| FORSYTH COUNTY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION FCHA Homepage |
| BONER HOUSE ARTICLES CONTRIBUTED BY ANN SHEEK |
| JOSEPH WESLEY BONER HOUSE- (back view ) CLEMMONS COURIER: July 22,1982 by Ann Sheek Built 1771-1775 - Was there in 1780, according to Moravian Records ADDITIONAL ARTICLE ON BONER HOUSE |
Perhaps the oldest house in the Clemmons area - the Boner house, sits on a hilltop near the Yadkin.
The Moravian Records first refer to the Booner (Boner) family in the old Hope Moravian Register of 1780, when
farm owners were listed with the year of their birth. This list included William Booner, 1747.
Joseph Wilhelm (William) Boner died in 1786 and was buried in the first Hope Moravian cemetery, just east of the
Muddy Creek at Clemmons. His birthplace was somewhere in Pennsylvania.
Boner came to North Carolina in 1769 and lived and worked for a time as a tanner in Bethabara, and then moved to
the Friedberg-Hope Moravian sections near present-day Clemmons.
In 1771 he married Margaretha Elrod (1752-1821), the daughter of Christopher Elrod of the Friedberg (later Hope)
congregation. In all probability they were the original owners of the old Boner house. Some family descendants
think a small log house was Boner's first home and the surviving house, the second structure built by Boner.
However, there is no proof of this.
The one-and-a-half story house was built on a hilltop with the ground sloping away on all sides and on its western
exposure, gently down to the Yadkin River. The original house appeared to have three rooms downstairs and one
large sleeping loft upstairs. Fireplaces were located in each room and the inside doors were made of two-plant
widths of forest pine. The curved stairway was built just inside the front door. Two brick chimneys featured
decorative caps.
Later an addition of two rooms and a back porch were added. A grove of birch trees was set around the house and
were identified as being at least 100 years old in 1943, when a local newspaper article was written about the old
landmark. These trees do not exist today.
Wilhelm and Margareth Boner had five children: Joseph (1773-1840), Joshua (1774-1836), Isaac (1776-1858),
Aaltje and Jhenly. Notes in Volume four of the Moravian Records tell of several family incidents. On July 15, 1780
an entry reads..."the passing of various young people to and from the English has caused much confusion, for
example, cattle have been driven away and Joseph Booner was beaten half to death and so on."
Marharetha Booner joined the young Hope Moravian Church in November, 1780. In 1786 young Joseph Booner
left the farm and entered the Single Brothers' House in Salem to begin training for a trade. His brother Joshua
moved to Salem in 1787 to become an apprentice in the hat shop there. Another brother Isaac eloped in 1797 with
Single Sister Dorothea Meyer to Bethania.
The old Boner homeplace evidently became Joseph's at his father's death in 1786 and he had to leave Salem to
return and manage the farm. He married Christine Humel (1780-1826) and they had seven children: nancy,
Elizabeth, Samuel (moved to Salem to live), William, Jonathan (died young), John Lewis and Henry (both moved to
Indiana). After Christine died Joseph remarried in 1829 to Anna Margaretha Carver (1792-1863) and they had
one child, Joseph Wesley, in 1831. A Moravian diarist wrote about going to the Boner home to baptize little Joseph
Wesley Boner.
The Boner house was located about 10 miles west of Hope Church and although the family attended services at
Hope whenever possible, they also invited the Moravian preachers to use their home as a church meeting place.
The diarists wrote about holding services in the Boner home on numerous occasions.
Joseph Wesley Boner inherited the old home when his mother died in 1863. Family descendants claim he served
in the Confederate Army during the War Between the States. He married a neighbor, Sarah Jane Lowder
(1845-1926). They had one son, Henry Theodore (born 1862) and one daughter Mary Jane (1868).
Near the end of the War, and before Joseph Wesley returned home, the Boner homeplace was ransacked by
invading Union Army soldiers, probably during Stoneman's Raid. Supposedly all the horses, grain and foodstuffs
were stolen by the soldiers, but fortunately Mrs. Boner and her young son were not harmed and the old house was
not put to the torch.
Joseph Wesely Boner died in 1914 and his wido, Sarah Jane, lived in the old house along until a couple of years
before her own death in 1926. When her health failed, she moved into her daughter's home nearby.
The daughter, Mary Jane Boner Miller, inherited the Boner house. At her own death in 1950 she left the house to
her only child, Mary Ellis, who kept the old place until the mid 1970's, when it was sold to Jason Morgan of
Winston-Salem.
From 1926 to the mid 1950's the house was rented to various tenants and gradually began to fall into ruins. One
chimney collapsed, part of the siding was removed, and by the 1970's the two room addition had collapsed.
Vandals have defaced the walls and broken out the windows. The doors have been stolen or destroyed and only a
shell remains of the original structure. The nearby log barn collapsed in the mid-1970's.
When Morgan bought the old house and some 100 acres of land in 1974, he had to bulldoze off the collapsed
addition and fill in the old well as safety precautions to possible trespassers.
Only recently he received a letter from the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources that stated the Boner house has
been nominated for study as a historic landmark because of its historical and architectural significance.
Morgan said he has no present plans for restoring the old house and uses it for storage. "Oh, I have thought about
restoration, but the isolated location of the house is a deterrent, because of possible vandalism. One of the Boner
descendants has expressed an interest in buying just the house and a few acres around it, but I would rather sell
the whole 75 acres with the house," he said.
The Moravian Records first refer to the Booner (Boner) family in the old Hope Moravian Register of 1780, when
farm owners were listed with the year of their birth. This list included William Booner, 1747.
Joseph Wilhelm (William) Boner died in 1786 and was buried in the first Hope Moravian cemetery, just east of the
Muddy Creek at Clemmons. His birthplace was somewhere in Pennsylvania.
Boner came to North Carolina in 1769 and lived and worked for a time as a tanner in Bethabara, and then moved to
the Friedberg-Hope Moravian sections near present-day Clemmons.
In 1771 he married Margaretha Elrod (1752-1821), the daughter of Christopher Elrod of the Friedberg (later Hope)
congregation. In all probability they were the original owners of the old Boner house. Some family descendants
think a small log house was Boner's first home and the surviving house, the second structure built by Boner.
However, there is no proof of this.
The one-and-a-half story house was built on a hilltop with the ground sloping away on all sides and on its western
exposure, gently down to the Yadkin River. The original house appeared to have three rooms downstairs and one
large sleeping loft upstairs. Fireplaces were located in each room and the inside doors were made of two-plant
widths of forest pine. The curved stairway was built just inside the front door. Two brick chimneys featured
decorative caps.
Later an addition of two rooms and a back porch were added. A grove of birch trees was set around the house and
were identified as being at least 100 years old in 1943, when a local newspaper article was written about the old
landmark. These trees do not exist today.
Wilhelm and Margareth Boner had five children: Joseph (1773-1840), Joshua (1774-1836), Isaac (1776-1858),
Aaltje and Jhenly. Notes in Volume four of the Moravian Records tell of several family incidents. On July 15, 1780
an entry reads..."the passing of various young people to and from the English has caused much confusion, for
example, cattle have been driven away and Joseph Booner was beaten half to death and so on."
Marharetha Booner joined the young Hope Moravian Church in November, 1780. In 1786 young Joseph Booner
left the farm and entered the Single Brothers' House in Salem to begin training for a trade. His brother Joshua
moved to Salem in 1787 to become an apprentice in the hat shop there. Another brother Isaac eloped in 1797 with
Single Sister Dorothea Meyer to Bethania.
The old Boner homeplace evidently became Joseph's at his father's death in 1786 and he had to leave Salem to
return and manage the farm. He married Christine Humel (1780-1826) and they had seven children: nancy,
Elizabeth, Samuel (moved to Salem to live), William, Jonathan (died young), John Lewis and Henry (both moved to
Indiana). After Christine died Joseph remarried in 1829 to Anna Margaretha Carver (1792-1863) and they had
one child, Joseph Wesley, in 1831. A Moravian diarist wrote about going to the Boner home to baptize little Joseph
Wesley Boner.
The Boner house was located about 10 miles west of Hope Church and although the family attended services at
Hope whenever possible, they also invited the Moravian preachers to use their home as a church meeting place.
The diarists wrote about holding services in the Boner home on numerous occasions.
Joseph Wesley Boner inherited the old home when his mother died in 1863. Family descendants claim he served
in the Confederate Army during the War Between the States. He married a neighbor, Sarah Jane Lowder
(1845-1926). They had one son, Henry Theodore (born 1862) and one daughter Mary Jane (1868).
Near the end of the War, and before Joseph Wesley returned home, the Boner homeplace was ransacked by
invading Union Army soldiers, probably during Stoneman's Raid. Supposedly all the horses, grain and foodstuffs
were stolen by the soldiers, but fortunately Mrs. Boner and her young son were not harmed and the old house was
not put to the torch.
Joseph Wesely Boner died in 1914 and his wido, Sarah Jane, lived in the old house along until a couple of years
before her own death in 1926. When her health failed, she moved into her daughter's home nearby.
The daughter, Mary Jane Boner Miller, inherited the Boner house. At her own death in 1950 she left the house to
her only child, Mary Ellis, who kept the old place until the mid 1970's, when it was sold to Jason Morgan of
Winston-Salem.
From 1926 to the mid 1950's the house was rented to various tenants and gradually began to fall into ruins. One
chimney collapsed, part of the siding was removed, and by the 1970's the two room addition had collapsed.
Vandals have defaced the walls and broken out the windows. The doors have been stolen or destroyed and only a
shell remains of the original structure. The nearby log barn collapsed in the mid-1970's.
When Morgan bought the old house and some 100 acres of land in 1974, he had to bulldoze off the collapsed
addition and fill in the old well as safety precautions to possible trespassers.
Only recently he received a letter from the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources that stated the Boner house has
been nominated for study as a historic landmark because of its historical and architectural significance.
Morgan said he has no present plans for restoring the old house and uses it for storage. "Oh, I have thought about
restoration, but the isolated location of the house is a deterrent, because of possible vandalism. One of the Boner
descendants has expressed an interest in buying just the house and a few acres around it, but I would rather sell
the whole 75 acres with the house," he said.