Bond, Napoleon J.

BOND

Posted By: Volunteer (email)
Date: 10/10/2006 at 14:07:22

Napoleon J. Bond

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.6, Council Bluffs)
Napoleon J. Bond, grain-dealer, Council Bluffs, was born near Waterloo, Ill., in 1832, and is a descendent of the Bond family who came to America in 1634, with Lord Baltimore, and assisted in founding the city of Baltimore. In 1781, a great-great-uncle came to Kaskaskia, Ill., with Gen. George Rogers Clark, who was followed about the year 1800, by Shadrack Bond, who was elected the first Governor of Illinois, in 1819, about which time Shadrack G. Bond, father of Napoleon, came to Illinois. The subject of this sketch remembers many of the thrilling incidents related to him by his family of the early pioneers of Illinois. After receiving a common school education, he taught school for a time, and read law with Colonel, afterward Governor, Bissell, of Illinois. A favorable opportunity offering, he went into the business of merchandising at Waterloo, Ill., in 1852. Closed out in 1853, and removed to Sulphur Springs, Mo., where he carried on the mercantile business for a year and a half, and while engaged in business studied medicine, and in 1855 sold out, and went to Carlyle, Ill., where he continued the study of medicine, until he again engaged in business for himself, in 1857, in which he remained but a short time. Removed to Trenton, Ill., where he again embarked in the mercantile business, and failed in 1859. Closed up affairs, and again took up thelaw, and in the spring of 1861, crossed the plains to Colorado, with the gold-seekers, and was fortunate enough to strike a bonanza in the shape of a gold mine called the Phillips, at Buckskin Joe, which was the leading mine of Colorado in 1861. He was, soon after his arrival in the mining camp, elected President and Judge of the district, which position he held until the Territorial organization. Was a member and President of the Council of the first Colorado Legislature, and assisted in organizing the Territorial Government of Colorado. Left Colorado in 1863, and went to Virginia City, Mont., in 1864, with the gold excitement there, engaged in mining and merchandising, and in the spring of 1865 removed to Helena, where he built one of the first houses built in that city, and saw Johnny Keen, alias Bob Black, hung on hangman's tree, who was the first of sixteen hung on it at different times. Closed out in the fall of 1865, and returned to the States; fitted out a mule train and freighted across the plains; again to Virginia City, Mont., in 1866, where he engaged in business, and in March, 1867, started with his train and goods for Salmon River Mines, Idaho; the severest weather of the winter was experienced after his leaving, the thermometer ranging from zero to 47 degrees below; but by making sleds, which he had to do, with the mercury 20 degrees below, and placing his wagons on them, was enabled to cross the main snowy range of the Rocky Mountains, over snow from three feet to forty feet deep, which feat he accomplished without frost biting a man, or losing a single mule, and claims to be the first and only person who ever successfully crossed the main snowy range of the Rocky Mountains wiht a train in the middle of winter. Arriving at Salmon River, seventeen miles from the mines, at the foot of the mountains, in company with Col Georlge L. Shoup, they laid out a town which they named Salmon City, which in about two weeks had a population of 1,200 inhabitants. But the mines proving a partial failure, a stampede set in from them, and in three months there were only about 100 out of the 1,200 left. After an eventful season, he closed out, and returned to the States, stopping on his way home at Council Bluffs, where an opportunity offered, and in the spring of 1868 engaged in the grain, produce, hide and wool business, with Thatcher and Mulholland, under the firm name of Bond, Thatcher & Co., which was dissolved in the spring of 1869, N. J. Bond continuing the business. In 1872, the hide and wool business was sold to Oberne, McDonald & Co., and the balance of the business closed out, after which he removed to Vermillion, Dak., where he bought grain during that year, and loaded the first steamboat load of wheat ever shipped out of the Territory, and after a successful trade over the Dakota Southern Railroad, the following year, again returned to Council Bluffs, and in the fall of 1874 again went into the grain and produce trade in Council Bluffs, in which he has continued until the present time. During the most of the time, he has been working and developing his old mine in Colorado, which he has at last succeeded in developing into a second Bonanza. Although a life-long Methodist, he, with his wife, who was a Mrs. Harvey, who maiden name was McClelland, are now both members of the Presbyterian Church of Council Bluffs.