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CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 

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CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 BY HIS WIFE 
 
 SARAH K. BOLTON 
 
 CAMBRIDGE 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 1907 
 
PREFACE 
 
 No written word could adequately portray the 
 character and influence of one whose high ideals 
 were a part of his daily life. Mr. Bolton was 
 widely known and loved. He was pre-eminently 
 a man of happy spirit who seemed to brighten 
 every life he touched. It is hoped that his 
 friends, by reading this sketch, will like to recall 
 his warm heart, his buoyant and joyous nature, 
 his energy, and his desire to increase the happi- 
 ness and helpfulness of those about him. 
 
 S. K. B. 
 
 Cleveland, i 906. 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Charles E. Bolton. Photogravure from a pho 
 tograph taken by J. F. Ryder about 1888 
 
 Mr. Bolton as a boy of ten. From a daguer 
 reotype 
 
 At eighteen. From an ambrotype 
 
 Mr. Bolton on leaving college. From a photo 
 graph by J. L. Lovell, Amherst, 1865 
 
 Mrs. Bolton in 1 866. By J. F. Ryder 
 
 The Home, Elm-Oak, East Cleveland . . 
 
 Group, in the Grounds. From a photograph 
 taken in 1901 by a friend, Mr. Charles A. Post 
 
 Plan for Lake Front Improvements . . . . 
 
 Mr. Bolton in 1 899. By the Ryder Studio . 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 Facing page 8 
 8 
 
 28 
 28 
 70 
 
 72 
 
 84 
 
 no 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 Charles Edward Bolton, born May i6, 
 1841, at South Hadley Falls, Massachusetts, was 
 descended from a worthy line of ancestors. His 
 great-grandfather, Timothy Bolton, served in 
 the Revolutionary War, as did also Timothy's 
 brothers, Sergeant William, Corporal Ebenezer, 
 and Captain Aaron Bolton. They were grand- 
 sons of William Bolton who came to New Eng- 
 land in the summer of 1718 with Scotch and 
 English settlers from the vicinity of Coleraine 
 in the north of Ireland ; the family had come 
 originally from central Lancashire in England. 
 On the first call to arms, April 19, 1775, Timothy, 
 a lad not yet sixteen, marched with others from 
 the village green in Shirley, Massachusetts, to 
 the camp at Cambridge ; he was at the siege of 
 Boston, the taking of Burgoyne, the battle of 
 
 [I] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 Long Island, and at Valley Forge. Mr. Bolton's 
 mother, Manila Ingram, a woman of unusual 
 nobility of character, was the daughter of John 
 Ingram of Amherst, and was married to James 
 King Bolton in 1837. The Wolcotts, Blisses, 
 Chapins, and other well-known New England 
 families were among Mr. Bolton's ancestors. 
 
 The life of a New England boy, bright, active, 
 fun-loving, industrious, earning a little money by 
 picking berries or raising chickens, living near 
 the banks of the Connecticut River and loving 
 its waters, making boats and water-wheels or 
 romping in his brief leisure with his only brother 
 John and his dog Ponto, — such a life had much 
 of strength in its simplicity and economy, and 
 was a good preparatory school for future useful- 
 ness. Years after he used to tell how he was 
 cured of a desire to stay away from school for 
 play. He complained to his mother of headache, 
 which was doubtless true, and she prepared and 
 insisted on his drinking a large bowl of thor- 
 oughwort tea. After this he preferred to go 
 to school. 
 
 [2] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 In his autobiography, written at the request 
 of his wife and son, a short time before his 
 death, he says of these early years : " A valuable 
 object lesson of my boyhood days was the con- 
 struction of great dams for mill purposes across 
 the Connecticut River between South Hadley 
 Falls and Holyoke. Though only seven years 
 old, my father often took me to see one dam 
 while it was being built. After the building of 
 the Connecticut River Railway, the development 
 of factories at the Falls became profitable. 
 
 "In the winter of 1848, work on the first 
 dam was begun and several hundred men were 
 employed, each at eighty cents per day. An at- 
 tempt to lower the wages to seventy cents was 
 met by an ugly strike, and Philander Anderson, 
 chief engineer, the constable, and others were se- 
 riously injured. The authorities responded with 
 a military force and the leading rioters were 
 arrested and punished. In the summer, nearly 
 thirteen hundred men were employed, and in 
 five months one of the largest dams in the world 
 was completed. It had been built of timbers and 
 
 [3] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 planks, fastened together, and the whole bolted 
 to the bed-rock. It was thirty feet high and over 
 a thousand feet in length. The building of this 
 huge dam had been the talk of all New England, 
 and its failure or success was the question of the 
 day. 
 
 "On November i6, 1848, thousands of peo- 
 ple lined the banks to witness the closing of the 
 many gates at 10 a. m. 
 
 "As the pent-up waters, whose right to flow 
 freely to the Sound had never before been ques- 
 tioned, began to rise, the dam commenced to 
 leak badly. Brush and gravel were thrown in to 
 stop the leak, but as the water rose higher and 
 higher, and finally reached within a few feet of the 
 top of the dam, the strain was so great that it 
 was evident that the structure must give way. 
 All the people who stood on the dam and in 
 the dry river bed below were warned to flee to 
 the banks, and fortunately they obeyed with 
 alacrity. 
 
 '' I remember running as fast as my bare feet 
 could carry me, and had just reached the high 
 
 [4] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 bank, when a little after three o'clock a cry went 
 up from the multitude, ' There she goes ! * 
 * We told you so ! ' The dam turned over and 
 the Connecticut River was again master of itself. 
 
 "The scene was frightful. The imprisoned 
 waters rushed over the rocky falls below, sweep- 
 ing before it huge portions of the wrecked dam, 
 a long summer's labor of engineers and a thou- 
 sand men, the pride of contractors and owners, 
 in the very hour of seeming triumph." 
 
 Farther on he writes : " I recall a big umbrella 
 elm on the way to school, which the selectmen 
 voted must be cut down, and how I pleaded 
 with the axemen to spare the tree, a friend to 
 everybody, but my earnest words did no good, 
 and the veteran shade tree fell. 
 
 " Mr. C. L. Bugbee kept a tavern at the Falls, 
 and father and he became great friends. They 
 often chatted about business. It was finally 
 agreed that the two men should form a partner- 
 ship in paper-making, and so they built a paper 
 mill at Bondsville, a few miles north of Palmer, 
 Massachusetts. When we moved, we took with 
 
 [5] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 us our spotted dog Ponto. We lived in a 
 pretty white house situated on a hill overlooking 
 the village. The new mill was in sight across 
 the Thorndike River, and father and Mr. Bug- 
 bee worked hard to succeed. 
 
 " While at Bondsville, I attended a red school- 
 house that stood down near a large lily pond. 
 In the fall term the teacher forbade the children 
 to eat chestnuts in school, but some disobeyed. 
 If we were caught, as penalty we forfeited all the 
 chestnuts in our pockets. 
 
 " One day I filled all my pockets with chest- 
 nuts — boys always have more pockets than 
 girls — and, after school began, I deliberately 
 commenced eating them, and was soon caught in 
 the act. The nuts were demanded, and it was 
 real fun, as the teacher held out her hand, to fill 
 it slowly. She would ask, 'Have you more?' 
 ' Yes,* I said ; and finally she added, sharply, 
 ' Come, boy, be quick, and give me all the 
 chestnuts you have.' I filled both her hands ; 
 the teacher then put the nuts into her desk 
 and returned to know if I had more. * Oh, 
 
 [6] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 yes/ I said, Mots of them.' So she marched 
 me up to the desk, the whole school laughing, 
 and made me quickly empty every pocket. We 
 all liked our teacher, and risked our lives gather- 
 ing for her the beautiful white lilies in the pond 
 near by." 
 
 He once thought of becoming a farmer. Of 
 this he writes : " I started to learn farming with 
 a Mr. WilHams. I guided a pair of horses with 
 a harrow round a large plowed field, lapping the 
 implement, it seemed a million times, so weary 
 and hungry I became before dinner time. Dur- 
 ing the nooning Mr. Williams desired me to 
 turn a grindstone, while several of his hired men 
 sharpened their dull scythes. After dinner it was 
 tramp, tramp again in clouds of dust in the same 
 big plowed field till six o'clock. After supper, I 
 walked a mile to drive home the cows, and the 
 farmer was surprised that I had never learned to 
 milk, so he set me raking wet grass in the 
 orchard till the moon shone over the hills. 
 
 " Long before the sun set that day I felt that I 
 had done farming enough for a lifetime, and I 
 
 [7] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 went home that night with the hardest-earned 
 half-dollar I ever possessed. I still enjoy farm- 
 ing, but always from a car window." 
 
 At fourteen years of age, the family having 
 returned to South Hadley Falls, the boy learned 
 the trade of making fine writing-paper. He 
 went to the mill every morning in the winter's 
 snow or summer's heat at five o'clock, and 
 worked until 8.30 a. m., the hour for the open- 
 ing of the High School, and all day on Satur- 
 days. He often learned his Latin, which was 
 copied on bits of paper, while he stamped or 
 sealed up papers. A small amount of money was 
 used to buy an accordion, whose music should 
 brighten these days of toil, and this he carefully 
 kept through life. " Perhaps my studious hab- 
 its," he once said, " led the teacher to overesti- 
 mate my good qualities, for I now and then 
 improved an opportunity to play or enjoy a prac- 
 tical joke. One bright, warm day the teacher 
 asked me to go out and cut some sticks, with 
 which she could whip bad boys. I was gone an 
 hour, and returned with as big a bundle of sticks 
 

A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 as I could carry. Of course the whole school 
 laughed as I entered with a Bunyan load on my 
 back, the teacher saying, ^ Thank you, Charles, 
 these sticks are just what I need ; take care now 
 that you do not get punished with these very 
 sticks/ Sure enough, later I was whipped with 
 sticks of my own cutting." 
 
 When through the High School, he had saved 
 four hundred dollars with which to fit himself 
 for college. There had been few play days and 
 few vacations, but courage to face the battle of 
 life, and overcome, had been developed and had 
 won its reward. 
 
 Mr. Bolton often said in after years that 
 learning a trade had made him independent for 
 life, for if necessary he could always support his 
 family by paper-making. His father, James, a 
 man of thrift and some means, wished his son's 
 help when he built the paper-mill, and the owner 
 of the mill where he then worked offered a place 
 in his ofBce, but the lad, fond of books, wisely 
 chose to go on with his education. 
 
 Years afterward, when his High School teacher, 
 [9] 
 
 V. 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 Mr. George Brooks of Philadelphia, had become 
 an old man, Mr. Bolton suggested and helped to 
 call together in a delightful reunion at South 
 Hadley Falls the school girls and boys of those 
 early days, to honor the firm but kind master 
 who had given some of the best years of his life 
 to them. 
 
 Mr. Bolton joined the Congregational Church 
 when he was seventeen. He prepared for college 
 at Sanbornton Bridge, now Tilton, New Hamp- 
 shire, and at Williston Seminary, Easthampton, 
 Massachusetts, entering Amherst College in the 
 autumn of 1861. Concerning this, he wrote: 
 " The colored janitor at Amherst opened the 
 door of a recitation-room on the right, and a 
 thin, bent form shuffled into a seat behind the 
 desk. Our names were taken, and each young 
 man was called in turn to sit near Professor Wil- 
 liam S. Tyler, who proceeded to discover what we 
 knew of Greek. Daniel Webster enjoyed most, 
 it is said, the frequent repetitions he found in 
 Virgil and Homer. One cannot easily forget 
 Professor Tyler's kindness of manner. His arm 
 
 [10] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 naturally fell upon the back of my chair, and he 
 turned the pages of the text-book till a passage 
 familiar to me was reached ; the professor then said 
 in a fatherly way, ' Bolton, can you read this ? * 
 I hesitated somewhat in the translation, and in 
 my answers. Then he added, ' Well done, but 
 here is an easier place, you can surely read this/ 
 An easy place was just what I was praying for, 
 and now, aided by luck and encouraged by kind 
 words, I surprised myself, and returned to my 
 seat in triumph. In this way. Professor Tyler 
 at the outset captured our hearts and held them 
 loyal for four years." 
 
 Mr. Bolton always kept a picture of Professor 
 Tyler, framed, in his home. He continues : 
 
 " Next morning, after the examination, father 
 was glad to see me, but he was very reticent. 
 Up on mother's pantry shelf a few dollars were 
 always kept in a small box for an emergency, 
 and out of this reserve fund mother advanced me 
 ten dollars. With half of the sum I purchased a 
 silk hat, much to her surprise. Thus equipped, I 
 went to Bondsville, in Palmer, to see father's old 
 
 [II] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 partner, Mr. Calvin L. Bugbee, who was Chair- 
 man of the School Committee. 
 
 " Mr. Bugbee was a kind-hearted man and 
 was inclined to aid me. He said earnestly, 
 ' Charlie, I desire to help you, but we have 
 been much opposed in building our new and 
 graded school. If I hire you, who have never 
 taught, and you should fail, the citizens would 
 never forgive me. My reply was, ^ Mr. Bug- 
 bee, please try me. I cannot fail, for it means 
 for me bread and butter, and an education.' 
 ' Well, young man,' he said, ^ your earnestness 
 wins. You shall have the large schoolroom. 
 The pay is twenty-five dollars per month 
 and you can board at my home.' That was 
 a triumph, indeed, and mother rejoiced with 
 me on my return. Of course, I did not forget 
 to say, ' Mother, did it not pay to buy the silk 
 hat?' 
 
 " Firmness and kindness, and faithful work 
 made the Bondsville winter school a success, but 
 I earned every dollar that I received." 
 
 In college he helped to pay his expenses by 
 
 [12] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 caring for the college chapel, taking charge of the 
 college bookstore, and by teaching school. 
 
 " To keep up with the college class," he said, 
 " and teach daily sixty restless boys and girls for 
 six hours was not an easy task. My rule was 
 to rise at five o'clock, wash my face and hands 
 under the starlight in running water near the 
 house, in severe weather breaking the ice. This 
 cold water roused me mentally. Then I could 
 learn a Greek lesson before breakfast, which was 
 always ready at six o'clock. Then more study 
 before eight o'clock, for I was due at the school 
 by half-past eight." 
 
