DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Bonin Family Cemetery in Harris County. Now, every now and then on a Texas road trip you roll past a patch of ground that holds more history than you'd ever guess from the highway. This is one of those spots.
It all starts with a man named Paul Norval Bonin, born on September 2, 1814, way out in Fausse Pointe, Iberia Parish, Louisiana. His folks were Joseph Baron Bonin and Euphrosine Louise Bonin — she was a Borel before she married in. Norval grew up Louisiana through and through, and in 1835 he married a woman named Marie Coralie Hayes, right there in Louisiana.
Now here's where the story shifts. In 1852, Norval and Coralie packed up several of their children and joined a remarkable caravan — approximately fifty French families pulling up stakes and heading west to North Harris County, Texas. Fifty families.
That is not a trickle, that is a current. And at the heart of where they all settled was Norval Bonin's land. In 1857, Bonin purchased 1,253 acres — including this very site — for $1,250.
You do the math on what that kind of land meant to a man building a life. The neighbors were families whose names still carry the flavor of that French settlement: Leleux, Melancon, Pevateaux. Two years after buying the full spread, in 1859, Norval sold a 500-acre parcel to his son-in-law Leon Leleux.
Community was already weaving itself together. But land is one thing. What this ground became is something else entirely.
The earliest known grave marker in this cemetery bears the name Ofelait Bonin — three years old, daughter of Joseph Telesphore Bonin and Marie Gertrude Bonin, she was an Arceneaux before marriage. Ofelait died on September 9, 1865. That small stone is the oldest voice this cemetery has.
Norval himself died in November 1868, and his wife Coralie followed in February 1871. Both were laid to rest here, on the land he had bought and farmed and called home. After they were gone, the family property passed to the five Bonin sons who had outlived their parents — Telesphore, Oneziphore, Zepherin, Ernst Adness, and Alcide.
Each one received approximately 150 acres to farm. Five sons, five portions, one family's roots spreading out across North Harris County like roots do. Now fast-forward more than a century.
In 1987, Vernon Roland and Freddie Brill, together with other Bonin descendants, formed the Bonin Cemetery Association to see to the care and preservation of this place. They weren't about to let it fade. And here's the line that lands this whole story for me: the Bonin Family Cemetery remains active.
Every April, descendants gather here to remember and honor their ancestors. A family that crossed Louisiana in 1852 with fifty others and staked a claim in Texas — they're still showing up. Still tending the ground.
Still saying the names.
What the marker says
Paul Norval Bonin was born on September 2, 1814 in Fausse Pointe, Iberia Parish, Louisiana to Joseph Baron Bonin and Euphrosine Louise (Borel) Bonin. Norval married Marie Coralie Hayes in Louisiana in 1835, and in 1852, the Bonins moved with several of their children and approximately fifty other French families to North Harris County, Texas. Bonin purchased 1253 acres, including this site, for $1250 in 1857. The Bonin family’s property was located at the heart of the area’s French settlement, and families such as Leleux, Melancon, and Pevateaux were neighbors. A 500-acre parcel was sold to Norval’s son-in-law Leon Leleux in 1859. Those buried here are descendants of Norval and Coralie Bonin and their spouses and in-laws. The earliest known grave marker in the cemetery states that Ofelait Bonin, three-year-old daughter of Joseph Telesphore Bonin and Marie Gertrude (Arceneaux) Bonin, died on September 9, 1865. Norval Bonin died in November 1868 and his wife, Coralie, died in February 1871; both were buried here. After the deaths of Norval and Coralie, the remaining family property passed to the five Bonin sons who survived their parents – Telesphore, Oneziphore, Zepherin, Ernst Adness and Alcide – and each received approximately 150 acres to farm. In 1987, Vernon Roland and Freddie Brill, together with other Bonin descendants, formed the Bonin Cemetery Association to oversee care and preservation of the site. The Bonin family cemetery remains active, and descendants meet each April to remember and honor their ancestors.