Bonebright, Sarah Brewer (1837-1930)

BONEBRIGHT, BREWER, CLOSZ, CARMICHAEL, SHEETS

Posted By: Debbie Greenfield (email)
Date: 9/20/2016 at 12:13:32

Daily Freeman Journal, Webster City, Iowa, Thursday, March 27, 1930

DEATH CLAIMS AGED PIONEER

Mrs. Sarah Brewer Bonebright, Who Came Here in 1848, Dead

FUNERAL TOMORROW

Mrs. Sarah Brewer Bonebright, who would have been 93 years of age next August 27, died last evening at 7:15 o'clock at her home at 222 Ohio street. The funeral will be held tomorrow afternoon at the Foster funeral home. The family requests that no flowers be sent.

The passing of Mrs. Bonebright came as she herself had wished it. Without having been a burden on her family through a period of illness, she slipped quietly through the portals of death while sitting in her rocking chair. While not strong for the past six months, due to the toll taken by her advanced age, she had been up and about the house most of the time. Last evening she ate her supper as usual at the table with the family. Later she sat in her favorite chair conversing. She wished to get up and walk about and her son, Frank, put his arms about her to help her up, when she slumped in his arms and was dead.

The death of Grandma Bonebright, as she was familiarly known to a host of friends, removes the last human link that connected the present Webster City with that little band of sturdy pioneers, of whom she was one, who settled on these wild and bleak, but rich prairies away back in 1848. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson Brewer who settled here in that early day when white families were few, indeed, in this wild frontier section.

It was not until six years later, in the fall of 1854, that Mrs. Bonebright's father and William Frakes, laid out Newcastle, on the west bank of the Boone river, now the southeast portion of Webster City. Some three years later the name of the settlement was changed to Webster City.

Grandma Bonebright had lived through all the vicissitudes that marked the evolution and growth of the community from its wildest state to its present development. She had seen and been a part of life lived in the raw in the early days. She was always happy. She was always satisfied. She easily grew along with the development of the community. She was never a laggard. She never lived in the past, but always in the present - though her happy reminiscences of the days of the pioneer were always a source of pleasure to her hosts of friends.

She was one of the grand women of those early days whose work and efforts were part and parcel with the development of the community. She was loved for her sweet and sunny disposition, her helpfulness to all in times of trouble and her bright and happy outlook on life. Her life was well spent, much of it, indeed, in helpfulness to others. She was a delightful woman with whom to visit. She was wholly modern and lived in the present - though always happy that she had had a part in the life of those early days when the white man was slowly establishing himself on the lands of the red man. Her life and her influence, always for good, had meant much to this community and her death breaks the last link between this modern age and those days away back when this part of Iowa was a fringe marking the westward movement of the white man.

Sarah Brewer was married to Thomas B. Bonebright, May 2, 1858, and six children were born to them: George W., of Arkansas; Harriet Closz-Carmichael, of Webster City; Wallace W., of Bolton, Ill.; Frank A., of this city; Adella M., who died in early youth, and Ellabell Sheets, of Medford Ore.

She had 18 grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren. Her husband, Thomas Bonebright, member of the Spirit Lake expedition and Iowa Frontier' Guards preceded her in death at the age of 85 years.

Until her last illness which began about six months ago, Mrs. Bonebright was in rugged health and did much of the family work. Moreover she was anxious to continue in such loving service. Grandma Bonebright was a bright and hospital entertainer, as well as cheerful and highly interested in family and public affairs.

Born in Henry county, Ind., August 27, 1837, Sarah Brewer came to Hamilton county in 1848 with her father, Wilson Brewer, who founded Webster City. She was born in a log cabin and that family custom was kept up for many years, for all of her own children first saw light in the traditional one room cabin.

The trip from Indiana was made with the ox-drawn prairie schooner the story of which, together with other reminiscences of pioneering, were told by her and written by her daughter into the book, "Founding of Newcastle." Mrs. Bonebright was one of a family of 11 children. For a long time she was the only girl among them, hence much of the housework, especially the cooking fell to her lot. She had prepared meals over an open fire in the yard, roasted with hot stones and spits, worked at the fireplace and cooked on the range with wood, coal and oil as fuel.

No doubt a conservative estimate of regular, extra and special meals prepared by her would reach a total of 90,000, as strenuous an achievement and quite as necessary as the political and economics accomplishments of today. The most satisfying thought of her work is that it was done with cheerful zest and her best efforts were always freely expended for her fellows.

Her one regret in pioneering was that in emigrating she missed the opportunities of schooling. She, however, was well informed on questions of the day for she became an inveterate reader and possessed an analytical mind and phenomenal memory. Her concern was always for others. She was generous to a fault, considerate of others and tolerant of opposing opinions and will be missed by friends and family.

The pioneers of two generations are rapidly passing and the hold upon them is relinquished with deep regret. Their stoical persistent force of character is needed in this turbulent time of change. Too much cannot be said in praise of the benefits conferred upon the past and present generations by the early settlers of the county.

Sarah Brewer-Bonebright was a grand old woman, a typical representative of her stalwart ancestor, Wilson Brewer, pathfinder and pioneer in Hamilton county. Her work has been creditably done and as the years pass will be more clearly understood.

Mrs. Bonebright had witnessed with appreciation the phenomenal changes which took place during the fleeing decades of her life; progress in transportation - three miles an hour with oxen, to more than 100 miles by airplane; communication - word by foot carriers, to invisible messages by radio; industrialism - utilization from primitive hand methods to the discoveries and inventions in mechanical power, and the wonderful evolution of political and ethical ideas. She cast her first vote for the republican candidate for president of the United States - Harding - in 1920. All these changes would require volumes to recount, and yet this grand, alert woman even in her later years kept abreast of the times and looked ahead with pleasant anticipation for further development and progress.

The indomitable spirit of pioneers was the heritage of "Granny" Bonebright for which her friends are duly thankful.