 The gymnasium of the college was a great 
 delight and benefit. " We used wood and iron 
 dumb-bells, or poles in light and rhythmic mo- 
 tions to music," he writes, " till the glow of fresh 
 blood was in all our faces. Then in charge of 
 class lieutenants, we were given various other ex- 
 ercises. Vigorous work was sometimes had by 
 the whole class running twenty-five times, more 
 or less, round the gymnasium, till a mile or more 
 was lapped, and often we yelled like Confeder- 
 
 [13] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 ates, disturbing the neighbors, I fear. Dr. 
 Hitchcock never objected, and frequently we 
 sang songs or danced, the whole an escape valve, 
 he thought, for our surplus energy. The exer- 
 cise finished, we ran to our rooms for a towel 
 bath, and at ten o'clock precisely we were again 
 seated for hard study. Thus muscle and mind 
 were developed together." 
 
 Strong in body, abounding in health and spir- 
 its, a leader in fun as well as in study, earnest 
 and manly in his friendships, the handsome col- 
 lege boy could never forget these happy years. 
 The way was often dark, but his mother's love 
 and encouragement helped him on. Sometimes 
 he walked the ten miles from college to his home 
 at South Hadley Falls to save his money, occa- 
 sionally selling writing-paper to the farmers, but 
 the journey paid the often homesick and affec- 
 tionate son. " He graduated from college," wrote 
 one of the professors, " with a supplemental 
 knowledge of men and things rarely possessed 
 by college graduates." He always said he felt 
 " profoundly grateful to the founders, the bene- 
 [14] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 factors, and the faculty of Amherst College/' He 
 appreciated the Master of Arts degree given him 
 later by the college. 
 
 College days, with their occasional clouds, were 
 usually bright and sunny. In his junior year 
 he met the young lady who afterward became his 
 wife. The affection then begun never lost any of 
 its whole-hearted devotion. The delicate appre- 
 ciation, the thought for her health and com- 
 fort, the loneliness without her companionship, 
 the chivalric honor for true womanhood, never 
 lessened in all the years. The beautiful letters 
 written during the two years of separation before 
 marriage showed no more absorbing love than 
 the letters in the latter days. With similarity of 
 tastes in books, with kindred aspirations for all 
 that was elevating and helpful, drawn even more 
 closely together if possible by the struggles that 
 come to all in one form or another, his marriage 
 seemed to fulfill his fondest hopes. Twenty 
 years after marriage he wrote to his wife : " You 
 and what you do are the very heart of my life. 
 ... I prefer a crust with you rather than a 
 
 [15] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 crown alone. . . . Being absent in body I am 
 always poor. Your presence makes me rich. . . . 
 I hardly know how to plan or work at my best 
 without your help. . . . The room without you 
 is empty and dreary. I am always proud to have 
 people speak your name to me. . . . You and 
 I will try to prove the value of two lives knitted 
 into one, that we may be seen now and in the 
 centuries to come like the two stars known as the 
 Polar star." 
 
 During Mr. Bolton's last vacation in college, 
 he went to the front in the Civil War and assisted 
 in the work of the Sanitary and Christian Com- 
 missions. He ministered to the dying after that 
 dreadful explosion of the mine at Petersburg, 
 Virginia, July 30, 1864, "where the ruined fort 
 was ten feet deep with dead.'* 
 
 He writes in his autobiography: "At mid- 
 night on Friday, July 29th, all was ready. The 
 feint had been made at Deep Bottom, weakening 
 the enemy in front of Petersburg. The assault- 
 ing force was the ninth corps, supported by the 
 eighteenth corps, with the second in reserve on 
 
 ri61 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 the right, and the fifth on the left, the whole 
 closely massed. At 3:30 Saturday morning the 
 fuse was lighted, but the fire went out. It was 
 nearly two hours before it was relighted and the 
 explosion occurred. The ground trembled, and 
 huge clouds of dust, guns, caissons, and two 
 hundred soldiers, many maimed, were thrown into 
 the air. Where once stood a six-gun rebel fort 
 and garrison now was seen a crater one hundred 
 feet in length, fifty feet in width, and twenty feet 
 in depth — a mass of ruins. A hundred guns 
 along the Union line opened fire ; the boys in 
 blue began to cross the deadly plain. The ad- 
 vancing troops should have captured the frown- 
 ing crest beyond, but delays gave time for the 
 enemy to recover from their surprise, and to con- 
 centrate troops, who poured a terrific enfilading 
 fire upon the captured fort. The delays had 
 been fatal. The increased fire of the enemy 
 plowed the Union ranks with slaughter. The 
 brave charge was checked, the line wavered, and 
 finally recoiled to the ruined fort or crater. 
 
 " As a forlorn hope the colored division of the 
 [17] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 ninth corps, under General Ferrero, was dis- 
 patched to do what the three other divisions of 
 white troops had failed to accomplish. These 
 colored troops had been carefully drilled and 
 were now, under adverse circumstances, to demon- 
 strate their fighting qualities. The dark cloud 
 of heroes swept along for four hundred yards 
 toward the crest, only to be beaten back with 
 terrible vengeance. The black soldiers under 
 white officers did all they could to reach the goal, 
 but the venom of the Confederacy was concen- 
 trated upon their former slaves, and Ferrero's 
 brigade plunged headlong back into the crater. 
 My cousin, John D. Patterson, was adjutant of 
 one of these four colored regiments. He told 
 me that for hours he rallied and fought his men 
 in and about this crater, this slaughter pen of 
 slavery, till the ruined fort was ten feet deep 
 with dead, dying, and praying humanity. Every 
 rod of space between the fort and Federal lines 
 was under the severest cross-fire. Again and 
 again the enemy charged the ruined fort, till at 
 noon a general Union retreat was ordered. The 
 r i81 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 Federal losses were about five thousand. For 
 thirty-six hours the wounded and dead lay on 
 the battlefield beneath a broiling sun, when under 
 a flag of truce they were removed. 
 
 " At noon on Saturday four of us delegates 
 were ordered to take George H. Stuart's coffee 
 wagon with white horses to the field hospital. 
 We made part of the journey by freight train, 
 till rebel shot stopped the engine, and then we 
 had a long and tedious journey, because very hot, 
 six miles over sandy roads, and through pine 
 woods, and finally, nearly worn out, we reported 
 to Mr. F. E. Shearer, the field agent, at the 
 hospital of the eighteenth corps before Peters- 
 burg. Refreshed by a supper of cold meat and 
 crackers, at nine o'clock that evening Rogers, 
 Grossman, and I pushed on down into a thick 
 pine forest, and suddenly we came upon hun- 
 dreds of dead and dying black soldiers. There 
 they lay, seven hundred of them, beneath pine 
 trees, in which were stuck bayonets that held 
 lighted candles. Who can paint the scene? 
 Historians can never picture the cruelty of war 
 
 [19] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 visited upon Ferrero's Colored Brigade at the 
 exploded mine, nor the black man's sufferings as 
 we witnessed them in the Pine Tree Hospital 
 near Petersburg. 
 
 " Before the surgeon or coffee wagon could 
 afford relief we saw men with prayers on their 
 lips breathe their last, we heard scores of wounded 
 men praying God to take them home to be with 
 Jesus. Some lay on their backs slowly bleeding 
 to death ; some bent forward on their elbows 
 pleading for water ! Water ! Water ! We made 
 barrels of coffee and hurriedly passed cups to 
 parched lips ; we tightened bandages and lifted 
 bleeding soldiers upon the amputating tables. 
 All night long the surgeons worked. Assistants 
 kept sharp and clean the blades that flashed in 
 the faint star and candle light. Frequent ambu- 
 lances bore away their sable loads to canvased 
 hospitals, and all night this work, as terrible as 
 battle itself, went on till surgeons and delegates 
 fell asleep utterly exhausted. 
 
 " For days we worked in the hospitals at the 
 front, and often lugged papers, writing material, 
 
 [20] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 etc., into the trenches to the soldiers. Where 
 the lines are only a few hundred feet apart it is 
 often very dangerous to show as much as one's 
 head to the enemy. We were frequently shot at, 
 and it was no uncommon occurrence to hear 
 close to your ears the zip of a minie bullet from 
 a rebel telescope rifle, as we entered or as we 
 departed from the triple line of trenches, dug 
 deep in the sand or clay. 
 
 " We delegates gathered thousands of dollars 
 from the soldiers, and the money was expressed 
 by the Christian Commission to the soldiers* 
 homes. 
 
 " We expected a battle to begin at any moment, 
 day or night, and often artillery was at work on 
 various portions of the lines. Sometimes at night 
 it was most exciting ; the spiteful flash and roar 
 of the guns, especially of a big gun called the 
 ' Swamp Angel.* Sitting on a log one evening 
 we suddenly noticed a bombshell with its lighted 
 fuse coming over near us. Oh, how closely we 
 hugged the other side of the big log, but the 
 dreaded explosion did not occur. 
 
 [21] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 "This same night the artillery of both armies 
 for miles was fighting a fierce duel. An acci- 
 dental shot or suspicious move in some fort had 
 doubtless alarmed everybody, and the corps 
 generals and staffs of both armies were mounted 
 and alert till long past midnight. 
 
 " The delegates held frequent religious meet- 
 ings among themselves and in the hospitals. In 
 one of the wards on a Sabbath evening I came 
 upon a group of wounded negroes, who were 
 singing as follows : — 
 
 * Time 's going away. 
 Why don't you pray. 
 And end this cruel war in Heaven, 
 Oh, my blessed Lord ? * 
 
 Each stanza ending with 
 
 ' Oh, my blessed Lord ? * " 
 
 One of the negro soldiers, Thomas Freeman, 
 carried a family Bible in his knapsack in place of 
 his blankets. It was given him by some hungry 
 slave women in a large Southern house, deserted 
 by its owners. He loved the Bible, read in it 
 daily, and took it into battle. When he was 
 
 [22] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 shot, his brother William secured it, and when 
 dying in the hospital sold it for five dollars 
 to the ward master, of whom Mr. Bolton 
 bought it and presented it to his college in 
 token of the Christian heroism of the colored 
 soldiers. 
 
 " I was at the Fourth Division Hospital," Mr. 
 Bolton wrote home, " when the wounded colored 
 soldiers came in ; I assisted in doing up their 
 wounds, and failed to find the entrance of balls 
 otherwise than in the front and sides of the body, 
 the latter caused by the murderous flank fires, 
 which our ofHcers should have prevented. Oper- 
 ating surgeons at the table remarked to me that 
 ' it was a noticeable fact that black boys faced the 
 music almost invariably, as shown from the posi- 
 tion of wounds.' " 
 
 " After leaving college, I was still undecided 
 as to Hfe's work," says Mr. Bolton. " I started 
 in college with the ministry in view, but owed 
 money which must be paid. 
 
 " I remember once going to Pelham Hills to 
 supply a vacant pulpit. In the morning my 
 
 [23] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 classmate Tyler announced that he would read 
 one of Beecher's sermons. 
 
 " In the afternoon I preached my first and last 
 sermon from the text, Luke, chapter xxi, verses 
 I, a, 3 : the woman who cast in her two mites. 
 At the close of the meeting a woman in black 
 came and said, ' Mr. Bolton, the Lord must 
 have suggested the text and ideas.' Was it a 
 providential call or not, to preach ? For some 
 time this greatly troubled me. 
 
 " Tyler and I used a white livery horse, and 
 the hire was one dollar and fifty cents, which was 
 half of the total sum which we received for the 
 two sermons. We divided equally the surplus, 
 and with my seventy-five cents I bought two 
 Sunday School books and sent them back to the 
 Pelham Sunday School." 
 
 Mr. Bolton finally decided in favor of business 
 and became for a short time the general agent 
 in Ohio for the sale of Holland's " Life of 
 Abraham Lincoln," settling in Cleveland in the 
 summer of 1865. 
 
 " I recall my impressions of Cleveland," he 
 [24] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 writes, " when in early summer I first came into 
 the old depot on the Lake Erie docks. I was 
 glad to look out upon a lake too broad for one 
 to see the opposite shore. The foundations of 
 the new stone railway station were then being 
 laid. Already the year ^1865' was cut in the 
 stone arch ; also the head of Mr. Amasa Stone 
 was carved in stone. He was a large owner and 
 director in the Lake Shore Railway. In those 
 days the new depot seemed grand. Within 
 thirty years the city, the traffic and the aesthetic 
 demands have outgrown Stone's station. In 
 1865 Cleveland had only sixty-five thousand peo- 
 ple. My first words as I climbed the bank and 
 came to Superior Street were, * This must be a 
 fine city, as it has horse cars, with the music of 
 bells.' 
 
 " I stopped at the Weddell for dinner and 
 recall only the dessert, — delicious Lawton black- 
 berries ; called upon a Mr. Green, who had 
 acted for Mr. Gurdon Bill, publisher, of Spring- 
 field, Massachusetts ; secured an office in the 
 Perkins block on the northwestern corner of the 
 [25] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 Public Square, where now stands the new Ameri- 
 can Trust Building; arranged for rooms with 
 Mrs. Schofield on the corner of Euclid Avenue 
 and Erie Street, and had notices in papers, — all 
 this on the first half day and before tea time. 
 
