Anderson Bonner

Bonner's rise shows up in deeds. He bought more than sixty acres in August 1874, then leased land and houses to sharecroppers while adding more, until his holdings reached nearly 2,000 acres along White Rock Creek in what is now North Dallas and Richardson. The ground under Medical City Dallas Hospital was once part of his estate. Family tradition says he came to Texas as a wedding gift to his owner's daughter, and sources differ on his birth year, from 1835 to 1843. A school, a scholarship and a park carry his name.

What the plaque says

Anderson Bonner (c. 1839-c. 1920) Born into a life of slavery in Alabama in the 1830s, Anderson Bonner was brought to Texas in the 1850s along with his family, including his wife, Eliza, and their four children. After Emancipation in 1865, Bonner worked to support his growing family by tending livestock, farming, and selling cotton, corn and other produce. In 1874, he and his brother, Lewis Bonner, purchased land along the White Rock Creek basin, which led the family to settle in the northwest part of Dallas. Although he never learned to read or write, Bonner excelled by leasing land and farm equipment to sharecroppers and using proceeds to purchase additional land. By the 1920s, Bonner acquired many acres of land in the areas of Dallas, Richardson and Farmers Branch. According to oral tradition, Bonner rented land to African American families, which helped create a supportive community. Bonner and Eliza had ten children and contributed to the growth and development of North Dallas and the area's African American community. The exact date of Bonner's death is unknown; he is buried next to Eliza in the White Rock Garden of Memories. The legacy of Anderson Bonner continued when one of the first African American schools in North Texas was named in his honor. Bonner's descendants worked to establish a scholarship endowment in his name for graduates in Richardson. In 1976, the City of Dallas established Anderson Bonner Park on land that once was the original Bonner farm, which had become a popular destination for African American family gatherings. As a prominent businessman in Dallas, Anderson Bonner transformed his life after slavery by becoming a landowner and an inspiring entrepreneur. (2020)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Dallas Museum of Art — 9.3 mi
  A city art museum that began as the Dallas Art Association in 1903, grew up in Fair Park, and has stood in the Arts District since 1984 under a forty-foot barrel vault.
• Fair Park — 9.7 mi
  The State Fair of Texas grounds since 1886, where the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition left one of the country's greatest concentrations of Art Deco exposition buildings.
• African American Museum, Dallas — 9.8 mi
  Founded in 1974 at Bishop College, a free Fair Park museum holding the Sepia photograph archive, African art and A. Maceo Smith's papers, and the story of the Hall of Negro Life.
• The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza — 9.9 mi
  A plow-company warehouse of 1903, identified by the Warren Commission as the building Oswald fired from, now a museum on its sixth and seventh floors above Dealey Plaza.

More markers nearby

• Hamilton Park Community — 1.1 mi
• Demonstration of the First Working Integrated Circuit — 1.6 mi
• Mount Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church — 2.0 mi
• White Rock Chapel — 2.7 mi