BONSON, Robert

Robert Bonson. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding

BONSON, Robert. (Dubuque County, IA, Jan. 5, 1868--Dubuque, IA, Dec. 13, 1933). Between 1895 and 1898 Bonson filled the unexpired term of Senator Baldwin in the Iowa Legislature. Bonson was elected to a judgeship in 1906. (1)

Bonson later retired from law and became fully involved with the operation of the IOWA IRON WORKS in which he had a long financial interest. He was the secretary of the Nutwood Driving Club and director of the GERMAN BANK and ERWIN AND WOOD. His mansion and estate became FOUNTAIN PARK. (2)

Before September 20, 1904 a large amount of money was borrowed for the IOWA IRON WORKS. Notes were signed or endorsed by W. W. BONSON and Robert BONSON and given to Peter Kiene with the assurance that he would be responsible for the debt. There was no further accounting between the Bonsons and Kiene, who paid the interest on the indebtedness but sold the notes to other parties. In 1914 the firm of PETER KIENE AND SON fell into bankruptcy. The total Bonson indebtedness came to $150,000 (worth $3,697,860.00 in 2018).

Their assets turned over to the bankruptcy court included holdings in the Bonson Concentrator Company with its subsidiaries, over forty separate tracts of land and their holdings in over 1,000 acres of mineral lots, lands and properties in Dubuque County, and the residence and farm of about 140 acres known as "Burnage Villa" which had been the homestead of the Bonson family for over thirty years. The only exceptions were claimed for life insurance and person and household goods and wages. (3)

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Source:

1. Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, History of Dubuque County, Iowa. Chicago: Goodspeed Historical Association, 1911, p. 650

2. Ibid.

3. "Bonsons File Petitions in Bankruptcy," The Telegraph-Herald, February 17, 1914, p. 1