Part of the Indiana Biographies Project
William Commons Bond
William Commons Bond, fourth son of Jesse and Phoebe (Commons) Bond, was born Aug. 23, 1808, in Wayne County, Ind. His parents were reared and married in North Carolina, and afterward lived in Grayson County, Va. They removed to Indiana and settled where Earlham College now stands in 1808, residing there till 1813, when they removed half a mile north of where Richmond is situated. In 1815 he entered 160 acres of land near Washington, Ind., where he resided till his death. He was one of the pioneers of Clay Township, and was the first minister of the order of Friends who held meetings in the township. He and his wife had eleven children, of whom only seven survive — Nathan, William C., J. Isaac, Jesse, Jr., Rnth, Hannah and Lydia. Mr. Bond died in his eighty-fourth year, and his wife died at the age of sixty-two.
In 1824 our subject, in connection with his father and brothers, began digging a race for the purpose of constructing a mill, and the following year erected a saw-mill. They soon after erected a woolen-mill, which was the first mill in the country that manufactured and fulled wool cloth. William and his brother Nathan were associated in this mill a number of years. He was married Sept. 23, 1830, to Hannah, daughter of William and Damaris (Mills) Locke, who were early settlers of Wayne County. They celebrated their golden wedding in 1880. They have a family of s:x children — Oliver S., of the Savings Bank, Toledo, Ohio; Damaris, wife of E. H. Wright, of the Superior Iron Mines, Michigan; Larkin, of Wayne County; Francenia, wife of S. G. Snider, of White County, Ind.; Eliza J., at home, and Mattie, wife of James Horrell, of Wayne County. Mr. Bond and wife are members of the Society of Hicksite Friends, and politically he is a Republican. He owns a desirable farm on Green's Fork, near Washington, where he is engaged in farming.
Source:
History of Wayne County, Indiana. Chicago: Inter-State Publishing Co. 1884. Volume 2