Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Bonard, Louis

BONARD, Louis, miser, b. in Rouen, France, in 1809; d. in New York city, 20 Feb., 1871. Of his life previous to his coming to the United States in 1851 nothing is known. During his residence in New York city he occupied, in squalor and wretchedness, a room six by eight feet in dimensions on an obscure street. Heavy wooden bars were fastened across the solitary dingy window, and bars and bolts protected the door. The room was devoid of furniture, save a broken table, a mattress lifted from the floor by a few boards supported by bricks, and a trunk. There was no fire and no place for one. On 14 Feb., a few days before his death, he sent a message to Henry Bergh, of the society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, whom he had never met, and desired to make his will. In it was revealed that he had property to the value of $150,000, all of which was devised to Mr. Bergh's society. The trunk was filled with gold and silver watches in alternate layers, together with a large quantity of jewelry and diamonds. Bonard's remains were buried in Greenwood cemetery and a suitable memorial erected over them.