 " The next day several men and women and 
 soldiers from the war called. The idea of fight- 
 ing under Abraham Lincoln, and then selling his 
 Life, pleased the old soldiers. We witnessed the 
 return to the Public Square of an Ohio regiment, 
 or what was left of it. Good things to eat and 
 drink were furnished to the knapsacked veterans 
 by the Cleveland women from long tables that 
 extended in the shade across the northern side of 
 the Square. The greeting proffered to the sur- 
 viving heroes was pathetic. Thin young men, 
 who had grown prematurely old, fell into the out- 
 stretched arms of wives and mothers. Sisters met 
 their brothers — at first they hesitated, scarcely 
 recognizing in the uncouth and ragged veterans 
 their own kith and kin. Honest farmers had 
 driven in to welcome their own brave boys. 
 Some came fearing that they must return with an 
 [26] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 empty seat in the wagon, and find the same at 
 the home table. Most homes in the city and 
 surrounding towns mourned for their loyal dead. 
 Other mothers and wives, with children a head 
 taller than in 1861, looked in vain for the strong 
 arm and words of love. So many of the ten 
 thousand healthy and noble soldiers that Cuya- 
 hoga County enlisted to save the Union now lay in 
 nameless Southern graves. Those that mourned 
 mingled glad words with those that rejoiced. The 
 useless muskets were now stacked, and ladened 
 with rusty canteens and worn knapsacks. The 
 boys in blue again stood erect, tears of joy 
 yielded to smiles, hearts were gladdened, and 
 appetites satisfied with the rattle of dishes and 
 odor of coffee — and all these good things came 
 from willing hands at their own Northern home. 
 Thrice happy the soldier boy that had helped 
 save the Union, helped free four million slaves, 
 and who was to have his name cut in imperisha- 
 ble marble on this same historic Public Square. 
 
 " Circulars telling of the Life of Abraham 
 Lincoln, and emphasizing ' Agents Wanted ! * 
 [27] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 were sent to the temporary camps established for 
 the returning soldiers. It was a pleasure to buy 
 this delightful biography from the boys who had 
 served under ' Uncle Abraham/ " 
 
 A year later, October i6, 1866, Mr. Bolton 
 married in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on a beautiful 
 day at sunset, the young lady of his choice,^ she 
 having gone to that city with relatives. After a 
 time a small but attractive home was rented, and 
 love brightened the struggles of daily living. An 
 only son, Charles, was born in the late autumn 
 of 1867, who has always proved worthy of the 
 affection which his father gave him. Mr. Bolton 
 was pleased to see him build engines and boats as 
 he himself had done when a boy. He found time 
 to take him on long walks with the pretty little 
 twin girls of a neighbor, Edith and Addie Ford, 
 while they gathered scores of varieties of seeds, 
 put them in bottles and labelled them, or chipped 
 rocks and renewed the love of mineralogy for 
 which he had taken a prize in college. 
 
 ^ Sarah Elizabeth, daughter of John Segar Knowles of Farming- 
 ton, Connecticut. Her portrait is inserted here by her son's desire. 
 
 [281 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 In 1881 Mr. Bolton wrote to his wife: "I 
 am writing you on Charlie's fourteenth birthday. 
 I think I am the happiest and richest husband 
 and father because God lets me call you two wife 
 and son." He wrote his son ten years later, 
 November 14, 1891, from Michigan, where he 
 was lecturing: — 
 
 "My Dear Two Dozen: — This is your 
 birthday. Half the age of your father. The 
 world is before you, and often I wonder what 
 more it will bring for us three. Surely God has 
 blessed us with health unusual, and knowledge 
 a little, so that we have more extended views 
 of men and things, but how extremely limited 
 our field of vision. This evening my mind 
 turns back twenty-four years. ... It was nine 
 o'clock in the morning, in time for your first 
 lesson, that you arrived, and I remember well the 
 first sounds that made my heart leap for joy and 
 the first kiss was mine, and earnest gratitude that 
 mother and son were alive. My joy this evening 
 is that you have brought only happiness to our 
 hearts." 
 
 [29] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 Thankful for his child, and successful in his 
 business of selling bank safes for Hall's Safe & 
 Lock Company of Cincinnati, he having taken 
 the agency at Cleveland, and later dealing in real 
 estate, Mr. Bolton did not forget that he had 
 something to do in a young and growing city 
 other than to earn money. In April, 1867, 
 having read in the newspaper that Mr. H. Thane 
 Miller of Cincinnati, the blind principal of a 
 school, was interested in Y. M. C. A. work, Mr. 
 Bolton wrote him for plans and suggestions. An 
 association of young men was soon formed in 
 Cleveland, composed largely of Mr. Bolton's 
 friends in the Stone Church, and he was made its 
 corresponding secretary. Such an organization 
 had been formed in the city thirteen years before, 
 but was disbanded in the time of the Civil War. 
 
 Fifteen thousand dollars were subscribed for a 
 new Y. M. C. A. building, the members many of 
 them pledging one hundred dollars each, when 
 most of them had no homes of their own, and 
 only what they earned from day to day. For 
 many years Mr. Bolton gave untiring effort to 
 
 [30] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 this Christian work, and lived to see the associa- 
 tion have a membership of over three thousand, 
 with many departments, and owning over three 
 hundred thousand dollars worth of property. 
 The good already done by this organization, and 
 its power for good in the future, can scarcely be 
 overestimated. 
 
 Mr. Bolton became one of a band of earnest 
 young men, who, with the co-operation of the 
 ministers, held union rehgious meetings in many, 
 perhaps hundreds, of towns in Ohio and the 
 neighboring states. The number of conversions 
 resulting can never be known. All through life 
 Mr. Bolton was accustomed to have men meet 
 him on the street and say, "You do not re- 
 member me, but your words led me to give up 
 drinking," or " to become a Christian man." 
 
 He with others spoke in workhouse and jail 
 and state penitentiary at Columbus. The men 
 believed in him, and many on their release came 
 to our home and were helped to employment. 
 Mr. Bolton never went empty-handed. Some- 
 times he carried a bushel of red apples or other 
 [31] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 fruit for the younger ones in the workhouse, or 
 a picture to brighten the bare walls of the con- 
 victs' chapel at Columbus. 
 
 Mr. Bolton tells this incident : " The horses 
 often took us out to missionary meetings. On 
 one occasion, when I hurried into the orchard 
 with an empty four-quart measure to capture our 
 white horse, Charlie went with me. As I held 
 out the measure and suddenly put my hand over 
 Kitty's mane, the young boy looked up into 
 my face and said, ^When you offer Kitty a 
 measure with no oats, how does that differ 
 from telling a lie ? ' I frankly acknowledged 
 my fault, and afterward the measure always con- 
 tained oats." 
 
 Once Mr. Bolton found a boy in a steam car, 
 stealing his ride, his hands and feet nearly frozen, 
 and brought him home. He stayed with us for 
 months, and was dishonest as he left us, a thing 
 which rarely happened with those whom we 
 helped. But thirty years afterward, when he 
 had received much of the wages of sin, and we 
 had forgotten him, he came to thank us for 
 
 [32] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 the kindness given him in his poverty-stricken 
 boyhood. 
 
 A man could not preach Christianity with 
 much good result unless he cared for the fam- 
 ishing and the homeless, and as Mr. Bolton 
 had been pecuniarily successful in the real estate 
 which he had purchased, it was a pleasure as well 
 as a duty to give. In one of many families 
 visited by him he found the father dying and the 
 mother with an infant. He turned the old table 
 upside down and thus improvised a bed for the 
 little ones, provided food, helped to bury the 
 father, and lived to see the children fill honora- 
 ble positions in life. 
 
 Mr. Bolton never used tobacco in any way, 
 and was an active worker for temperance. A 
 total abstainer himself, he encouraged others to 
 abstain. He helped to form a temperance 
 league in Ohio, whereby over a thousand cases 
 of violation of law by saloonkeepers were ascer- 
 tained through detectives, as is done in other 
 criminal matters. Many saloons had to close 
 their harmful business. Mr. Bolton helped all 
 
 3 [ 33 ] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 over the state to fight the proposed change in 
 the State Constitution suggested by the liquor 
 interest, namely, to give permission to license 
 liquor selling. Ohio decided against license by 
 a large vote, August i8, 1874. 
 
 When Mr. Bolton was thirty-two years of age, 
 life seemed all that he could ask. With a pretty 
 home, a sufficient fortune won in real estate, his 
 wife and boy happy, honored in his city and state, 
 helping forward every good enterprise, the strug- 
 gles of boyhood and college seemed passed for- 
 ever. His energy was marvellous. No amount 
 of work seemed to tire him. Believing in the 
 great future of Cleveland, others shared his 
 optimism and enthusiasm, and bought land of 
 him if his judgment approved. 
 
 In 1873, unlooked-for by all save perhaps a 
 few of the most experienced financiers of the 
 country, the financial panic came, and fortunes 
 were swept away in a day. Real estate rapidly 
 decreased in value. One portion of land was 
 deeded back to its owner by Mr. Bolton, al- 
 though he already had paid the man ten thou- 
 [34] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 sand dollars in money, and had not sold a foot 
 of it. Land which he had sold at more than 
 two hundred dollars per foot shrank to fifty- 
 eight dollars, and no buyers at that. Both his 
 homes, the one in which he lived and a new 
 one just built, he sold for the benefit of cred- 
 itors. In vain he was urged to take advantage 
 of the Bankrupt Law, and, while still a young 
 man, clear himself from obligations, and begin 
 anew. This, with his high sense of honor, 
 whether wisely or unwisely, he refused to do, 
 and as a consequence, as he says in his autobi- 
 ography, "for nearly twenty years became a 
 serf to those he owed." 
 
 Perhaps all this tended to develop Mr. 
 Bolton's strength of character and manliness, 
 making him tolerant, never censorious, and ever 
 ready to encourage and help the unfortunate. 
 No doubt, losses keep us from arrogance and 
 make us deeply sympathetic with the poverty 
 and disappointment which nine-tenths of the 
 human race seem born to, and live in all their 
 days. 
 
 [35] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 Handicapped through his young manhood, 
 Mr. Bolton kept to a wonderful degree his 
 cheerful and hopeful nature, " looking," as he 
 said, "always on the bright side," his motto 
 being i. d. d. i. — If duty, do it, — working 
 with all the strength of his strong body and 
 strong will. He was " ten men in one," said 
 one of his friends after his death, and this was 
 true. But the struggles were hard for him 
 nevertheless. Several years after the financial 
 panic he wrote to his wife, " With liberty and a 
 clear conscience we ought to be happy, though 
 debts and taxes pinch us for a time. ... I see 
 my way in part for the future, and am glad to 
 battle with the waves. It develops heroism. . . . 
 The heart of your college boy who came near 
 going down in the general wreck of the terrible 
 panic, beats strongly again, and even more ear- 
 nestly in love toward you. ... It has not been 
 an easy task to face all that I have encountered. 
 Don*t worry. God has and will provide." 
 
 In 1880 he wrote to his wife, seven years 
 after the panic, when absent on business : " I 
 
 [36] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 am thirty-nine next Sunday. Is it possible that 
 we are almost forty years old ? Am reading 
 many things, — one little book on logic by Pro- 
 fessor Jevons. Am getting a perfect passion 
 for ideas and facts, and power to give forcible 
 expression to them. Glad we have eternity to 
 work in." 
 
 In 1886 he wrote to her: "This is my forty- 
 fifth birthday. Three-fourths of life gone, per- 
 haps more." And so it proved. 
 
 May 16, 1890: "This is my forty-ninth 
 birthday, 7x7 years old. Another twelve 
 months and I am fifty, and then like the Jews 
 we will hold our jubilee, if we are out of debt, 
 and thereby rich." And the day of thanks- 
 giving and rejoicing was kept. 
 
 In 1876, three years after the financial panic, 
 a position had opened for Mr. Bolton in the 
 Cleveland Machine Company, through Mr. Dan 
 P. Eells, a wealthy and prominent man who 
 had always believed in him. Nearly three years 
 later he was sent to Europe by the company of 
 which he was now vice-president and manager, 
 
 [37] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 to complete sales for box-making machines, 
 which could make from twelve thousand to 
 twenty thousand boxes a day. Each machine 
 sold for five thousand dollars. 
 
 Very fond of machinery, Mr. Bolton took out 
 some patents and added some useful inventions 
 of his own. When he was eighteen he had in- 
 vented a self-raking and loading hay-cart which 
 was very ingenious, and he enjoyed mechanical 
 work. " For months," he says, " I worked on 
 a miniature self-raking and loading hay-cart. 
 Long after father had retired for the night, the 
 creaking of the cart, which I often tested on 
 the floor over his bedroom, would disturb his 
 sleep. 
 
 " When the cart was completed I invited the 
 neighbors to a trial of its merits. Our dog 
 Ponto had been trained, and he drew the 
 cart up and down our lawn, both raking and 
 loading the short cut and dried grass, to the 
 great satisfaction of the neighbors assembled. 
 Of course, some said ' It would n't work,' but 
 it worked well in model, and those who claimed 
 [38] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 to know said I could easily get a patent, but as 
 it would require money, I never tried. En route 
 to Boston in August, 1859, I exhibited my in- 
 vention to Nourse, Mason & Co., of Worcester. 
 The agent, Mr. Davis, said it was a valuable in- 
 vention. In the Worcester 'Daily Spy appeared 
 the following notice: — 
 
 "'A Good Invention. — Mr. Charles E. 
 Bolton, a young man from South Hadley Falls, 
 has shown us the model of a machine which a 
 farmer would like to study. It is a cunningly 
 contrived hay-cart, with machinery attached for 
 raking, pitching, and loading the hay — all by 
 the same operation. The model appears to 
 work finely, and it has been praised by practi- 
 cal men who have seen it operate. Mr. Bolton 
 has a warmly commendatory letter from the ed- 
 itor of the Scientific American, We hope it 
 may be thoroughly tried, and that the youthful 
 inventor may realize pecuniary benefit from his 
 work.^ " 
 
 Mr. Bolton's five successful trips to Europe 
 for the Cleveland Machine Company brought 
 [39] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 him in contact with manufacturing interests and 
 with persons of influence abroad ; being a man 
 of culture and wide information, he was cor- 
 dially welcomed to the homes of the Nettle- 
 folds in Birmingham, England, the screw-makers, 
 of which firm the Honorable Joseph Chamber- 
 lain, M. P., was a partner; the Cadburys, the 
 millionaire owners of the cocoa works ; the Hud- 
 sons at Chester, and many others. Sir George 
 Williams, who organized the first Y. M. C. A. 
 in the world, and who was knighted by Queen 
 Victoria for the great good he had done with 
 his wealth and influence, made Mr. Bolton a 
 welcome guest. 
 
