Jim Billie Bonner, oldest child of Oliver Young Bonner and Sallie Hope Robinson, was born on February 4, 1885 in Bonnerville, Freestone Co., TX and named for his father's brother. [In the early census records, he is sometimes listed as James W. indicating that his name might have really been James William; he never used or claimed this name.] His brothers nicknamed him "Tank." He attended Burnett's Chapel school. On September 10, 1913, he married Nannie Belle York; he was twenty-eight and she was nineteen. Nannie, daughter of John Maynes York and Era Leta Lemmons, was born on August 26, 1894 and grew up in the Stewards Mill area. Jim Billie and Nannie made their home in Bonnerville about two miles from the home of Young and Sallie Bonner. They were parents of 7 children: Era Hope; John Young; Laura Belle; Jim billie, Jr.; Joel Andrew; Albert Thomas; Samuel Laird. Their next-door-neighbors were Tom and Laura Bonner. Jim Billie farmed; his brother Tom once remarked, "Jim Billie could plow the straightest furrow of any of us." That's quite an accomplishment using a mule drawn plow. Jim Billie worked hard to raise his family. Each summer he made syrup for everyone in the community. His syrup mill was set up between the Big Tank and the Spring to use the water from the spring. Hope recalled that as children they all stripped cane and cut cane for ribbon cane and sorghum syrup. She also said they all picked cotton, picked corn, and hauled hay. After Young Bonner's death, they moved to his home on Farm Road 833. Jim Billie was a member of Harmony Presbyterian Church at Stewards Mill. Tom hired Jim Billie to tend to his cattle. One time Jim Billie received $3000 for leasing some land and bought a car. He got his cousin Earl Pressly in Corsicana to pick it for him; it was a used T-Model touring car purchased from the City of Corsicana with "City Waterworks" painted on the door. Albert recalled that his father was a good judge of horses: "We bred mares for other people. We got ten dollars a colt for breeding them….Papa could castrate horses and all the people out there got him to." Tom took his advice when it came to buying mares for the breeding of mules. Albert also remembered that when they wanted to turn hogs out on acorns and wanted them to get fat and make a lot of lard, Jim Billie know how to spay the sows. During the 1920s, Nannie's sister Myrtle and her husband Jim Ward rented Tom's house across the road from Jim Billie. As a result of a now-forgotten argument, one day when Jim Billie was outside his house and only had a very small tree to hide behind and Jim Ward was across the road at his rented house, he shot Jim Billie with a rifle. Nannie heard the shot and called Young's. Hunter, on horseback, ran the entire two miles to help but it was all over by the time he got there. He gave Jim Billie a derringer, now in Buck's possession, to carry for protection. Evidently the brothers-in-law reconciled, but Jim Billie's left cheek remained scarred for the rest of his life. Jim Billie Bonner died in Corsicana, Navarro County, Texas on March 12, 1938.
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Texas Death Certificate: #14720

Name: J. B. Bonner
Death date: 12 Mar 1938
Death place: Navarro Clinic in Corsicana, Navarro Co., Texas
Gender: Male
Race: White
Age at death: 53 yrs, 1 month, 8 days
Birth date: 04 Feb 1885
Birth place: Freestone County, Tex
Marital status: Married
Spouse name: Nannie B Bonner
Father name: O. Y. Bonner born Freestone Co., Tex.
Mother name: Sallie Robinson born Freestone County, Tex
Occupation: Farmer (for 53 yrs)
Cemetery name:
Cause of Death: Broncho pneumonia due to diffuse peritonitis
Burial place: Fairfield, Tex.
Burial date: 12 Mar 1938
Informant: Sneed Bonner of Fairfield, Texas
Undertaker: L. B. Bonner & Co. of Eureka, Texas

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