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Collection Summary
Collection: 00032 - North Dakota Oral History Project Photograph Collection
Folder: RI-17
Item: 00014
Title: Alexander Bonzer, owner, inside Bonzer General Store Lidgerwood (N.D.)
Date: 1900
Creator: Movius, Gilbert H
Inscription/Marks: [on caption below photograph] Col. 32-RI/17-14 [facsimile file] Written in Sprunk's handwriting on reverse: Inside of Bonzer General Store, Lidgerwood, Alex Bonzer, 1st left, Owner, approx. 1900.
Summary: Alexander Bonzer stands next to merchandise shelving, front photo left with other clerks helping customers in store with displays of clothing, boots and shoes, china, furnishings, and candy. Bonzer, Alexander Franklin--1862-1929 Bonzer General Store (Lidgerwood N.D.) [history-North Dakota History and People Vol2p227-228] Alexander Franklin Bonzer, of the firm of Bonzer and Mathews of Lidgerwood, is not only a factor in the business development of his town and county but is also very active in politics and in public affairs generally. He was born in Clayton County Iowa November 20, 1862, of the marriage of Joseph and Catherine (Blaha) Bonzer, both natives of Bohemia. Alexander Franklin Bonzer received his education in the common schools of Iowa and during his boyhood and youth devoted much time to assisting his father with the farm work. He engaged in farming independently in Iowa and South Dakota but in 1893 removed to Lidgerwood, North Dakota, and established a meat market. For ten years following this he also bought and shipped cattle, becoming one of the large stock dealers of the county, but at the end of that time he sold out and erected a large brick building, in which he engaged in the mercantile business, conducting a general store successfully for five years. On disposing of that business he entered the real-estate field but for six years divided his attention between a number of business interests. Since 1908, however, he has devoted practically his entire time to the land and loan business as a member of the firm of Bonzer and Mathews. They buy and sell land outright, operating chiefly in the south part of North Dakota, and they have gained a gratifying measure of success. Mr. Bonzer owns a great deal of valuable farm and city property and is also a director in the Farmers National Bank of Lidgerwood and the Farmers State Bank of Mantador, this state. Mr. Bonzer was married in 1887 to Miss Hannah Dinger, who was born in Indiana and is a daughter of Polycarp Dinger, who removed his family to South Dakota in 1882. For a number of years he was actively engaged in farming but is now living in Lidgerwood. Mr. and Mrs. Bonzer have five children: Cora, the wife of Walter Truax, cashier of the Geneseo State Bank of Geneseo, this state; Clarence who is assisting his father; Mamie, the wife of Adolph Kotchian, cashier of the State Bank of Kermit, North Dakota; Arthur, residing in Genesco; and Archie, who is attending St. John’s School at Collegeville, Minnesota. The parents attend the Baptist Church, but the children are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Bonzer is a well known fraternal, belonging to Lodge No. 1903, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE) at Fergus Falls; the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he had passed through all the chairs; and to the Masons. In politics he is a stalwart democrat and is recognized as one of the leaders of his party in Southeastern North Dakota. He has been called to a number of positions of trust and honor and has at all times discharged his official duties with ability and conscientiousness. For seventeen years he served on the school board and for eighteen years he has been a member of the city council, of which he is now president, and for six years, beginning with 1901, he was county commissioner. Still higher honor came to him when in 1912 he was elected to the state senate, defeating a strong republican candidate, although the republican majority is normally three or four hundred. His has been a life of intense activity, and his achievements are the more commendable in that he has depended solely upon his own resources since boyhood.
Red ID: PH_I_119837 Image ID: 170895 Image Notes: 00032-RI-17-00014

Collection: 00032 Digitized Images from Collection
Title: North Dakota Oral History Project Photograph Collection
Date: 1880-1977

Summary: Consists of copies of photographs belonging to people interviewed for the North Dakota Oral History Project. The Project was undertaken by Larry Sprunk, with the cooperation of the North Dakota American Revolution Bicentennial Commission, the North Dakota Farmers Union, and the State Historical Society of North Dakota. The primary objective of the North Dakota Oral History Project was to conduct oral tape recorded interviews with North Dakotans who lived through the state's history and who could speak of this history from a first-hand basis. Interviewees were photographed at the time of their interviews. In addition, the project borrowed over 6,000 historical photographs which were copied and added to the State Historical Society's collection. Many interviewees also donated family histories, documents, letters, ledgers, books, and artifacts.

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