 Mr. Bolton sailed on the White Star steamer 
 Adriatic September 5, 1878, and returned the 
 next year on February 4th. He took his wife 
 with him. She was already a helper financially, 
 having become one of the editors of the Boston 
 Congregationalist, taking the place of Miss Ellen 
 M. Stone, the missionary who was kidnapped 
 in 1 901 by Bulgarian brigands, and ransomed 
 in 1902. 
 
 [40] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 After the sacrifice of the preceding five years, 
 this journey in Europe, though made with care- 
 ful economy, was a blessed experience for two 
 who loved books, and art, and the beauties of 
 nature. While waiting for the box machinery 
 to be set up in various establishments in the 
 cities where it had been sold, brief excursions 
 were made to Scotland, France, Switzerland, and 
 Rome. 
 
 Mr. Bolton made his second journey to Europe 
 July 26, 1879, remaining into December of the 
 same year. The first days were especially lonely 
 for him. He wrote to his " loved ones on the 
 Western Continent": "My whole heart goes 
 out across the sea, hundreds of times a day, and 
 you shall have my all, the best in me. Never 
 so full of health and ambition. . . . You and 
 the dear boy are in my mind hourly, and I 
 shall try to live at my best, and see what it 
 will bring. I am very homesick at times, and 
 only get rid of the feeling, akin to seasickness, 
 by enlarging plans and applying myself to ear- 
 nest work.'* 
 
 [41] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 In Birmingham he heard John Henry New- 
 man, just made Cardinal preach in the Cathe- 
 dral. " All the people rose and bowed low as 
 the Cardinal entered the pulpit," he wrote. 
 " His voice was low and sweet, and every word 
 came as a father to his children. . . . His 
 'Tracts for the Times' were sent far and wide. 
 These may be forgotten, but not his sweet 
 hymn sung by all people, ' Lead, Kindly Light,' 
 which was written during a Mediterranean 
 voyage, 183 2-1 833." 
 
 Mr. Bolton wrote in August from Grasmere : 
 " The sweet bell striking seven in the Words- 
 worth Church awoke me, and dressing, I have 
 strolled up here, where the poet once lived ; it 
 is a very lovely spot, overlooking the smooth 
 waters and up to the many mountains, so ma- 
 jestic. It has seemed, as I have wandered about 
 this afternoon, as if the dozen gigantic mountains, 
 softened by grass far up the sides and lovely 
 foliage to the very top, completely shut out the 
 noise and sadness of earth, and that the waters 
 so smooth only mirrored the rest and sunshine 
 
 [42] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 of heaven. Have read Wordsworth's ' Life ' and 
 also much of his poetry ; two poems to the 
 daisy, you both love. Shall put some on his 
 grave in the morning before leaving.^ . . . 
 Scores of mountains and thirteen lakes are in 
 sight. ... It is the Paradise of Earth and full 
 of fruit, flowers, and the sweet voices of nature." 
 He often used to speak of " Paradise Grasmere 
 and Windermere," and years afterward named 
 two allotments of land in East Cleveland " Win- 
 dermere," and " Grasmere," a street in each 
 bearing the names. When asked to give a name 
 to the baby of the faithful Italian who worked 
 for us, Nicola Ramaciata, she was christened 
 "Windermere" at his suggestion. 
 
 " Last evening," he wrote, " I followed a 
 pretty stream high up the mountain, and it 
 seemed to talk with me as it jumped over great 
 moss-covered boulders, and gleefully ran around 
 
 1 The daisy was his wife's favorite flower, and he always called 
 her by that name. He said, " Daisy means much more since my 
 study of botany. It is indeed a wonderful flower, or compound 
 flower of flowers. I never dreamed that each ray was a single 
 flower and that the centre was a mass of perfect flowers." 
 
 [43] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 ugly rocks, saying cheerfully, ' See how I over- 
 come every obstacle ! ' I gathered a great hand- 
 ful of wild flowers, clusters of crimson foxglove, 
 the delicate blue-bell and the tiny purple heather, 
 all for you, and could n't give even one to my 
 loved one. They filled the water pitcher in my 
 room. The blue-bell grows everywhere here. 
 Have picked some this morning and will enclose 
 also a twig from the yew and hawthorn which 
 shade Wordsworth's grave." And here the 
 pressed heather and blue-bell and yew lie in the 
 letter just as they were placed over twenty years 
 ago. 
 
 Mr. Bolton loved flowers, and trees, and lakes, 
 and mountains. The blue waters of Lake Erie 
 seen from his house, the gorgeous sunsets, a 
 stream like those of New England, a granite 
 boulder on the lawn, brought from his early 
 home in Massachusetts, all had especial attraction 
 for him. They were like music of which he was 
 passionately fond, and the presence of little chil- 
 dren, who always found in him a delightful 
 companion and sympathetic friend. 
 [44] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 " Reached Skipton last evening at 5 p. m./' he 
 wrote. " Left valise at station and walked to 
 Bolton Abbey, northeast eight miles. The 
 country was charming. When tired, sat down in 
 the sweet hay fields, chatted with the laborers, 
 and even raked hay ; got them to tell me about 
 the English farmer, who is hard pushed ; also 
 names of trees, flowers, etc. Went through two 
 villages and over a high hill, almost a mountain, 
 in sight of and in fact through the moors (high 
 and almost barren hills which are kept for hunting 
 grouse, partridges, etc.), fifteen thousand acres 
 owned by the Duke of Devonshire. As I walked 
 on alone through the pretty purple heather, I was 
 many times startled by the sudden starting-up of 
 grouse. Counted ten in one bevy. One year 
 over six thousand grouse were murdered by nobil- 
 ity (?) on these moors. Close upon the last of 
 twilight, which continues so long in England, 
 8 : 30 at least, when I was about to enter a lonely 
 piece of woods, I came upon the poorest poor 
 man and his dog. The man was seventy-eight 
 years old ; I gave him sixpence, petted his kind 
 
 [45] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 dog, and soon came upon the old ruin in a church- 
 yard ; many doorways and windows and arches 
 standing, all iv^y-covered and more extensive than 
 Muckross/' 
 
 Mr. Bolton was always doing these little kind- 
 nesses. He wrote, " Going into Cambridge I 
 saw a blue-eyed girl of eight years looking 
 anxiously at a pretty piece of crockery. I pur- 
 chased a piece for sixpence, and how happy it 
 made her. This morning I gave a sixpence for 
 a penny rose to a young wife holding a baby." 
 The poor in England sell flowers to passers-by. 
 
 In November, 1879, ^^ wrote from the 
 middle of the Black Sea, aboard the French 
 steamer Province : " A host of events crowds 
 your mind as you enter the historical Bosporus 
 that separates Asia and Europe and flows from 
 the Black Sea into the Sea of Marmora, and 
 thence through the Dardanelles into the Mediter- 
 ranean Sea. You first see the top of a high 
 mountain, then a range, then the low hills, some 
 white, at last a white lighthouse, and you are in 
 the broad, deep Bosporus, with high and steep 
 
 [46] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 hills on both sides, at the foot of which for a mile 
 are situated a dozen forts, mounting hundreds of 
 heavy cannon. 
 
 "The sail for ten miles to Constantinople is 
 most delightful, past a score or more of sizable 
 villages. In fact, both shores are almost a con- 
 tinuation of towns that join each other. The 
 weather is very mild, which is so enjoyable, hav- 
 ing left snow at St. Petersburg. En route we 
 passed several marble palaces of the Sultan and 
 came to anchor in the Golden Horn, not at a 
 wharf. Scores of small boats came to take us 
 ashore." . . . 
 
 " Such a mixture of languages. Was fortu- 
 nate, at the outset, at least, in securing the 
 services of an Italian guide who served me well 
 during my three days* stay in Constantinople, 
 except when I traded ; then I think he and the 
 shopkeepers were in league. Visited mosques, 
 bazaars, Caucasian quarters, Scutari across the 
 Bosporus, and its Turkish cemetery : also the 
 English cemetery where eight thousand nameless 
 English soldiers are buried. Here in the 
 [47] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 barracks Florence Nightingale did her work 
 which immortalized her name. 
 
 " Standing by the English monument on one 
 of the clearest, brightest days I ever saw, the 
 landscape before me was unsurpassed by any 
 I ever beheld : before me the broad blue and 
 mirror-like Sea of Marmora, on the left the dis- 
 tinct wavy ranges of mountains against the sky, 
 and over and beyond all the classical Olympus, 
 its top piercing the cloud and covered with per- 
 petual snow. It was difficult to determine where 
 the mountain ended and the clouds began, they 
 blended so beautifully into each other. 
 
 " Across the sea, sprinkled with sail, were Point 
 Stefano, occupied last year by eighty thousand 
 Russians, and to the right across the entrance to 
 the Bosporus lay coveted Constantinople, with its 
 many palaces, mosques, and minarets. 
 
 "... Dined with our minister. Honorable 
 Horace Maynard, who said to bring my wife 
 next time. He and his son are graduates of 
 Amherst College. . . . General Lucius Fairchild, 
 three times Governor of Wisconsin, and wife 
 [48] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 and two daughters came on the same steamer 
 with me." 
 
 All journeyed together to Vienna, and then 
 back to England. 
 
 A third trip to Europe was made from June to 
 September, 1880. Mr. Bolton was appointed 
 State delegate from Ohio to the World's Sunday- 
 School Centenary at London, held in June, and 
 enjoyed the workers whom he met. Having 
 taught in the Sunday School, it was a pleasure to 
 stand in the old house in Gloucester where 
 Robert Raikes held his first Sunday School ; the 
 work has now grown to twelve million scholars. 
 
 Mr. Bolton met many very interesting people. 
 He wrote : " I saw Sir Henry Bessemer, one 
 of God's noblemen. He has forty acres at Den- 
 mark Hill, London. Gave me true honor; took 
 me all over his loveliest of homes. Has the 
 handsomest conservatory and fernery I ever saw. 
 Told me of his struggles, successes, and all about 
 his new and truly wonderful telescope. His is an 
 ideal life and home." 
 
 July 6, 1880, Mr. Bolton wrote: "Aboard 
 
 4 [49] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 express from London to Birmingham. Along 
 the way people are making hay, three weeks 
 earlier than last year. I never tire of the deep, 
 heavy foliage, and picturesque views. Some 
 fields are yellow with large golden buttercups, 
 others white with ox-eyed daisies. Just passed a 
 hill slope yellow as gold with mustard blossoms." 
 These he so much liked that he planted them in 
 his own garden. 
 
 The fourth trip abroad was from July to Octo- 
 ber, 1 88 1, and the fifth from May to September, 
 1882. In the fourth voyage Mr. Bolton was 
 joined by his wife and son, fourteen years old, 
 " the best boy in the whole world," he used to 
 say. Together, whenever time could be spared 
 from business, they enjoyed the old world. Mr. 
 Bolton was a delegate to the World's Conference 
 of Young Men's Christian Associations held in 
 London, and Mrs. Bolton shared with others in 
 the receptions given to these Christian workers. 
 It was a pleasure to talk with such men as the 
 devoted Earl of Shaftesbury, whose work for 
 labor and the oppressed was known the world 
 
 [50] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 over; to Mr. Samuel Morley, M.P., who invited 
 all the delegates to his palatial home at Tun- 
 bridge ; and to the venerable father of the late 
 Russell Sturgis, of Boston, senior partner of Bar- 
 ing Brothers. At the home of Mr. Sturgis, 
 Thomas Hughes, the author of "Tom Brown at 
 Oxford," Mrs. Brinsley Sheridan, the daughter 
 of Motley the historian, and other distinguished 
 people were of the party. While we were in 
 London, James Russell Lowell, our minister, 
 showed us much courtesy. 
 
 Mr. Bolton spoke before two thousand people 
 at a memorial meeting for President Garfield, 
 whom he greatly admired, held in the Rev. Dr. 
 Newman Hall's Church in London, at the same 
 hour as that of the funeral in Cleveland, Ohio. 
 The Rev. Dr. Joseph Parker of London and Gen- 
 eral Clinton B. Fisk were the other speakers. 
 
 Mrs. Bolton passed over a year abroad, her 
 husband joining her the following summer, when 
 they spent some time in Norway and Sweden, re- 
 turning together late in 1882. His last trip to 
 Europe was made in the summer of 1885. 
 
 [51] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 Meantime, he had begun what he named the 
 Cleveland Educational Bureau, winter courses of 
 lectures by prominent persons, with little books 
 given out each week to the working people. 
 He had seen the People*s Colleges in England 
 do great good, and having worked hard himself, 
 his heart always went out to wage-earners. 
 " Education," he wrote to his wife, " is the 
 world^s great need. The whole West and South 
 are eager for it. The North always was. . . . 
 My life is full of good purpose ; my heart beats 
 quickly and warm for you and for struggling 
 humanity." 
 
 He spoke at the noon hour before thousands 
 of working-men in the shops of Cleveland, and 
 explained that they could hear the best lectures, 
 and the best music, for about eight cents each 
 Saturday night instead of fifty cents or a dollar. 
 No seats were reserved, and they came by the 
 thousands, often with their dinner-pails, waiting 
 two hours for the exercises to begin, and were 
 intelligent and grateful listeners. An audience 
 of over four thousand was an inspiring sight. 
 
 [52] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 Sometimes as a prelude they sang patriotic songs. 
 The little pamphlets on history, biography, or 
 science were prepared with great care, and were 
 bound at the end of the three years during which 
 the Bureau work was carried on. 
 
 Mr. Bolton always hoped to see a permanent 
 People's Institute with a large building, a hall 
 below, pictures, and the ideal products of the 
 factories and farms in the upper stories, the 
 whole a home for study, and an object-lesson to 
 those who "earn their bread by the sweat of 
 their brow/' If the financial panic had not 
 taken away his means, such a structure with 
 baths for the poor, and lectures and concerts to 
 brighten their toil, would have become a reality. 
 He also wished to provide a home for friendless 
 animals. 
 
