August Bondi

August Bondi (Jewish name Anshl) (July 21, 1833, Vienna, Austria – 1907, United States) was involved in the Border War (Bleeding Kansas) and later the American Civil War. In Kansas, he fought with abolitionist John Brown.

August Bondi was born July 21, 1833, in Vienna, Austria.The Bondis, Jewish European refugees, fled the Austrian Empire after the failed revolutions of 1848 and settled in St. Louis, Missouri. August Bondi moved to Pottawatomie Creek in Franklin County, Kansas in 1855 with his business partner, Jacob Benjamin and began homesteading. As Free Soilers who hated slavery, their farm was attacked and burned by “Border Ruffians” (pro-slavers).A neighboring farmer rushed to their aide with his sons.His name was John Brown.Bondi joined with Brown and fought alongside of him at the Battle of Black Jack in 1856, defeating the pro-slave forces, and helping enable Kansas to be admitted to the Union as a free state on January 29, 1861.Bondi enlisted in the 5th Kansas Cavalry and served until he was seriously wounded three years later.Bondi settled in Salina, Kansas in 1866 becoming Postmaster and later a County Judge.A believer in the brotherhood of all men, he rose to be a 32nd-degree Mason.

Lloyd Alexander wrote a historical novel for young people titled, Border Hawk: August Bondi, illustrated by Bernie Krigstein.

• Kansas Historical Society: August M. Bondi Papers, 1884-1952
• Oygusṭ Bondi, a biography (in Yiddish)
• The Abolitionist Jew who fought to free the American Slaves (20 pp.) by the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation