James Butler Bonham Statue

To commemorate the 1936 Texas Centennial, it was decided to erect statues to nineteen Texas heroes.  Noted sculptor Allie Tennant was chosen to sculpt the statue of James Butler Bonham, and she personally supervised its placement on the courthouse square in Bonham on December 10, 1938.

On Sunday, December 18, 1938, on a bright sunny afternoon, the statue was first unveiled in an elaborate ceremony to which, according to newspaper reports, thousands were in attendance. Several distant relatives of James Butler Bonham were there, as well as dignitaries from Austin, Dallas and Sherman. Allie Tennant was in attendance. Congressman Sam Rayburn made the dedicatory address. The Bonham High School Band played patriotic songs, and school children from the James Duncan and Bailey Inglish schools sang "Texas, Our Texas" as the covering over the statue was removed. [Read about the dedication in the Bonham Herald, December 19, 1918.]

After almost seventy-five years of weathering, the statue was in dire need of cleaning and a new coat to prevent further deterioration. So the Fannin County Historical Commission made this their project for 2013.   The Commissioners’ Court approved, and efforts to obtain the approximate $20,000 for that began.  With more than half donated by local citizens, businesses, and former Bonham citizens, and a generous grant from The Daughters of the Republic of Texas, the James Butler Bonham statue was removed and taken for refurbishing on Saturday, December 16.  It has now been refurbished and reinstalled.

The re-dedication was held on Friday, November 21, 2014 on the courthouse square.

At the dedication of the statue in 1938, the Bonham Herald stated:

"It is our monument, where we were born in Texas, or have adopted this state as our own - with that adoption goes our claim to an interest in Col. Bonham, and the splendid statue made by Miss Tennant, which will be where it is, barring earthquakes, for ages, if not longer.  No cyclone is liable to throw it down; no tornado can blow it from its foundation, and no political upheaval is liable, whereby it might be pulled down - it is there for all time.  Let us cherish it and keep the grass green about its base, and teach our children that we are a liberty-loving people, who gladly honor our patriots who have given us the priceless boon of freedom - presenting their lives a living sacrifice, that liberty might not perish from the earth."