Bonus is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in northern Wharton County,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, United States located about north of Wharton near the intersection of Farm to Market Road 102 and Farm to Market Road 2614.

History

Bonus began in the mid-1890s. The construction of the Cane Belt Railroad ended at the Wharton County plantation site owned by W. L. Dunovant and William Thomas Eldridge, who were among the people who chartered the railroad. In 1896, the community applied for a post office and requested the name "Alamo." That name was not approved. The ''

Handbook of Texas The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) is an American nonprofit educational and research organization dedicated to documenting the history of Texas. It was founded in Austin, Texas, United States, on March 2, 1897. In November 2008, the ...

'' states that Bonus became the name "reportedly" since the owners of the railroad were promised a bonus if they built into the area. The Bonus post office opened in 1896. Dunovant and Eldridge brought

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

families to grow

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

, and

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

. In its early history, Bonus had relatively few

White American White Americans (sometimes also called Caucasian Americans) are Americans who identify as white people. In a more official sense, the United States Census Bureau, which collects demographic data on Americans, defines "white" as " person having ...

residents. The Dunovant-Eldridge partnership included land in various communities, including Bonus. In the early 1900s, a prison camp opened in Bonus, and prisoners worked the land and performed agricultural jobs while under contract. In 1901, the partnership ended and Eldridge took the Bonus plantation while Dunovant took another plantation. In 1902, Eldridge shot Dunovant to death. In 1936, Bonus had fifty residents and two businesses. Throughout its history, the community received a low volume of mail. The post office was discontinued three times before the final closing in 1940; thereafter, residents received mail in Eagle Lake and

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. In 1940, the Eldridge to Bonus rail link ended. The rail bed became a county road. In the 1980s, the community had 42 residents and no reported businesses. In 1992, the Cane Belt service ended. This led to the removal of the gravel bed, ties, and tracks. In 2000, Bonus had 42 residents.

Education

East Bernard Independent School District East Bernard Independent School District (EBISD) is a public school district based in East Bernard, Texas, United States. The district serves the City of East Bernard and the unincorporated area of Bonus. EBISD served Bonus since 1973. In 200 ...

(EBISD) serves Bonus. In 1905, a segregated school for

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

s had one teacher and 57 students. The Bonus School merged with the Nedra School, a small segregated school for Blacks east of Bonus, to form the Bonus-Nedra School. In 1926, the school district had four schools with a combined total of four teachers, 75

students, and 110 Black students. In 1958, the district combined with the Hungerford Independent School District. In 1973, EBISD took the land.

Notable person

* Joseph Newman, part of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred, ranched and farmed a ''sitio'' near Bonus.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Wharton County, Texas Unincorporated communities in Texas