during the height of the American Civil War, Bonney, at age 56, enlisted into Captain John S. Williams Company G, 127th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment, of the Union Army and participated in General Grant's Mississippi River Campaign, which included the Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, where he received a paralyzing leg wound. He was sent to the U.S. Marine Hospital, in St. Louis, Missouri, to recover from his severe wound.

𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡

Private Edward Bonney was medically discharged, from the Union Army, on December 23, 1863, and went back to Chicago, dying on February 4, 1864, as the result of his crippling leg wound. Bonney was buried in Bonneyville Cemetery, Bristol, Elkhart County, Indiana, near the mill and town that he once owned.

𝐈𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞: 𝐀𝐧 𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐄𝐝𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐲