Merced County Biographies
Ref: Pages 472-473
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 7/28/2009
REV. LEWIS ROBERT BOND
Among the pioneer ministers of the eighties in California mention should be made of the late Rev. Lewis Robert Bond, who was one of the outstanding figures in the California Presbyterian Church and a man who spent his entire life doing good for his fellow man and rearing a family.
Rev. Lewis Robert Bond was born August 29, 1842, on his father's farm, not far from Nashville, Tenn. In 1861, he entered the Confederate Army and served in the cavalry until the end of the war, in 1865. Between this date and 1871, he worked on his father's farm, at the carpenter's trade, and also taught school. In 1871, while teaching school, he became a candidate for the ministry of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, before the McMinnville, Tenn., Presbytery; he was licensed in 1872, and ordained in 1873. While serving churches near Lebanon, Tenn., he was able to resume work in Cumberland University, which he had been compelled to relinquish on account of the financial depression of 1873. He was graduated from the Cumberland Theological Seminary in 1880, and was married the same year to Miss Christina Hoodenpyl, of McMinnville, Tenn., who was a graduate of, and later a teacher in, the Cumberland Female College at McMinnville, Tenn.
After a year and a half of service in the churches of Marion Junction and Pleasant Hill, in Alabama, he moved with his wife and infant son to California, and became pastor of the churches at Plainsburg and Mariposa Creek, in Merced County, near the present town of Le Grand. Thereafter he served churches at Lemoore, Bakersfield, and Farmington. In 1893, he moved with his family to Pomeroy, Wash., and there he remained two years. Subsequently, he moved his family to the Willamette Valley in Oregon, where he served in succession churches at Coburg, Woodburn, Sodaville, and Florence. He was honorably retired from the ministry by the Willamette Presbytery of the reunited Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., in 1911, with thirty-one and a half years of active service in the ministry to his credit since his ordination.
One year before his retirement he moved with his family from Florence to Eugene, Ore., where he continued to reside until the year 1919, when he moved with his wife to Le Grand, Cal. At the latter place he passed peacefully to his final rest, December 18, 1922, at the age of eighty years, three months and nineteen days. He is survived by his widow, and all five of their children: Mrs. J.J. Baxter of Le Grand; Paul G., and Capt. Aubrey H. Bond of San Francisco, Lewis A. Bond of Berkeley; and Prof. Jesse H. Bond, of the University of North Dakota, at Grand Forks, N.D. Two of his sons, Aubrey H. and Lewis A., served as commissioned officers with the A.E.F. in France. His outstanding characteristics were honest faithfulness, strong common sense, and patience. Mrs. Bond resides with her daughter, Mrs. J.J. Baxter near Le Grand, and is now in her seventy-third year and hale and hearty.
History of
MERCED COUNTY
CALIFORNIA
With A
Biographical Review
of
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been
Identified with Its Growth and Development
from the Early Days to the Present
HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1925
Merced County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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