C. D. Bonney Chaves County, New Mexico

C. D. Bonney, of Roswell, came to the Territory June 4, 188 1, and in that year purchased an interest in the store owned by Captain J. Lea, at which time the firm of Lea, Bonney & Company was organized. The conducted a store across the street from the site upon which the present court house now stands. This was the pioneer firm of the Pecos valley and had a continuous and prosperous existence until 1884. The goods were freighted from Las Vegas by Mexican bull teams and they shipped out wool and beans, transporting at one shipment sixty thousand pounds of Mexican beans. Their business was continued until 1884, when they sold out to the firm of Lea, Poe & Cosgrove.

Mr. Bonney then turned his attention to dealing in horses and was the first to embark in the business on a large scale. He had a ranch thirty miles west of Roswell on the Hondo and at one time had fifteen hundred head of horses there. He continued in business with gratifying prosperity until 1898, when he sold out to R. F. Barnett, while he became proprietor of a livery stable, which was located across the street from where the American National Bank now stands, in what is at the present time the heart of the city. He conducted the business until 1902, when his barn was destroyed by fire. Since that time he has operated in real estate with Captain Haynes, handling his own property. He laid out Riverside Heights, a tract of two hundred and fifty town lots, and he now has for sale two hundred and seventeen lots. He established a power plant on the Spring River and furnishes all this tract with electric light and water. Mr. Bonney purchased one hundred and twenty acres west of Roswell, adjoining the city limits and laid this off as Sunset Heights in ten and five acre tracts. As a real estate operator he has contributed in very large and substantial manner to the growth and improvement of Roswell, and his efforts while bring ing him substantial success, have been of practical and immediate serviceableness to the community.

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Source: History of New Mexico, Its Resources and People, Volume II, Pacific States Publishing Co., 1907.