Johannes Bonekemper was born on July 6, 1795 in Niederbraeunfeld, near Neumbrecht, in Rhineland, Prussia.  His mother died when he was seven years old; five years later his father died.  Leaving home at the age of twenty, Bonekemper decided to learn the blacksmith trade.  However, after having spent a year at his birthplace, Bonekemper desired to become a minister.  He was then notified he had to become a soldier and in 1817 he was sent to France.  In 1821 he entered school in Basel, Switzerland, to prepare himself for missionary work.  In 1824 he was ordained as an Evangelical minister and was sent to serve the isolated German colonies in the Black Sea area of South Russia.  Bonekemper's most satisfying years were those from 1835 to 1846.  He spent 24 years of ministry work at Rohrbach traveling to Odessa, Freuental, Bessarabia, Cherson, and other colonies.  In 1848 he moved to Atmadscha, Dobrudscha (then part of the Ottoman Empire) where he preached the gospel for five years.  Because of the Crimean War (1854-1856), Bonekemper and his family were driven out of Turkey, going back to his Prussian birthplace of Nuembrecht which he had not seen for thirty-four years.  There he lived until his death on January 24, 1857.

The Johannes Bonekemper collection consists of carbon-copy typed trans-criptions in German of his diaries (1828 to 1838 and 1847 to 1856), several letters, and an autobiography.  They document his life as a pastor in the German colonies of Rohrbach, South Russia and Atmadscha, Dobrudscha. They 
include his daily schedule as a pastor, missionary work in the colony and rural areas, as well as his religious lessons and notes of sermons to colony parishes.  Letters to his children and his brothers cover his plans to move to Turkey in 1848 and then the difficulties in leaving Turkey in 1856. 
 

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