![cover image](https://wikiwandv2-19431.kxcdn.com/_next/image?url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/Chilco.gif/640px-Chilco.gif&w=640&q=50)
John Bonser (steamship captain)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Henry Bonser (1855-1913) was a steamship captain from Oregon, United States and British Columbia, Canada. He piloted dozens of sternwheelers over his 40-year-long career and pioneered many rivers in the Pacific Northwest.
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/Chilco.gif/320px-Chilco.gif)
John was born in 1855 at Sauvie Island near the banks of the Columbia River in Oregon, the second son of James Halstead Bonser. Riverboating was a tradition in the Bonser family, as both John's father and grandfather had been rivermen on the Scioto and Ohio rivers.[1]