Found Ephemera: 1910 Dixon Hill L. Bonner State Legislature Election Card Smith County Texas

Here’s what a fellow Confederate, Sid S. Johnson, wrote about him in Texans Who Wore the Gray–D. H. L. Bonner was born in the State of Alabama and removed to Texas with his father’s family early in 1849, and settled near Omen, Smith county. His father, Beckham Bonner, and his mother, Rebecca Bonner (nee Wilson) were early settlers in East Texas. Col. D. H. L. Bonner was reared upon a farm and his early education was limited. Being a man of strong individuality he has become prominent among the agricultural people for his peculiar and fascinating eloquence as a public speaker, and seems to be at home when on the platform as a lecturer on his favorite subject, the farmer of today. All listen to him, as he is entertaining and pleasing. Still with a force and bluntness reached the object aimed at in his speeches. He can come nearer holding an audience, as well as entertaining them, than any speaker known to the writer along the lines of agriculture. He claims in one of his perorations that East Texas is the Garden of Eden and proves by his arguments that he believes it, and with the driving force of logic makes it plausible to his hearers. Besides all this Col. Bonner has a fine military record and stands flat footed upon the principles that as a people we were right in taking up arms in defense of the cause for which the South fought. Justice is not always with the strong that outnumber the weak, but that “justice crushed to the earth will rise again.” He served in the Confederate army in Company E, 14th Texas Infantry, commanded by Col. Edward Clark and did valiant service in the army of the Trans Mississippi department, and stacked his musket when the South laid down her arms in 1865. He has been married twice; his first marriage was with Miss Susie Neal, a granddaughter of E. T. Broughton, Sr. She died in 1874. The second marriage was with Miss Texas Talley of Alabama. He has three living children; Claudia, the wife of J. H. Terry; Walter and Mary. Col. Bonner is a progressive farmer and believes that the education of the children of the masses is the proper thing to do to make our Southland “bloom as the roses,” in the waste places to be built up by a higher education and a better civilization. Intense farming with proper methods is the theme of his lectures, and advocates with strong force, that educated intelligent farming is the only hope of the South’s prosperity.”