 After seven years with the Cleveland Machine 
 Company, Mr. Bolton resigned his position in 
 1883 ; he had purchased a stereopticon and some 
 lantern slides abroad, and had decided to enter 
 the lecture field. The following spring, at the 
 solicitation of a friend, he went to Dakota to help 
 [S3] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 start the town of Appomattox, acting as an in- 
 vestor and adviser, not as a settler. While it 
 was a losing venture pecuniarily, he gained much 
 knowledge of the West, and enjoyed the pioneer 
 experiences, as is shown by his own account. 
 While in the West he called upon the Indian 
 chief Sitting Bull, and smoked with him the 
 famous red stone pipe of peace, two feet long, 
 " carefully concealing the fact that he was a 
 novice at the business." 
 
 "In April or May, 1883," Mr. Bolton wrote, 
 " I joined the Bishop, or ' Fighting Parson,' as 
 he was called in the Civil War, and a half 
 dozen or more gentlemen, and we left Chicago 
 for the great Northwest. We passed through 
 Huron on the James River, where the land 
 office of the Territory of Dakota was situated. 
 Thence north, and up the James River to Aber- 
 deen, where we arrived after dark. We were 
 conducted to a big tent, which the Bishop's ad- 
 vance agent had erected to protect materials and 
 provision already forwarded. It was cold and 
 raining hard, so I took rooms at a hotel. In 
 
 [54] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 two or three days our party had a half dozen 
 
 wagons loaded with building material, provisions 
 
 for man and beast, etc., and we began our journey 
 
 over the prairie almost due west. The odor of 
 
 the black soil, which was being turned by many 
 
 farmers for the first time to the sun, and the 
 
 bracing prairie air quickened our pulse and 
 
 ambition. For many miles we followed the trail 
 
 of others who had dropped out here and there 
 
 upon unoccupied land, till noon, when we reached 
 
 a shack hotel. Here the tired teams were fed, 
 
 and we emptied a big tin dish of hot baked pork 
 
 and beans. Then we journeyed on, and forded 
 
 with difficulty a few small but swollen creeks, and 
 
 camped at night under the wagons. Two or 
 
 three days of travel and observation brought us 
 
 to a little settlement east of Roscoe, which to-day 
 
 is a railway junction, and here we even staked out 
 
 a few farms and built shacks. But the restless 
 
 Bishop believed in the Star of Empire, and so 
 
 we sold our squatter rights and continued on our 
 
 tedious journey in a southwesterly direction 
 
 toward the Missouri River. The Bishop, was 
 
 [55] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 hoping to meet his brother and General Gilchrist, 
 who had gone in advance, and they were to re- 
 port as to the lay of the land, and the prospects 
 of starting a town somewhere. 
 
 " On the way and beyond Roscoe a genuine 
 Dakota blizzard swept down upon us, and 
 hurriedly we built an eight-by-ten shack for our- 
 selves, and a windbreak of boards for the horses. 
 
 " Later the General was conducted by scouts 
 to our temporary headquarters, where for a few 
 days we escaped the storm and planned further 
 for the expedition. 
 
 " Soon the sun came to our aid, converting 
 even the grumblers into heroes, and guided by a 
 General and a Bishop, part of the expedition 
 moved forward, while I was left to bring up the 
 rear. We took down the shack, loaded the 
 boards on the last wagon and started on, hoping 
 to overtake the advance teams, but the trail was 
 soon lost, and our prairie schooner sailed by the 
 compass southwest till the sun set, when we 
 rested and fed the teams by a small brook ; and 
 then we again went forward. I hesitated to 
 
 [56] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 camp in the open, as the weather was very bleak, 
 and so I encouraged the men and teams till after 
 nine o'clock. I led the way with a lantern, till 
 the men and teams were exhausted. Bags of oats 
 were set against the wagon box, and the horses 
 were tied to the wheels, while we tried in vain to 
 sleep under the wagon, for the wind howled all 
 night about our camp. By daylight we were 
 again on the move, guided by a compass on an 
 open prairie. In fact, it seemed as if we were a 
 hundred miles west of nowhere. A light snow 
 had fallen, which obliterated any possible chance 
 of finding a trail in the prairie grass and stubble. 
 Not a building, or tree, or shrub was in sight. 
 A broad, barren prairie only, and as boundless as 
 the sea. All were obliged to walk to keep warm, 
 and the load was all the horses could pull. Sud- 
 denly, about nine o'clock on Sunday morning, 
 we came in sight of a few small tents covered 
 with snow, and sure enough, here were our lost 
 friends, the General, the Bishop, and all our 
 party. They thought us lost, and were glad to 
 greet us. 
 
 [57] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 " The story of starting on a small creek In the 
 southwestern part of Potter County, the town of 
 Appomattox in the summer of 1883, would fill 
 a book. For weeks we lived in common in 
 a big shack, and for days we had turtle soup 
 as a luxury, a big land tortoise having been 
 captured. We scoured the country to learn of 
 its value and possibilities. The General planned 
 a railroad, the Bishop a church. 
 
 " It was a summer of new experiences for me ; 
 although it was a case of roughing it from start 
 to finish, I never enjoyed myself more or felt 
 better. The newness of everything, the altitude 
 and freshness of the atmosphere, the excursions 
 here and there after land, and to the Missouri 
 River for fish and wood, these, added to the 
 spirit of Anglo-Saxon adventure, made the 
 summer of 1883 a charming vacation.'* 
 
 Mr. Bolton seemed especially well fitted for lec- 
 turing. A close observer with retentive memory, 
 vivacious, witty, loving the beautiful, an omniv- 
 orous reader along the lines of science, history, 
 philosophy and sociology (he cared little for 
 
 [58] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 fiction), happy in manner, fluent and often elo- 
 quent in expression, enthusiastic in his method 
 of imparting information, he was a successful 
 speaker for nearly thirteen years. There was 
 much of hard work in it, almost constant travel, 
 the separation from loved ones which he so 
 constantly deplored, but he won thousands of 
 friends, and gave comfort and pleasure to many. 
 He wrote home: "Just in from lower Egypt 
 (Illinois), as jaded as soldiers back from the 
 wars. Lecturing is a serfdom not unlike that 
 of a Russian subject in the Czar's army, and 
 quite as long as Alexander III. requires service.'* 
 He spared no pains to keep every engage- 
 ment. He said, "For four years, I think, I 
 never missed a single booking, till in March, 
 1888, when I lost four dates in one week because 
 of the great blizzard or snow blockade in New 
 England. These dates I afterward filled. . . . 
 Once in Michigan we came to a broken bridge. 
 We got our trunk across, and agreed to pay 
 seventy-five dollars for an engine and single car. 
 We all shoveled coal, we wired for the best team 
 
 [59] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 to take us from the depot twelve miles to the 
 hall, and wired ' Hold the audience/ But the 
 wheezy, worn-out engine and our efforts failed 
 us, and we slept that night miles away from 
 Adrian ; of course the committee and audience 
 of twelve hundred persons were disgusted ; we 
 lost the fee, fifty dollars, and the seventy-five 
 dollar railway ride. No thanks either." 
 
 "In the West," he said, " we rode one night 
 from 10.30 to 4 A. M., then all day on freight 
 trains, and saved the booking. Then we were 
 called at 2 a. m. and took a train for next date. 
 I remember in New England that I was once ' a 
 day too early,' so said the committee. ' Well,* 
 I said, ^ to-morrow I am booked elsewhere.* So 
 at 5 p. M. we called in the schoolboys, wrote out 
 short notices and sent the boys all over town. 
 Result, the largest audience for the committee 
 of the season. ... In Tennessee we had plenty 
 of oxygen, but no hydrogen or operator. Had 
 sent him for gas to Memphis. So alone I 
 managed the lantern, using the city gas, and a 
 poor luminant it made, the pressure being low. 
 
 [60] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 At Lewiston, Maine, the express company failed 
 us ; we told the truth to the big audience in 
 the Opera House, and they voted unanimously 
 that I go ahead without the lantern. So I told 
 of the Red Letter Days in Europe, and next 
 year they booked me again by telegraph, the 
 first engagement of that season." Thus resource- 
 ful was he, and equal to emergencies. 
 
 In spite of the hardships he found much to 
 enjoy. November 29, 1884, ^^ wrote: "Stu- 
 dents as delegates from many colleges were going 
 to Nashville to attend a secret society conven- 
 tion. A jollier set of fellows I rarely ever saw 
 except back in college days. Entirely forgot 
 that I was forty-three years old, made the ac- 
 quaintance of all, and we told stories, talked 
 philosophy as taught now in colleges (found all 
 believed in evolution), and laughed and sang 
 songs till twelve o'clock. Many of the students 
 were in co-educational colleges and firmly believed 
 in co-education. Woke at 3 a. m. in Dayton and 
 felt fifty years old ! " 
 
 Mr. Bolton delivered nearly two thousand lec- 
 [61] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 tures upon his travels in Europe and America, 
 including much of history, before Teachers' Asso- 
 ciations, at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, 
 before colleges. Young Men's Christian Associa- 
 tions, Chautauqua Assemblies, and elsewhere. 
 Some of his lectures were : 
 
 London, the World's Metropolis. 
 
 England's Golden Age, 1 837-1 887. 
 
 The Scotch and Irish of To-day. 
 
 Paris and the French Republic. 
 
 The Four Napoleons. 
 
 Beautiful Switzerland. 
 
 Romantic Rhineland. 
 
 Reunited Germany, and Heroic Louise. 
 
 Lands of the Midnight Sun. 
 
 Vienna to Constantinople. 
 
 Russia and the Romanoffs. 
 
 America's War for the Union. 
 
 The White City Wonders (The Columbian 
 Exposition). 
 
 Yosemite- Yellowstone Wonders. 
 
 The Italy of America (California). 
 
 The lamented General S. C. Armstrong said : 
 [62] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 "You are an educator of the people." The 
 South spoke of him as " highly cultured," and 
 the North liked his energy and enthusiasm. 
 Everywhere the lectures were called " brilliant, 
 entertaining, and intellectual," and the pictures 
 " beautiful and artistic," or " magnificent." Mr. 
 Bolton had great faith that picture-teaching 
 would be used more and more. He wrote in 
 the Independent of Santa Barbara, California : 
 " Pupils who graduate at our high schools should 
 not only know well the history of their own 
 town, state, and country, but they ought, by 
 object lessons, to be so taught that at sight 
 they could give the name of every stone, tree, 
 and flower, and the name of every fish caught 
 in the neighboring river, lake, or sea. The pupil 
 who has learned often to ask the what, how, and 
 why of things, to give close attention, and keenly 
 observe, is on the road to great usefulness. 
 What can the public schools do to aid our 
 children in knowing what our cities contain ? 
 We think the answer is readily found in the 
 liberal use of the magic lantern in the teach- 
 
 [63] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 ing of geography, history, science, and art. 
 Formerly the lantern, like the telephone, was 
 a toy in the hands of children. To-day, the 
 telephone and lantern have come to the front 
 as helpers of enlightenment. New York State 
 has appropriated eight thousand dollars for 
 lanterns for her nine Normal Schools. Cornell 
 University uses four large lanterns in the teach- 
 ing of her fifteen hundred young men. Last 
 winter, in cosmopolitan Chicago, twelve thousand 
 people attended a single course of illustrated 
 travels. To accommodate so vast an audience 
 each lecture was repeated five times. Our public 
 school education will not be complete till every 
 high school is able by its own teachers to furnish 
 twenty or more lectures, illustrating well the 
 points of interest at home and abroad. Not one 
 per cent, of our people can travel over either 
 America or Europe. Why not, then, by aid 
 of lantern and photographic slide, reveal to eye 
 as well as ear the valuable things of earth, and 
 thus send boys and girls into the world better 
 equipped to do life's work ? " 
 
 [64] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 New York State appropriates twenty-five thou- 
 sand dollars annually that free lectures, mostly 
 illustrated, may be given to "free common 
 schools, artisans, mechanics and other citizens." 
 If Ohio had followed this example, how gladly 
 would Mr. Bolton have contributed his lectures 
 and pictures for such lasting benefit to the 
 people. 
 
 Mr. Bolton spoke extemporaneously before 
 hundreds of schools without pay, giving practical 
 talks on reading, the care of the body, character, 
 etc., and lived over again his college life as he 
 met college boys. 
 
 When he learned that some students from 
 Western Reserve University, Cleveland, were to 
 give a concert at the Mount Dora Chautauqua, 
 Florida, where he was lecturing, he urged the 
 people to surprise them with pyramids of oranges 
 and an abundance of flowers on the platform, 
 and helped to prepare a welcome that they 
 never forgot. 
 
 He had acquired facility in speaking, in part 
 through an excellent plan adopted at his college. 
 
 5 [65] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 Each week a debate was held on a subject of 
 general interest. Eight names were drawn by- 
 lot, and a student could take either side. This 
 continued till the whole class had taken part. 
 Those making the most improvement during 
 the term received the Alpheus Hardy prizes of 
 thirty and twenty dollars. " These debates," 
 said Mr. Bolton, " were fine tests of our general 
 reading, memories, and ability to talk on our 
 feet." It was a pleasure to go back to Amherst 
 College and speak before faculty and students. 
 When he lectured in Holyoke, Massachusetts, 
 he brought his fond and pleased mother, at 
 the age of seventy-two, from her home across 
 the river in South Hadley Falls to hear him. 
 She died two years later, October 28, 1888, sin- 
 cerely mourned by all who knew her. When 
 Mr. Bolton learned from a telegram, just as he 
 was beginning a lecture at the Soldiers* Home, 
 Hampton, Virginia, that his mother was dying, 
 he was unable to complete the lecture and was 
 carried ill to his hotel, where he remained for 
 several days. The affection between mother and 
 
 [66] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 son was very strong. His father and only sister, 
 Ella (Mrs. Richards), both died nearly nine years 
 later, in the spring of 1897. 
 
