Lucy (Ridgeway) Bonner (1806 - 1872)

Born 1 Jun 1806 in Elbert Co, GA

Died 7 Apr 1872 at age 65 in Carroll, Georgia, United States

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Biography

She was a widow when she married Zadoc Bonner and daughter of Drury Rideway an old settler who came to Georgia from SC.

Notes

http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/carroll/newspapers/187218731043gnw.txt
The Carroll County Times, May 30, 1872

OBITUARY. Departed this life at the residence of her husband Judge Z. Bonner of Carroll county, Georgia, on the morning of April 7th, 1872, Mrs. Lucy B. Bonner in the sixty-sixth year of her age, after a protracted and painful illness of five months.

The subject of this notice was born in Ellbert county, Geo. June 1, 1806, removed from there to Clark county, Geo. when two years of age; was married to Zadoc Bonner a resident of the same county, December 28, 1825.

Mr. and Mrs. Bonner moved to Carroll county in 1820, and have been well known by an extensive circle of friends and acquaintances.

It was my privilege to be intimately acquainted with the deceased, but it would be impossible with my feeble pen in a short sketch to give to the world a faint idea of her worth while living, or hoer loss by death; but I know that her memory will be fondly cherished in the hearts of all who knew her.

In early life, at the age of thirteen, the deceased made a profession of the religion of Jesus, united herself, with the Methodist Episcopal church at Bold Springs, Clark county, and from then till the time of her death, fifty-two years and some months, adorned that profession by an humble, consistent Christian deportment. Though retiring and unobtrusive in disposition, by her death the church to which she belonged, lost an efficient and faithful member.

As one of the heads of a numerous family she discharged the duties of her household with the most assiduous care and diligence, and was to her devoted husband a help meet indeed, the partner of his cares and joys, and even with uncommon energy and the most prudent fidelity, discharging her duties as a loving affectionate wife.

As a mother I feel my utter incompetency to express her worth, but her children will bear testimony to her parental faithfulness from their childhood to mature age, and in that great day, children and grand children "will rise up and call her blessed."

Being amply provided with the comforts of this life, she dispensed her bounties with a liberal hand, and her hospitality was unbounded. Her home was ever made a welcome home to the ministers of Jesus, many of whom will never forget the many kindnesses received at her hands. As a friend she was true and confiding, free from flattery and ostentation, but firm in herprinciples of right.

Until a few months previous to her death, she had been blessed with more than an ordinary degree of health for one of her age, but during her continued illness through a great sufferer, bore it all with patience, calmness and resignation. And while her family and friends were hopeful of her recovery, she often expressed her firm conviction of her approaching death, but without dread and with complete resignation to the will of that Savior in whom she placed her trust.

But if the untiring care of a devoted husband, the kind attentions of children and friends, together with faithful medical skill, could have stayed the messenger of death, the loved one would have been spared to us. But God who cannot err, in His providence ordered it otherwise. And while we grieve to give up the Wife, the Mother, the Christian, the Friend, yet "we mourn not for those without hope".

We have no fears but that with her all is well. Life gently ebbed away. Calm and peaceful were her expiring moments, and now she sleeps in Jesus. And on the morning of the holy Sabbath, the day on which the blessed Savior rose, she safely passed the swellings of the Jordan -- her spirit triumphantly winged its way from earth to its home in Heaven; and she has joined the Grand Chorus of the Redeemed.

"She is laid in the grave but we will not deplore her.

Though in sorrow, and darkness we compass her tomb,

The Savior has passed through its portals before her,

And the lamp of his love, was her guide through its gloom."

"She is laid in the grave! and tis vain to deplore her,

For God was her Ransom, her Guardian, her guide;

He gave her, He took her, and He will restore her,

For death has no triumph, since Jesus has died."

A Friend

Sources

• James C Bonner

Professor of History Georgia College Milledgeville, Georgia