From Proud Heritage, Vol 1 by DCPA, not currently in print.
Bohny came to the United States in 1862 from Frieberg, Germany, one of four brothers who migrated to this country. They were the offspring of Joseph Bohny, a merchant, and Caroline Hanks Bohny of Frieberg.
In November, 1863, Leopold Bohny, acting as a substitute for another man, enrolled in the Union Army as a private in Company F of the 52nd Regiment, Pennsylvania Infantry. In July, 1864, during an assault on Fort Johnson on James Island, South Carolina, his Regiment of 125 men was captured by the Confederates. He was imprisoned at the infamous Andersonville Prison until Novem ber, 1864, at which time he escaped – “a very sick man and a mere skeleton. He also was ruptured as a result of chopping and hauling wood for the prison,” according to the records in the National Archives.
After this he made his way to Texas and Dallas and in 1873 married Christiana Mirus who had come to Texas from Marberg, Germany in 1869 through Galveston to Round Top and then Dallas. They had four children: Rudolph, Eva, Otto and Gertrude. Leopold owned and operated the William Tell House, the only German boarding house in the city, at the corner of Commerce and Market Streets. It is listed in the first Dallas City Directory published by Lawson and Edmond son in 1873. He was a town alderman in the years 1879 and 1880 (Dallas County by John H. Cochran, published in 1928). He died in 1896 and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery at Hall and Oak Grove Streets. The family resided on Cochran Street across from the Cumberland Hill School (present Sedco offices). He had two brothers residing in Dallas: Henry C. and Charles Bohny, both of whom had large families.
By Margarita Bohny O’Brien, granddaughter, Dallas