 Mr. Bolton made four trips to the Pacific 
 Coast, writing often for the press, and sending 
 back graphic and charming letters to his family. 
 Some extracts from these his son, while he 
 was at Harvard University, printed in a small 
 pamphlet, in 1892; it bears the title "Notes 
 from letters written while lecturing in the 
 Northwest": — 
 
 "On cars. May 4, 1890. The ride from 
 Bozeman to Helena and Spokane is interesting 
 and picturesque. Among the Rockies is Mon- 
 tana. Twenty-five thousand in Helena ; growing 
 fast. It is built in a gulch from which early 
 gold-diggers took seventeen million dollars in 
 gold. Many new and costly blocks and homes. 
 Hotels at Helena are fine. Twelve years ago 
 the Congregational Church paid for a lot at Spo- 
 kane thirty-three dollars and thirty-three cents. 
 Last August they sold it for twenty-nine thou- 
 sand dollars. 
 
 [67] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 "On the Mojave Desert. In sight are long, 
 high ranges that melt into soft skies. Sage- 
 brush and struggling palms, like scrubby pines, 
 cover a broad old sea-bed. Sun warm and 
 blinding. A breeze almost removes my eye- 
 glasses. We now and then kodak a sage-brush, 
 a bayonet palm, or sub-tropical landscape. Reach 
 Santa Barbara at 7 p. m. Ten thousand people 
 at Santa Barbara, a mixture of all nations, with 
 large sprinkling from New England. No won- 
 der that my classmate calls this spot the ' Gate- 
 way to Heaven.' 
 
 " Sacramento, June i, 1890. I have just come 
 from a Chinese mission. Several joined the 
 church. There are one thousand in the Cali- 
 fornia churches. Heard them sing and pray in 
 Chinese." 
 
 Mr. Bolton said : " The good people of the 
 Pacific Coast seem to be pursuing a phantom. 
 It is true that the Chinese, two hundred thou- 
 sand strong, have entered the Golden Gate. 
 But thrice the total Asiatic immigration of 
 twenty-five years come annually from Europe 
 [68] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 to America. By hasty decision we dishonored 
 a treaty forced by us upon China, imperilling 
 the lives of Americans in the Empire, and a 
 commerce with the Chinese rich in its future 
 promise. . . . Faithful John Chinaman on our 
 shores furnishes a problem for Christian states- 
 men to solve." 
 
 " Redondo, California, 1890. Redondo Ho- 
 tel. In sight now is the powerful deep blue 
 Pacific, whose waves wash Australia, Japan, 
 China, and India. People are bathing on the 
 fine white sand. A boat floats lazily at the 
 wharf in the long swells of the sea; white surf 
 up and down the beach." 
 
 All these years Mr. Bolton kept his courage 
 and looked forward toward a home and a com- 
 petency. He said: "I believe we shall weather 
 the era of uneventful things and enter port 
 with colors flying. Win we must and shall, 
 or I shall rest uneasily in my grave, because I 
 know I have qualities that you thought I pos- 
 sessed in college days. I shall attempt again to 
 marshal them on some field of action with large 
 
 [69] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 possibilities in it. At fifty I shall try to grasp 
 the wisdom and experience, and act as if I were 
 thirty." 
 
 Mr. Bolton's letters were always full of in- 
 spiration and hope. " With the grandeur of his- 
 tory, science, and humanity about us on every 
 side," he wrote, " how stately and noble ought 
 every thought and deed to be. But how little 
 we accomplish,^ especially in a business life. Yet 
 I love it and shall make a success in and by it. 
 
 " Ways have always opened to those who 
 are fitted to enter. ... I am full of spirit and 
 hope. So tire of simply money-getting at 
 times, and yet it is the key to two-thirds of 
 earthly existence. . . . Let your whole soul go 
 out in prose and poetry for the uplifting of hu- 
 manity. . . . All that have come to fame have 
 had exalted ideals and subjects." 
 
 In 1891 several acres of land were purchased 
 in East Cleveland on a hillside, and an unpreten- 
 tious home built in the midst of beautiful shade- 
 trees with a broad view of Lake Erie. Mr. 
 Bolton called it " Elm-oak," because of a grand 
 
 [70] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 old elm and several oaks. He took the greatest 
 comfort in this home for the last ten years of his 
 life. He planted fruit trees, plum, pear, and 
 peach, and lived to see the fruitage. His rose- 
 beds were a delight to him. Every shrub and 
 tree had a place in his heart. The graceful maple 
 that droops its branches to the ground, the tulip 
 tree, the white birches, and the evergreens were 
 all treasured. A great boulder weighing several 
 tons, furrowed by glaciers, was also a delight, for 
 he had always been fond of geology since his col- 
 lege days in New England. 
 
 He wrote to his wife when absent: "I help 
 the robins and bluebirds to fix up nature. More 
 than ever delighted with our home. It's a blue- 
 bird's nest or box, with the song absent till you 
 return." 
 
 Over a bridge or porch across a ravine adjoin- 
 ing the house was a hooded bell like those seen 
 in Switzerland, and in the hood the bluebirds 
 built their nests. When they brought food to 
 their young, Mr. Bolton would leave the porch 
 until they had come and gone ; but finally they 
 
 [71] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 learned that they would not be molested, and 
 came as freely as though no one sat there. No 
 rabbit or bird or even ant-hill, " their homes are 
 so wonderfully made," he said, was ever harmed 
 on his grounds. Even our many cats seemed to 
 know that we fed English sparrows in the winter 
 and pretty robins in the spring because we wished 
 them to stay. Mr. Bolton wrote : " We counted 
 nine in the colony of English sparrows. They 
 sleep nights in the honeysuckle vine at the 
 back door. We put warm clothes there for the 
 birds, and we put out grain." 
 
 Again he wrote of our beautiful St. Bernard 
 dogs, one of whom he named Windermere : 
 " Bernie has done only two wrong things since 
 you left. Mary found the dog asleep one morn- 
 ing on the lounge with head on the tidy. This 
 morning asleep on her bed back of her next the 
 wall. If bark would burn these two dogs would 
 keep Mary^ in fuel. . . . Have bought candy 
 for Bernie's Christmas." 
 
 1 Mary Johnson, the faithful Dane who lived with us many- 
 years. 
 
 [72] 
 
IN THE GROUNDS AT ELM-OAK 
 
 P'roni a photograph taken in August 1901 
 
 Bv a friend 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 He was fond of animals. He purchased two 
 tiger kittens of two children, giving a silver dol- 
 lar for each, to please the little owners. One 
 died, and the other he called his " Dollar Gray.'* 
 In the last picture taken of Mr. Bolton, a few 
 weeks before his death, his wife has in her arms 
 " Baby," the half-grown daughter of " Dollar 
 Gray," and he is holding his eye-glasses before 
 the kitten to arrest her attention for the picture. 
 She always sat on his left arm while he read his 
 newspaper in the morning. When his wife told 
 him that a woman had turned out into the snow 
 a cat and five kittens, he said, '^ Bring them all 
 home." 
 
 He would never see a horse abused. One day 
 when he and his pastor were riding, they met a 
 man whipping his donkey who was unable to 
 draw a load up a hill. Alighting, each man 
 put his shoulder to a wheel, and the poor animal 
 thus encouraged carried up the load easily. 
 
 Understanding real estate transactions from 
 previous years, Mr. Bolton was fitted to enter 
 the business again ; he bought a tract of land, 
 
 [73] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 opened streets through it, and then another allot- 
 ment, and made his work a success. But busi- 
 ness alone did not satisfy him. The reading of 
 everything useful went on as before. He read 
 on the street cars, in steam cars, everywhere. 
 When asked by his wife what he would like for 
 a birthday present, he replied, " Another set of 
 Emerson," the former set which she had given 
 him having been read and re-read. 
 
 Almost the last book which he read at the 
 seashore, sitting on the rocks at Nahant, was " A 
 Brief History of Eastern Asia," by L C. Hannah, 
 M. A., of Trinity College, England. He marked 
 carefully every book he read. He made clip- 
 pings from his many newspapers and magazines, 
 keeping them in large envelopes. Some of these 
 he used, and hoped to use more in the leisure to 
 which he looked forward, but which never came. 
 He kept a tabulated list of nearly one hundred 
 subjects, on which he gathered cuttings, — agricul- 
 ture, astronomy, banks, botany, Cleveland, china, 
 evolution, education, electricity, geology, health, 
 inventions, light, labor, law, minerals, music, 
 
 [74] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 money, politics, religion, railways, real estate, 
 silver, temperance, tariff, trusts, young men, and 
 many more. 
 
 While interested in all countries and all great 
 questions, — he worked for and rejoiced in the 
 freedom of Cuba, — he was devoted to America 
 and her interests. He was greatly desirous for 
 a ship canal from the Great Lakes to the 
 Atlantic Ocean. 
 
 " The old Erie Canal," he said, " three hun- 
 dred and fifty-one miles in length, that cost the 
 State fifty million dollars, and paid into the State 
 treasury thirty-four million dollars more than its 
 total cost up to the time when tolls were abol- 
 ished, has also saved for the people hundreds of 
 millions of dollars in the reduced cost of trans- 
 portation, by its control of East and West trunk 
 railway rates. It is well known that rail tariffs 
 are about doubled between the lakes and tide- 
 water during the close of navigation. 
 
 "The railways of Pennsylvania bought the 
 canal property of that State, and so prevented 
 competition. The citizens of New York, more 
 
 [75] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 jealous of their rights, have repeatedly declared 
 that ' their canals shall not be leased, sold, or 
 otherwise disposed of, but shall remain the prop- 
 erty and under the control of the State forever/ 
 . . . A great national need to-day is enough 
 American tonnage to carry our immense surplus 
 produce from tide-water to Europe, and when 
 possible from the lakes via a ship canal, and so 
 save an annual drainage of over a hundred mil- 
 lion dollars paid to foreign ships. . . . The wheat 
 of the great West is handicapped by the fact 
 that ocean tramps, not half the size of the lake 
 boats, carry two competing bushels of Argentina 
 grain to Liverpool for the carriage paid from 
 Dakota to the river Mersey." 
 
 He knew many public men, and was a life- 
 long and ardent Republican. When Blaine and 
 Logan were nominated for the Presidency and 
 Vice-Presidency at Chicago in 1884, he was a 
 deeply interested spectator. " Thurston, McKin- 
 ley, Lodge, Roosevelt, and scores of other dis- 
 tinguished persons had been seen, heard, and 
 cheered," he wrote. "A blind man, the silver- 
 
 [76] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 haired Judge West, of Ohio, was led to the 
 front. While seated, he eloquently voiced the 
 demands of the impatient throng. Though 
 often interrupted by applause, yet he refrained 
 from mention of Blaine^s name till the last, and 
 then the audience went wild. The people 
 cheered and shouted, some stood on chairs and 
 waved coats, hats, and canes, women fluttered 
 their handkerchiefs, and broke parasols and fans 
 in uncontrollable enthusiasm." After the nom- 
 ination, "cannon boomed, and the vast crowds 
 outside caught up the cry, and soon Chicago 
 and the nation awakened into applause." 
 
 All through the campaign Mr. Bolton took an 
 active part, by speaking, by raising money, scat- 
 tering pamphlets, and arranging for great tent 
 meetings in which well-known men addressed 
 immense audiences. In the great tent, Blaine, 
 Logan, McKinley, General Hawley, and others 
 spoke to more than ten thousand people gathered 
 at each meeting. An attractive pamphlet was 
 prepared, "Facts and Songs for the People," 
 with pictures of the candidates, the issues of the 
 
 {77\ 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 campaign and patriotic songs, and twenty thou- 
 sand of these were given away daily. " It was a 
 tiresome task," said Mr. Bolton, " but it proved 
 a great attraction, and no doubt helped to swell 
 the Ohio vote for Blaine. . . . Most Repub- 
 licans believed that, notwithstanding the parson's 
 crazy alliteration, ' Rum, Romanism and Rebel- 
 lion,' Mr. Blaine was honestly elected the 29th 
 president of the United States." 
 
 Mr. Bolton also spoke earnestly for McKinley 
 in 1896, and wrote much for the press on "The 
 Two-fold Issue of To-day, Sound Money, and 
 Protection." The " silver craze," as he called it, 
 received his strenuous opposition. He again 
 worked in 1900 for President McKinley, whom 
 he knew and honored as an upright, just, able, 
 and conscientious man. Mr. Bolton condensed 
 the platforms of the two great parties into about 
 one thousand words each, and this clear and 
 concise document was much used in the campaign. 
 
 In the summer of 1888, Mr. Bolton had de- 
 sired to enter Congress from the Twenty-first 
 district of Ohio, and as the popular-vote plan 
 [78] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 instead of the usual convention and delegate 
 method had been promised by three of the five 
 members of the Congressional Committee, he 
 decided to try with the four other aspirants. 
 The working people especially would be his 
 friends on account of the good done them 
 by the Educational Bureau. The popular-vote 
 plan was not adopted, however, and having no 
 time to secure delegates he withdrew from the 
 competition. 
 
 In the summer of 1898, ten years later, Mr. 
 Bolton came forward as a candidate from the 
 Twentieth district, in which his home. East 
 Cleveland, was situated. There were five other 
 candidates, but the papers spoke highly of Mr. 
 Bolton as " a man of ideas," " a man for the 
 people," and " a general public benefactor." The 
 press said it " was the most hotly contested 
 congressional campaign for many years." Mr. 
 Bolton received a creditable vote, but Medina 
 County stood by its candidate and won the 
 honor. 
 
 Since Mr. Bolton had settled in his home in 
 [79] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 1892, indeed since he came to Cleveland in 1865, 
 he had been laboring in many ways for his 
 adopted city, to which he was warmly attached. 
 He wrote and published many newspaper articles, 
 some of which he gathered into a pamphlet in 
 1899, called "A Few Civic Problems of Greater 
 Cleveland," including chapters on Docks, Sew- 
 age Disposal, The Mediterranean and Great 
 Lakes Compared, etc. 
 
