Manuscript Location

Historic Cherry Hill, The Edward Frisbee Center for Collections and Research

Place of Origin

United States ➔ New York ➔ Albany

Date of Composition

1854-1889

Description

Catherine “Cuy'' Visscher Van Rensselaer Bonney (1817-1891) was a daughter of Solomon and Arriet Van Rensselaer and a third generation resident of Cherry Hill, the ancestral Van Rensselaer home in Albany, New York.  In 1856, she married the Reverend Samuel Ware Bonney (1815-1864), a missionary, and followed him to China. After realizing that there were few schools in China serving women and young girls, the couple established an all-girls school in the Portuguese colony of Macau. The school accepted impoverished children, many of whom the Bonneys provided with food and clothing. During this first mission, Catherine and her husband adopted an infant, Emma (1854-1938), who lived with them in China. Unfortunately, in 1864, four years after Emma’s adoption, Samuel Bonney died of bilious fever. Despite her hardships after losing Samuel, including contending with anti-foreigner sentiments, Catherine remained in China until 1867, when, due to ill health, she returned to the United States and lived at Cherry Hill until 1869. She then resumed her missionary work in China before returning to the States for good in 1871. Shortly thereafter, she moved to Hickory, North Carolina, where she served as  president of Claremont College for Girls and where she lived until her death in 1891. In 1875, she published a two-volume book titled A Legacy of Historical Gleanings, which detailed the history of the United States alongside information about the Van Rensselaer family. 

Catherine Bonney originally used this book to record student grades when she taught at the Ohio Female College from 1854 to 1856. Later, she pasted newspaper clippings concerning home, farm, and garden management over the grade records. The final pages of the book, beginning on digital page 125, contain the only handwritten entries other than the grade records. These include notes on gardening, working with India rubber, and rice growing in China; musings about life and insects; and a recipe for pickles. 

Catherine Bonney compiled another recipe book, most of which is written in her hand. See Catherine Visscher Van Rensselaer Bonney's receipt book from 1860-1888.