The Plain Dealer, 18 September 1906
(Cleveland, Ohio)

DEATH’S CALL FOR J. H. A. BONE
Veteran Editorial Writer of the Plain Dealer Quietly Passes From Life.
For Nearly Fifty Years He Was an Active Newspaper Man.
John H. A. Bone, editorial writer on the Plain Dealer, died late yesterday at his residence on Vienna-st. He was the oldest working newspaper man in Cleveland when he retired from active work last March on account of Illness. He was widely known as a writer of great ability. Death was due to cancer.
The funeral services will be held Wednesday afternoon at 2 o’clock in Emanuel Episcopal church, Euclid-av. Rev. W. R. Stearly will officiate.
John Herbert Aloysius Bone was born in Cornwall, England, Oct. 31, 1830. His father intended him for the army, but an accident in his youth, a loaded cart pinning him against a stone wall, permanently crippled his right arm and eventually had the effect of turning his attention to a more congenial pursuit, that of literature. While still in his teens he furnished articles to the press of Liverpool and London and was a contributor to several English periodicals. Having married in his native place, a desire to better his fortune seized him and he left England for the United States in 1851. After a brief stay in New York he arrived in Cleveland in October of that year. His first employment in his new home was that of an accountant, but he soon varied this work by contributions to the Cleveland Herald. In 1857 he became a member of the staff of that paper, at the same time contributing to the Knickerbocker Magazine, to Godey’s, Peterson’s and other popular periodicals of the day. On joining the Herald he took charge of the commercial, local, amusement and literary departments of that paper, but as his work increased with the growth of the publication he resigned them one after another, the retirement of Editor Harris finally transferring his labors to the leading editorial department. Here he found time to contribute to the Atlantic Monthly and to furnish Our Young Folks with a series of articles on English history. In the late ‘50s he published a small volume of poems, most of them written in his youth, and in 1864 wrote a book on the oil regions. In addition to his other literary labors he diligently cultivated his acquaintance with the early English writers of the Elizabethan period, continuing an indefatigable student of Shakespeare and being widely recognized as an authority in this field of literary research. In the ‘60s Mr. Bone was connected with the management of the Cleveland Library association and the Western Reserve Historical society, and later on was a member of the board of managers of the public library. He was an intimate friend of the late Leonard Case and was frequently consulted when the latter was quietly formulating plans for the endowment of Case library and the establishment of the Case School of Applied Science.
Mr. Bone remained an editorial writer on the Herald during the years that paper was owned by Fairbanks & Benedict, and under the succeeding management, joining the Plain Dealer staff when the Herald was purchased by the Leader and Plain Dealer Publishing Co. in March, 1885. He remained with the Plain Dealer as managing editor up to 1893. Since that time he was an editorial writer and in charge of the literary department (book reviewing) until March, 1906, when failing health confined him to his home. He still retained his position on the Plain Dealer staff, and, by preference, continued at odd moments his book reviewing, reluctantly closing the work that had become second nature with him, only when too enfeebled to go on with it.

Contributed by Bob Bolitho