Tyler Judge’s Papers to Be Given to State

TYLER (AP) – Papers dating back to the 1800s detailing the life of a Tyler judge are set to be handed over to the state. Judge M.H. Bonner’s papers will be donated Friday to the Texas State Archives. That’s according to Daye Collins, an official with the Bonner-Whitaker-McClendon House (pictured), a historic Tyler home built by the judge’s daughter and her husband that can be toured. The Bonner family gave the papers to the house two decades ago. But Collins tells the Tyler Morning Telegraph that eventually the state asked for the collection, which includes letters to Texas officials. Bonner served in Tyler as a district judge from 1873 until becoming a Texas Supreme Court associate justice in 1878. He returned to private practice in Tyler in 1882 and died the next year.