 When the chapel of Windermere Presbyterian 
 Church was completed, he became one of the 
 charter members, planted vines about the build- 
 ing, and gave it a bell. At the Christmas festiv- 
 ities no one enjoyed the cheer of the Sunday 
 School children more than he. 
 
 When it was urged that Euclid Avenue be 
 made a part of the park system, — taking off the 
 street cars and putting them on a side street, and 
 making a boulevard for carriages, — with his 
 usual zeal he spoke successfully for the common 
 people who, he claimed, enjoyed a street-car ride 
 on a beautiful street, and who in fact owned the 
 public highways as fully as do the rich. 
 
 [80] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 When bills were introduced in the General 
 Assembly to annex by force the outlying villages 
 to Cleveland, Mr. Bolton's friends gathered in 
 his office, formed an " Emergency Committee," 
 and twice at least defeated the projectors of the 
 plan. Mr. Bolton denied "the right of any 
 municipality in the State to farm out its own 
 indebtedness upon a contiguous municipality. 
 This is emphatically taxation without representa- 
 tion," he said, " and we deny the right of the city 
 to ask of the General Assembly of Ohio, or that 
 the Legislature can grant, that annexation shall 
 take place without the consent of a majority of 
 the voters resident in the territory annexed." 
 
 Saloons were not wanted in the village of 
 East Cleveland to blight and destroy. In every 
 piece of property sold by Mr. Bolton, it was 
 stated that no liquor should ever be sold on 
 the premises. 
 
 He was foremost in every improvement: the 
 widening and the paving of streets ; the planting 
 of shade trees and beautifying of lawns ; obtain- 
 ing gas and water and free delivery of mail ; look- 
 
 6 [8i] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 ing carefully after the health of the people, and 
 studying the various methods of sewage disposal 
 in many countries — England, Germany, France, 
 and the United States. He urged that Cleveland 
 should not discharge daily fifty million gallons 
 of sewage into Lake Erie, but treat it chemically. 
 He said, " Paris has decided to purchase ample 
 acreage upon which to purify all its sewage. The 
 estimated cost of this new work is six million 
 dollars. . . . Berlin's sewage is conveyed by grav- 
 ity to a pumping station, and then lifted from 
 seventy to one hundred feet to the city's sew- 
 age farms. There are thirty-eight places on the 
 River Thames and the River Lea where the 
 sewage is treated, and crude sewage is never 
 allowed to run into the streams. Birmingham, 
 with a half million of population, treats its sew- 
 age chemically, and then applies the effluent to 
 meadow lands." 
 
 The East Cleveland Sewage Disposal Works 
 adopting the methods of the late Colonel George 
 E. Waring, Jr., forcing air through porous beds 
 of clay, gravel, etc., received his close attention. 
 
 [82] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 Mr. Bolton was elected mayor of the village 
 of East Cleveland in April, 1899, ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ 
 position for two years, declining re-election in 
 1901. He had great executive ability. He 
 appointed committees, and did the work if others 
 failed to do it. He suggested and helped to 
 organize the Village Mayors' League, and the 
 mayors of Cuyahoga County met monthly and 
 dined together, discussing the best plans for their 
 respective towns. 
 
 One matter in which he was especially inter- 
 ested was that Cleveland should have a system of 
 docks in her outer harbor such as he had seen 
 and studied in the old world, at London, Liver- 
 pool, Glasgow, Antwerp, and elsewhere, and such 
 as New York City had obtained by condemning 
 the land and paying a fair price for that which 
 she had appropriated. 
 
 He wrote articles for the newspapers, and pre- 
 pared maps and plans after consulting with able 
 engineers, trying to awaken the people to the mil- 
 lions of dollars at stake in the title to their " lake 
 front " in the coming centuries. " The plan," he 
 
 [83] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 said, "which I propose, exhibits twelve docks, 
 each sixteen hundred feet in length and six hun- 
 dred feet in width. Each dock admits of several 
 railway tracks and the storage of vast tonnage of 
 ores, coal, and other merchandise. The total 
 length of the new wharfage front thus acquired 
 is nearly forty thousand feet, or about seven and 
 one-half miles. Twelve slips, including the river 
 entrance, are exhibited, and each slip, from bulk- 
 head line to pierhead, is sixteen hundred feet in 
 length by two hundred feet in width, and has a 
 capacity of docking a half-dozen of the largest 
 lake freighters. Thus a total of seventy-two 
 modern vessels at the same time could load or 
 unload their cargoes. Ore conveyors will carry 
 the ore from the vessels three hundred feet or 
 more. The twelve docks have an area of about 
 twenty-three acres each, or a total of two hundred 
 and seventy-five acres, and a storage capacity 
 estimated at one million tons per dock. Spalls or 
 refuse rock from neighboring quarries, slag from 
 mills, and dirt from street and cellars could also 
 be used to fill in the piers and the large area 
 
 [84] 
 
/ 
 
 o o 
 
 S O 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 from the bulkhead line to the shore line. Suffi- 
 cient land will thus be reclaimed for thirty railroad 
 tracks, as shown on the plan, which should be 
 held as free territory to be leased to or used by 
 all railroads in loading and unloading ores, coal, 
 and other freights. Also enough made land 
 would be secured for a margin dock roadway 
 two hundred feet in width, which could be used 
 for transfer and traffic, and, if extended in the 
 future, to connect Gordon, Clinton, Lake View, 
 and Edgewater parks. Not a cent will be added 
 to the taxpayers' burdens if the outer harbor is 
 properly developed and managed the same as in 
 New York City. 
 
 " Following the example furnished by the city 
 of New York, why ought not Cleveland, when 
 public good demands it, to secure from the Ohio 
 Legislature the power to exercise the right of 
 eminent domain ? ' Eminent domain is the supe- 
 riority, or dominion of the sovereign power, over 
 all the property within the State, by which it is 
 entitled to appropriate by constitutional agency 
 any part necessary to the public good, compensa- 
 
 [85] 
 
 i \v 
 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 tion being given for what is taken/ providing, of 
 course, that satisfactory proof of valid ownership 
 is estabUshed." 
 
 Concerning the proposed cost of the harbor 
 improvement, probably twenty million dollars, 
 he said: "When the city has the right to con- 
 demn certain lake front properties, at the outset 
 she need not acquire more frontage than can be 
 paid for, profitably improved or leased, say 
 i,ooo feet more or less east and west of the river 
 entrance. As the demand increases. New York 
 condemns and improves her water front." 
 
 Mr. Bolton could not bear to see Cleveland 
 missing her great opportunity. " It interests a 
 Clevelander,'* he said, " to be reminded that 
 100,000 diiferent kinds of articles are made in 
 2,500 factories at Cleveland, that these facto- 
 ries employ 60,000 wage-earners and over 
 $100,000,000 of capital, and that Cleveland 
 already leads in numerous lines of manufactures ; 
 that she is the centre of the iron-ore industry, 
 the largest ship-building port, and one of the 
 largest ship-owning ports in the United States. 
 [86] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 It is pleasant to know that the electric cars will 
 take you to a semi-circle of very beautiful parks, 
 and to all parts of a city of 400,000 people, even 
 to all the neighboring towns, and that 150 steam 
 trains daily enter or leave Cleveland. 
 
 " It is also encouraging to be told that 23^ 
 vessels of a combined tonnage of 336,000 tons 
 are owned and managed in Cleveland. But it 
 does little good to state that 60 per cent, of the 
 Lake Superior iron-ore output enters the Cleve- 
 land district, and that the city is situated at the 
 apex of the largest and best field of coal in 
 the world, unless we remember that nearly five- 
 sixths of the 18,500,000 tons of ore passes us 
 by to enrich other cities, chiefly because the front 
 door of Cleveland is practically closed to lake 
 transportation and to the wealth of the great 
 Northwest. . . . 
 
 "The large lake fleets of Rockefeller, Car- 
 negie, M. A. Hanna & Co., and others, sought 
 harbor facilities elsewhere, not because of hostility 
 to Cleveland, but chiefly because of the lack of 
 improved docking capacity at this port. For the 
 
 [87] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 same reason Cleveland will continue to lose her 
 lake commerce and other trade unless she soon 
 provides suitable docks. 
 
 " The fact that the ownership and manage- 
 ment of mines, mills, vessels, shipbuilding, and 
 docks is being concentrated in the hands of a few 
 men, who sooner or later must decide where the 
 Lake Superior ores can be most cheaply con- 
 verted into pig iron and steel billets, gives cause 
 for alarm lest Cleveland cease to be one of the 
 great centres of iron ores and their products. 
 Rapidly the lake traffic is drifting to other ports, 
 because Cleveland's ample outer harbor is not 
 properly docked. Unless Cleveland can con- 
 trive to be a centre of cheap raw material, then 
 other localities will certainly attract the best of 
 her present manufactures, viz., pig iron, steel, 
 steel ships, heavy forgings, car wheels, wire, nuts 
 and bolts, hardware of many kinds, including wire 
 nails, screws, steel springs, axes, etc." 
 
 Mr. Bolton spoke before the Tippecanoe 
 Club of which he was a member, and urged them 
 to appoint a committee of five to confer with the 
 
 [88] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 directors of the Chamber of Commerce on this 
 subject, and this was done. 
 
 For many years there had been litigation with 
 regard to the lake front, prominent railroads 
 claiming it. Honorable James Lawrence, former 
 Attorney-General for the State and Director of 
 Law for the city, urged that the case be appealed 
 to the higher courts. When the Council seemed 
 about to surrender the city's claim to the rail- 
 roads, Mr. Bolton could not rest. It was in his 
 thoughts at his table with his family, and with 
 friends on the street, or as he rode to his office 
 on the electric railways. He spoke earnestly be- 
 fore the City Council. He is reported by the 
 press as saying: "The railways after getting 
 control of this property will become despotic. 
 They will practically own the entire harbor. We 
 don't know where they will end. . . . Who are 
 my clients ? I represent 400,000 people living 
 in Cleveland. I represent 55,000 men who are 
 now in the factories. I represent 55,000 children 
 in the public schools, and millions of people still 
 unborn. You ask what I would do with this 
 
 [89] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 predicament? I would have the next Legisla- 
 ture pass a law authorizing the city to condemn 
 the property in dispute. Only yesterday I had 
 dinner with the leading counsel of the Lake 
 Shore Railroad Company. I asked him whether 
 the Legislature could not do this. He answered : 
 * Absolutely it can, and I have often wondered 
 why it was not done long ago.' New York City 
 in this way recovered twenty-one miles of water 
 front, which is now yielding her annually millions 
 of dollars revenue." 
 
 Mr. Bolton conferred with Honorable Tom 
 L. Johnson, not then elected mayor, and urged 
 an injunction restraining the officials from making 
 any agreement with the railroads with regard to 
 the lake front. The case was then put into 
 the hands of General Edward S. Meyer as coun- 
 sel for the city, and was carried to the higher 
 courts. 
 
 In the spring of 1900 Mr. Bolton was again a 
 
 candidate for the Congressional nomination. He 
 
 outlined in the items of his policy the owning by 
 
 Cleveland of its entire water front, and also the 
 
 [90] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 production of beet sugar in America, on which 
 subject he had gathered much information. He 
 said : " Last year over fifteen million tons of iron 
 ores passed south through the harbors of North- 
 ern Ohio, enriching the citizens of the Mahoning 
 Valley and Western Pennsylvania. If one half 
 of this enormous tonnage of ores could be con- 
 verted into iron and steel products, with a wage 
 account of ten dollars per ton included, in 
 Cuyahoga County, our pay-rolls would be in- 
 creased fifty million dollars annually. It is the 
 magic pay-roll, chiefly, that builds a great city. 
 This vast increase of pay-roll by fifty million 
 dollars would add half a million people to Cleve- 
 land and double her tax dupUcate. ... If the 
 leading countries of Europe raise beet sugar for 
 their own needs, and largely for export, why 
 cannot Americans raise their own sugar, and so 
 save annually fifty million dollars, which the 
 American people are now paying, mostly to 
 foreign farmers ? " 
 
 Mr. Bolton's commendations were of the best. 
 President McKinley had said : " Mr. Bolton is a 
 [91] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 gentleman of learning and culture, and has had 
 years of experience at the head of large manu- 
 facturing interests." Honorable J. B. Foraker 
 spoke of his " good character, fine abilities, large 
 experience from extended travel abroad, and that 
 he is an active, zealous working Republican." 
 Honorable John Sherman had called him "a 
 citizen of high character," and Ex-President 
 Hayes, " a gentleman of fine accomplishments." 
 There were several aspirants for Congress. 
 After a most vigorous and exciting campaign, the 
 Congressional Convention was held May lo, 
 1900. Mr. Bolton received fifty-two votes on 
 the first ballot ; ninety-seven being necessary to a 
 choice. Two of the aspirants, bitterly opposing 
 each other, withdrew from the contest, over their 
 own signatures in the newspapers. One of these, 
 Honorable James R. Garfield, the son of the 
 former President, kept his pledge and refused to 
 allow his name to be used before the convention ; 
 the other did not, and received the nomination. 
 There was no question among the people as to 
 Mr. Bolton's fitness for the position, but the 
 
 [92] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 ways of politics are such that the best men are 
 not always chosen. 
 
 Crowded as were his hours, Mr. Bolton found 
 time to give comforts to a sick and friendless 
 soldier, just returned from the Philippines, paid 
 his board unaided for months, clothed him, and 
 finally obtained a temporary place for him at 
 one of the national homes for soldiers ; he is 
 now earning a good salary. And this was only 
 one case out of many, in which the poor found 
 in him a helper both with money and counsel. 
 He secured very many situations for young men 
 who had tried for themselves until well nigh dis- 
 couraged. He often bought a book of a can- 
 vasser, not forgetting the college days, when he 
 earned money in the same difficult way. He, 
 with two others, promised to send a boy through 
 Amherst College. When the lad was ready, the 
 other givers were not, and Mr. Bolton bore the 
 expense alone. 
 
