Bonsack was located along an early road called the "Trader's Path," from Augusta County, Virginia, now part of Highway 460.

A large number of German Baptists, also called "Church of the Brethren," settled here after the Revolutionary War, and the community had several different names, including "Glade Creek" and "Stoner's Store".

However, the second was spared because its owner, with fingers crossed, promised not to sell blankets to the nearby Confederate merchants down the road in Roanoke City.

"A number of the railroad-related resources that do survive have been heavily altered, so additional historical research would be needed to document their connection to the railroad.

While some railroad resources, such as depots, were often built specifically for that purpose, in other cases, older buildings were reused as the community's needs changed.

"[6] The town is named for a former resident, James Albert Bonsack, who invented the first practical cigarette paper rolling machine in 1880.

There was a short mining boom in the 1880s, when deposits of zinc were found on David Plaine's property, near the Bonsack railroad depot.