Former Lisbon chairman writes poem before scheduled hanging
Sussex Sun, Posted: July 16, 2008
One great piece of local pioneer literature was written by Lisbons David Bonham as he faced the hangmans noose the following morning.
It was March 1847, and he was the featured guest at a necktie party in Racine for his killing of Henry Keene in 1845 at what is today the Wanaki Golf Course on Lisbon Road.
Half the population of Waukesha County went to Racine to see the public hanging of the man who had served as Lisbons first town chairman, 1842-43.
Bonham was in his cell, contemplating his fate, when he took paper to pen and wrote these eight four-line stanzas to his children:
Farewell … My Dear Little Children
God bless you all, both young and old,
And may God have mercy on your soul.
I may be saved, but cannot tell.
God help you all, and fare you well.
We must give up with one accord
And place our whole trust in the Lord.
Can we do this, or cannot we tell?
Oh yes, we must, so fare you well.
I know it is hard for us to part.
But God, the one that caused the smart,
God knows the whole done at the mill.
God, knows I did not mean to kill.
Thanks be to God, that it is so.
Thanks be to God, he knows it is so.
Him I can meet when its His will,
And innocent of the attempt to kill.
Weep not for me, I am forgiven.
Me thinks I go the road to heaven.
If so, my dears, all will be well.
God keep you all. Again, farewell.
Weep not for me, my family dear.
Better for me not to stay here.
So let me go, and prepare the way
For you to come another day.
Oh, my dears, do not weep for me,
But seek your God. To him flee.
My peace is made, so all is well.
Adieu, adieu, farewell, forever.
My time has come and we must part.
To leave you pains me to the heart.
Oh, dearest ones, I wish you well.
God love your souls. Adieu, farewell …
Your father,
David Bonham
Bonham had made his peace, saying goodbye to his wife, Rebecca (nee Weaver), and their children, Robert, David, John, William, James, Jane and Stephen. (Stephen was the first person born in Lisbon to die in the town. He was buried in an unmarked grave where Vulcan quarry is today).
The murder was actually manslaughter and provoked by the victim, according to all reports and the arguments of Bonhams attorney, Alexander Randall, who won a last-minute reprieve, and eventually a pardon, from Wisconsins territorial governor.
Soon after he returned to Lisbon, however, Bonham, whose Lisbon land claim ran from the northern reaches of todays Vulcan quarry north to Silver Spring Road, knew he had to leave Wisconsin.
He and his family traveled by covered wagon to northwest Missouri, where he again acquired extensive land holdings.
He fought as an officer on the Union side in the Civil War, as did some of his sons. He was elected to the Missouri free state (no slaves) Legislature and was responsible for some important antislavery laws and for a free public school system.
Born in England in 1809, he immigrated to New York in 1830 and Lisbon in 1837.
In 1868, he went back to England and persuaded about 300 of his neighbors and friends to immigrate to Missouri.
He died in 1870 and was buried on land his family had donated to the community of Empire Prairie, Mo. Rebecca died a year later.