Old Bonner Bank Building

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Old Bonner Bank Building in Cherokee County. Now settle in, because this little building has seen more lives than most folks manage in one. It was built in 1865 by a man named C.

Chaffee, a New Orleans promoter and cotton buyer, and right away you get a sense of the ambition behind it. A man from New Orleans putting up a building in East Texas in 1865 was not thinking small. Then again, neither was what came next.

From 1868 to 1883, that building served as the law office of S.A. Wilson, a member of a five-man commission tasked with codifying Texas law under the Constitution of 1876. Five men.

All of Texas law. That is the kind of work that either makes a man's career or breaks his spirit, and in Wilson's case it appears to have made it, because he went on to serve as a judge in the State Court of Appeals. So you've got a cotton buyer's ambition in the walls, and a lawmaker's legacy baked right into the floorboards.

But the story doesn't stop there. In 1884, a leading East Texas attorney and Tyler banker by the name of F.W. Bonner moved in, and he brought with him the first bank in Cherokee County, serving the community of New Birmingham.

He ran that bank right there in the building from 1884 all the way to 1892. And here's the thing about a name that earns its keep: even after the bank was gone, even through school occupancies and whatever else came through those doors, the building never stopped being called the Bonner Building. Some names just stick.

Not because anyone decided they should, but because the weight of what happened inside them makes forgetting impossible.

What the marker says

Built 1865 by C.Chaffee, a New Orleans promoter-cotton buyer. Served 1868-1883 as law office of S.A Wilson, member of 5-man commission to codify Texas law under Constitution of 1876; Later judge in State Court of Appeals. In this building, 1884-1892, leading East Texas attorney and Tyler banker F.W. Bonner had the first bank in Cherokee county, serving New Birmingham. Retained Bonner Building name through school and other occupancies. RTHL 1968