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- Daniel Bonine was born in Delaware near Drawer's Creek, New Castle Co., Delaware. As a little boy, he moved with his parents to Newberry Twp., York Co., Pennsylvania in 1743. At the time of the French and Indian Wars in 1748, he was a small boy and lived in some exciting times there. In 1755, after Braddock's defeat at Fort Duquesne, the frontier was ravished by Indians and many settlers were ferried across the Susquehanna River at Wright's Ferry (Columbia), about ten miles below Shelly's Island, to escape the fury. It is wondered if the Bonines left too, or stuck it out in their island home. Surely, Daniel at 19 was in the thick of it.
Daniel was not a Quaker until after he married Sarah Miller. She was "complained of" in Meeting for marrying out of Meeting and evidently persuaded her husband (Daniel) to join for her sake. However this Meeting must not have been very strict, or she would have been "ruled out of Meeting" immediately. Daniel joined the Friends in May 1774 shortly after the birth of their first child. Sarah died in the next year or two, and Daniel married Mary Copeland of Newberry Meeting. They lived on Shelly's Island, which is sometimes listed as Derry Twp., Lancaster Co. and sometimes as Newberry Twp., York Co. (now Dauphin County.) Probably the boundaries were not fixed as to the land out in the river. The island is nearer to Lancaster Co. The old Indian treaty boundary ran to the edge of the river. The Bonines felt themselves a part of the Conewago (Newberry) community because of the French settlement there, even if it was farther away.
According to the Pennsylvania Archives, Daniel Bonine served in the Revolutionary War as a private, 6th class, under Capt. Robert McKeen, 7th Battalion, Lancaster Co., PA., commanded by Col. Alexander Lowry of Derry. It seems very odd that he could be in the army and yet be a Quaker in good standing. This Meeting, located as it was in the midst of Indian warfare and far from Philadelphia, was probably not very strict in its discipline. It is much easier to preach pacifism in a safe place. However, Daniel Bonine was a faithful Friend in every other way.
According to the Sharpless Genealogy, Daniel Bonine, Jesse Willis and Thomas Jennings of Newberry Meeting, proposing to move to a new state, requested the advice of their Friends and a committee was appointed May 11, 1793 to confer with them. A certificate was granted them August 9, 1794 for Daniel Bonine and family. Leaving behind his two brothers and sister and probably his oldest children, some of whom were married, Daniel Bonine at the age of 58 set out for beyond the mountains. Always a pioneer, perhaps things were too civilized in the Susquehanna Valley now for the restless blood of Daniel. He may have been truly motivated by the strong desire to serve his chosen faith in a new land, like his father and grandfather before him. They settled in Blount Co., Tennessee in Friendville, now Marysville. General Wayne had subdued the Indians in Ohio that year and the borders were just opening up. This country was extremely wild and there were only a handful of white settlers there. When slavery became established there, Daniel gathered his family and moved to Wayne Co., Indiana, again in a primitive pioneer community. Daniel was 77, yet he helped his sons build Orange Meeting House in what was to be Richmond, Indiana. He died there four years after his last move, a long, long way from Delaware and even farther from his French people.
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Bonines in America 1700-1976, Bonine, Kenneth L., (Kalamazoo, Michigan: privately published), cited in Ancestry.com Message Board "Bonine in Blount Co, TN", accessed 17 Jun 2008.
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