He wrote a reader for German studies which was used for higher education in Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and Austria, until it was banned during the Kulturkampf.

His parents, Mathäus Bone and his wife Elisabeth, née Kramer, ran a small button factory, an inn and engaged in farming.

[8] In 1876, his German reader Deutsches Lesebuch für höhere Lehranstalten was banned from use in schools in Hesse and Prussia.

Clerical leaders[7] included Cardinal Melchior von Diepenbrock of Breslau, Cardinal Johannes von Geissel and Cardinal Philipp Krementz of Cologne, Bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler of Mainz, Christoph Moufang, Bishop Paul Leopold Haffner of Mainz, Johann Anton Friedrich Baudri of Cologne, and Bishop Konrad Martin of Paderborn, who wrote 250 letters to Bone which are extant.

[10] Bone achieved influence through works such as Deutsches Lesebuch für höhere Lehranstalten,[3] which appeared in two volumes and 67 editions from 1840.

[7] Bone published traditional Latin hymns as the basis for singing in church,[12] and also translated medieval and Baroque texts into contemporary language, such as "Komm, Schöpfer Geist, kehr bei uns ein" as a paraphrase of the 9th-century Veni Creator Spiritus, to make the return of traditional hymns to Catholic services possible.

[4] The common German hymnal Gotteslob of 1975 contained several songs from Bone's Cantate!, some with revised wording.