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ILLINOIS GENEALOGY EXPRESS
A part of Genealogy Express
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Welcome to
Piatt County,
Illinois
History & Genealogy |
Biographies
Source:
Past and Present of Piatt County, Illinois
together with biographical sketches of many
prominent and influential citizens.
Publ.:
Chicago - The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
1903
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Thomas E.
Bondurant. From a humble financial position
Thomas E. Bondurant has steadily and persistently worked his way
upward until he is today accounted one of the most extensive
landowners of Illinois. There is in his life history much that
is worthy of emulation, his record being such as any man might be
proud to possess. He has worked diligently and perseveringly,
guiding his efforts by sound judgment, and the reward of honest
toil today his. He has never incurred an obligation that he
has not fulfilled, nor taken advantage of the necessities of his
fellow men in a business transaction, but has placed his dependence
upon energy and unremitting industry. Thus it is that Thomas
E. Bondurant stands today among the wealthy and honored residents of
Piatt county, his home being in DeLand.
He is one of Illinois' native sons, his birth occurring
in Sangamon county, on the 29th of December, 1831. The
Bondurant family is of Huguenot extraction, and was founded in
America by representatives of that sect, who fled to the New World
to escape religious persecution. Joseph and Martha
Bondurant,
the parents of our subject, were both southern people, the former a
native of Virginia and the latter of Kentucky. In the year
1825 the father removed to Sangamon county, Illinois, accompanied by
his wife and three children. Establishing his home there, he
continued to carry on farming and stock-raising until his death.
He was one of the honored pioneer settlers of the locality and aided
in the early development and improvement of the county, while at the
same time he carried on his farm work in its various departments and
thus gained a comfortable living for his family. Unto Mr. and
Mrs. Bondurant were born eleven children, of whom our subject was
the fifth in order of birth. Four of the number are yet
living, and a sister, Mary E., now acts as a housekeeper for her
brother Thomas.
On the old family homestead amid the wild scenes of
pioneer life Thomas E. Bondurant was reared. He can remember
central Illinois when the homes were widely scattered and when the
prairies were largely covered with the native grasses, the land
having never been placed under the plow. He pursued his early
education in an old log building, wherein school was conducted on
the subscription plan, and yet today Illinois has a school system
unsurpassed in the Union. His educational advantages in his
youth were quite limited, but later he attended the Walnut Grove
Academy, at Eureka, Illinois, spending three months there after he
had attained his majority. In his youth he became familiar
with all the experiences of pioneer life, and the hardships incident
to the arduous task of developing a new farm. He broke prairie
with an ox-team, thus preparing hundreds of acres for cultivation.
His father having the contract to put in ties on the Wabash
Railroad, Thomas E. Bondurant began working for him for two dollars
per day and board, acting as foreman. This was in 1855.
After the contract has been executed Mr. Bondurant continued to
break prairie through the summer months, turning the first furrows
on many tracts which are now fertile fields. In the meantime
he had entered from the government two hundred and ninety-three
acres of land in Piatt county, at fifty cents per acre this being
the nucleus of his present extensive landed possessions. In
the winter of 1858 he took a contract at Sangamon Station, east of
Decatur, Illinois, to supply cord wood to the Wabash Railroad, and
this work occupied his time and attention for a few months, after
which he returned to his farm in Goose Creek township, Piatt county.
As he has found opportunity he has added to his original landed
interests until he is now the owner of fourteen hundred acres in
Piatt county, twenty-six hundred and eighty-two acres in Kankakee
county and eight hundred acres in Kansas. He is a man of keen
business discernment, and his sound judgment has never been at fault
in making investments. He has placed his money in the safest
of all investments - real estate - and today his holdings make him
one of the wealthy men of central Illinois. He well merits
this success, for it has come entirely through his own efforts and
his business methods have ever been such as will bear the closest
investigation and scrutiny. All the institution during the
earlier period of through the years Mr. Bondurant carried on general
farming, annually harvesting large crops, and he has also made a
specialty of raising and handling beef cattle, horses and hogs.
He has always given his personal supervision to the operation of his
various properties, keeping thoroughly in touch with the work done
on each, and the condition of the farm and has a wonderful capacity
for business regarding no detail to unimportant to claim his
attention if it has bearing upon the work and its ultimate outcome.
In 1900 the First National Bank of DeLand was established with a
capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars, and Mr. Bondurant
became its first president. The success of its existence was
largely attributable to his efforts and his sound judgment, and he
remained as president until 1902, when he resigned on account of
failing health.
Mr. Bondurant is a member of the Christian church of DeLand and since its organization he has served as one of its
elders. In the work of the church he has always taken an
active and helpful interest, and has contributed generously to its
support. For the past eight years Mr. Bondurant has been a
member of the board of trustees of Eureka College, of Eureka,
Illinois. At the time of the formation of the Republican party
he became one of its supporters and has sine followed its banner,
and during the Civil war he was a stanch Union man. For seven
years he has served as county supervisor, but has felt that his
business makes too great demands upon his time and attention to
allow him to seek public office. In 1882 he built his present
home, which is one of the finest in Piatt county. He has his
own sewerage system and electric light plant, a hot water system of
heating, and hot and cold water throughout his house. The
residence is also tastefully, comfortably and richly furnished, and
the interior decorations are in keeping with the exterior
adornments, for the house is surrounded by a beautiful lawn, always
kept in the finest condition, and the home of Mr. Bondurant is a
credit to the county. He has seen many changes in this portion
of the state, advancement and progress being manifest in all lines
of life, and he has kept pace with the universal improvement.
A self-made man, without any extraordinary family or pecuniary
advantages at the outset of his career, he has battled earnestly and
energetically, and by indomitable courage and integrity has achieved
both character and fortune. By sheer force of will and
untiring effort he has worked his way upward and is today numbered
among the leading business men of Piatt county. |
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