 He took little time for rest. " Ceaseless as 
 the sea," his friends said of him. In July, 1899, 
 he and his wife went East to see their son and his 
 
 [93] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 wife and child, at Shirley, Massachusetts, where 
 the son afterward bought ninety acres for a 
 summer home, in the town in which the Bolton 
 ancestors settled one hundred and thirty years 
 before. Mr. Bolton helped in the search for a 
 large boulder in the forest, and gave liberally 
 toward the expense of having it brought to the 
 graveyard where it now bears a bronze tablet to 
 commemorate the service of those who went to 
 the Revolutionary War from the town. Among 
 the names on a second tablet prepared at the 
 same time are those of Mr. Bolton*s great-grand- 
 father, Timothy, and two or more of his great- 
 uncles. 
 
 His little grandson, Stanwood Knowles Bolton, 
 gave him much pleasure, and the affection seemed 
 mutual. Mr. H. A. Pevear invited the families 
 to drive through all the adjacent charming 
 country, and these few quiet days in a life full 
 of activity formed a pleasant memory. 
 
 During the remaining months of Mr. Bolton's 
 life he was very busy with his work as mayor, 
 preparing an admirable report, with other matter, 
 [94] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 artistically printed and illustrated, in a pamphlet 
 of one hundred pages ; with his transactions in 
 land ; his large correspondence ; and finally two 
 books, a novel bearing on the question of 
 capital and labor, "The Harris-Ingram Experi- 
 ment," and a volume of essays, " A Model Vil- 
 lage and other Papers." The novel, he says in 
 the preface, was for the most part " written while 
 waiting at stations or on the cars, and in hotels, 
 using the spare moments of an eight months' lec- 
 ture season, and four months at home occupied by 
 business." " Travels in Europe and America " 
 was only partially completed, and was published 
 in 1903 after his death. The novel was pub- 
 lished in 1905. Mr. Bolton had always written 
 much for the press, sending letters while abroad 
 to the Chicago Tribune^ the Springfield Republi- 
 can^ the Boston Congregationalist^ the Cleveland 
 Leader^ and later preparing a series of articles for 
 the St. Nicholas Magazine on " How Fine Papers 
 are Manufactured," " How Stones Grew into 
 Flour Mills," " Fire Places and Fuel and Light," 
 " From Palanquin to Palace Car," " Cross-bow to 
 [95] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 One Hundred Ton Guns," " How Sticks Grew 
 into Plows," etc. 
 
 "The Model Village of Homes," the first 
 essay in the book of the same name, was pub- 
 lished in the American Monthly Review of Re- 
 views, for November, 1899. It was, said the 
 Cleveland Leader, " what he wanted the world to 
 understand about the village he ruled and loved. 
 . . . Mr. Bolton delighted to have it known how 
 the village of East Cleveland came to be the 
 * model village of homes,* as he called it. From 
 East Cleveland he turns his readers to an English 
 half-holiday, spent at one of the famous mechani- 
 cal and engineering works of England, and then to 
 a coaching trip through scenes of famous English 
 history. Coffee houses in Great Britain, the Sun- 
 day School Centenary at London, a Fete-day in 
 Paris, the Chicago World's Fair, Spanish Rule in 
 Cuba, a College Vacation at the Front during the 
 Civil War, How Fine Paper is made. Entertain- 
 ments for the People, and the Flags of the Nations 
 and Glances at their Histories — these subjects all 
 interested him and he described them in his book. 
 
 [96] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 " Mr. Bolton saw beauty and interest where 
 others might see only the commonplace, and 
 even the commonplace was to him made bright 
 with the interest of a big, strong heart that 
 loved the world." 
 
 Mr. Bolton lived long enough to see but a 
 single copy of his book when he was near 
 death. 
 
 The press gave commendation to the book. 
 The Literary World said: " Mr. Bolton, the cul- 
 tivated and genial author, observed with sym- 
 pathy and wrote with facility." The New York 
 Times called him "an intelligent observer, a 
 wholesome thinker, and a right-minded citizen." 
 Another New York paper said : " Mr. Bolton 
 wrote in a straightforward, direct manner, that 
 always connotes something to say, and consumes 
 but little space in saying it." The late Judge 
 Henry C. White, of the Probate Court, Cleve- 
 land, wrote : " I have gained great profit, and 
 in a measure attempted to honor the memory 
 of my late friend, by reading every word of it. 
 I shall always treasure the book as a valuable 
 
 7 [97] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 memorial of a long and pleasant acquaintance with 
 the author. For breadth and diversity of accurate 
 knowledge, and for vigor and beauty of literary 
 expression, I esteem the book as a gem." 
 
 Professor David P. Todd wrote from the 
 Observatory House at Amherst: " I have taken 
 great pleasure in reading the delightfully written 
 essays of Mr. Bolton's 'A Model Village,' and 
 they have made me regret coming into Am- 
 herst scenes so late (my class followed his by 
 just ten years) that I missed the pleasure of 
 knowing him personally. . . . Five years ago 
 I founded a little library in a town in Northern 
 Japan, since become quite large, and I am send- 
 ing to it occasional parcels of books. It has 
 seemed to me that this collection of essays 
 would be highly appreciated in that far country 
 which is now devoting itself very concernedly 
 to matters English." 
 
 Mr. Bolton would have been gratified to 
 
 know that his book was among those suggested 
 
 by the Boston Public Library for reading in 
 
 connection with the Free Public Lectures of the 
 
 [98] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 Lowell Institute, Boston, given by distinguished 
 men during the spring of 1902. This work, 
 made possible by the fund left by John Lowell, 
 Jr., was greatly admired and honored by Mr. 
 Bolton, who always longed for something of 
 the same kind in Cleveland. 
 
 Mr. Bolton was asked to join many societies, 
 the American Social Science Association, the 
 American Academy of Political and Social Sci- 
 ence, Sons of the American Revolution, the 
 American League for Civic Improvement, sev- 
 eral reform societies, and the like. His last 
 public address was given before the American 
 League for Civic Improvement in Buffalo, Au- 
 gust 13, 1901, at the time of the Pan-American 
 Exposition.^ He had taken his wife with him. 
 They walked in the beautifully laid out grounds, 
 stood in the Temple of Music where President 
 McKinley was shot so soon afterwards, and saw 
 the wonderful electric lights at night, making 
 the place seem like fairyland. 
 
 1 See page 50 of "The Twentieth Century City," this being 
 the special title of The Home Florist for October, 1901. 
 
 [99] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 Going East to see her son and his family for 
 a short time, Mrs. Bolton returned to Cleveland 
 on September 15th, and found her husband not 
 feeling in quite his usual health. He was tired, 
 but kept at business for another week, when 
 she urged that he stay at home and rest for 
 a few days. He lay on the sofa and chatted 
 with his friends with all his wonted cheer and 
 hope. 
 
 About the first of October, with excessive 
 headache, he gained better rest in bed. He 
 longed to see the coloring leaves, but the light 
 seemed painful to his eyes. He often said, 
 " Oh, this weariness ! " October 9th a specialist 
 was called to aid the doctors, but he could 
 see no disease ; he said that Mr. Bolton had 
 overworked. On the wall hung a picture which 
 had just been prepared by Mr. Bolton, of 
 his grandfather, father, and uncles and aunts, 
 whose united ages were eight hundred and 
 one years, average eighty years, with several 
 still living. To this Mr. Bolton called the 
 doctors' attention as they talked of genealogy ; 
 [100] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 there seemed every probability that one so vig- 
 orous and cheerful would live to old age, like 
 his ancestors. 
 
 Three days later, on Saturday, October I2th, 
 at sunset, Mr. Bolton's right side became par- 
 tially paralyzed, and on the following Tuesday 
 at noon, when asleep, the second stroke came. 
 On Wednesday he said to his wife, " I shall not 
 be here to-morrow," but he was kept alive sev- 
 eral days. When his son and wife and their 
 younger child, Geoffrey (two months old), came 
 on Thursday, and the baby was laid in his 
 arms, he smiled, and drew his left arm about it, 
 saying, " Big boy." During his brief illness he 
 thought of everybody but himself; asked that 
 lemonade be taken to the workmen who were 
 paving Knowles Street near his house ; hoped 
 that the trained nurse had a good bed, and that 
 others who were assisting had every comfort. 
 Toward the last he said to his wife, not forget- 
 ting the struggle up to success : " I Ve done 
 the best I could for you." On Wednesday 
 morning, October 23rd, just as the daylight 
 [loi] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 came, when his dear ones watched beside him, 
 Mr. Bolton ceased to breathe. 
 
 The death was a shock to his friends and to 
 the whole city. So many plans for the future 
 never to be carried out; so much work never 
 to be finished; a mind so well prepared in a 
 strong, fine body : helpless in the silence of 
 death ! 
 
 At the funeral on Friday, October 25th, his 
 pastor, the Rev. Charles L. Zorbaugh, D. D., 
 read from the Bible ; " Lead, Kindly Light," 
 and " Abide with me," were sung ; and his 
 former pastor, the late Rev. Henry M. Ladd, 
 D.D., spoke of Mr. Bolton. " It does not 
 seem possible," he said, " that we shall never hear 
 that voice again in hearty greeting, nor feel his 
 cordial handshake. It is many years since I first 
 knew him, and in that time I have grown to love 
 and honor him. He was a man of strong per- 
 sonality. He loved nature, and even the flowers 
 seemed to lift their heads and smile to him. 
 The birds sang more sweetly, and the mountains 
 and valleys and even the boulders spoke to him. 
 [102] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 He loved nature in every form. I have often 
 heard him speak of the beautiful sunsets seen 
 from his home. To have so loved nature he 
 must have had a generous nature. He loved 
 humanity, and little children were not afraid 
 to talk with him. He loved the lowly, the 
 needy, and the wage-worker. Those who 
 labored with their hands were among his best 
 friends and admirers. 
 
 "In his latter days he had an absorbing de- 
 sire to see this village become a model town. 
 This village will become a monument to his far- 
 sightedness ; and his manly character and noble 
 life will leave an impression in the village long 
 after he is gone." 
 
 He lies buried in Lake View Cemetery east of 
 the Garfield Monument, under a great maple 
 tree, looking over to the busy city that he loved, 
 and to blue Lake Erie beyond. He cannot 
 watch the red sun dip in the water at sunset as 
 he used to do at his home, but the robins will 
 sing above him, and perchance keep him company 
 in the branches in the summer nights. The 
 [103] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 winter snows seemed harsh to him, for he loved 
 the sunshine, but he will not feel them. The 
 grass will grow green above him, and the flowers 
 will shed their fragrance. And by and by his 
 loved ones will lie beside him. 
 
 The newspapers in various parts of the country 
 spoke highly of Mr. Bolton. Said the Cleveland 
 Leader : " There were tears in the eyes of many 
 persons as they gazed on the features of Mr. C. 
 E. Bolton whose remains were carried to the 
 grave yesterday, from his late beautiful home on 
 Windermere Terrace. Floral tributes from friends 
 in this city and out of town almost covered the 
 casket and filled the room. . . . He was a man 
 of untiring energy, very cheerful and optimistic, 
 solicitous for others and often forgetful of self, 
 giving liberally and without ostentation to the 
 poor. He was a great friend of the young men, 
 assisting many worthy, both financially and by his 
 influence. He was one of the founders of the 
 Young Men's Christian Association of Cleve- 
 land. A man of fine appearance and bearing, 
 and agreeable presence, he won friends every- 
 [104] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 where, both in this country and abroad. . . . 
 He was one of the best-known men in North- 
 ern Ohio, a man of the highest personal character 
 and worth." 
 
 The Cleveland Plain Dealer said : " Mr. Bol- 
 ton had been interested in everything pertaining 
 to the good of Cleveland. ... In the panic of 
 1873 he lost about two hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand dollars, and instead of going into bankruptcy 
 spent nearly twenty of the best years of his life 
 in paying his creditors. In spite of the over- 
 whelming reverses of 1873, Mr. Bolton had, with 
 untiring energy and unusual business acumen, 
 acquired a competency and had the good will and 
 esteem of all who knew him. Overwork and 
 constant mental activity contributed largely to his 
 death at the very height of his usefulness and 
 
 success.*' 
 
 The New York Journal said : "Mr. Bolton was 
 an eminent scholar, lecturer, author, and student 
 of municipal problems." 
 
 The East Cleveland Signal said : "His was a 
 life of usefulness in every sense of the word. No 
 
 [105] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 man ever lived that did as much or spent as 
 much time for a village as did Mr. C. E. 
 Bolton for the village of East Cleveland and 
 no one has passed away who will be missed 
 by all, both old and young, as he. His funeral 
 was one of the largest ever held in East Cleve- 
 land.*' 
 
 The Boston Daily Globe said : "In the death 
 of Charles Edward Bolton to-day Northern 
 Ohio loses one of its foremost citizens, a lec- 
 turer, author, student of economic problems, 
 traveller, and wealthy business man." 
 
 The East Cleveland Council passed the follow- 
 ing resolutions offered by Mr. Harry Gordon, 
 for several years his associate in business : — 
 
 ^^ Whereas, Charles E. Bolton was an honored 
 and influential citizen, and for two years mayor 
 of the village of East Cleveland, representing 
 it with marked fidelity and unswerving attention 
 to duty, ever prompt in his attendance, and 
 ever vigilant in his watchfulness of the village's 
 interests ; and 
 
 ^^ Whereas, Death came to him in the midst 
 [io6] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 of his work and in the full vigor of his man- 
 hood; therefore, be it 
 
 ^^ Resolved y That the Council pay to his 
 memory the tribute of respect due him by 
 the adoption of this memorial, and that the 
 same be entered on the minutes of the Coun- 
 cil and an engrossed copy transmitted to the 
 family/' 
 
 The Tippecanoe Club of Cleveland passed the 
 following Memorial Resolutions : — 
 
 " Whereas^ We are again called upon to 
 mourn the loss by death of a member of this 
 Club in a man of wide culture and varied at- 
 tainments, therefore, be it 
 
 ^^ Resolved, That in the death of Mr. Charles 
 E. Bolton, this Club has lost a member of in- 
 fluence and personal worth ; that his life of 
 earnest, honorable endeavor, his interest in the 
 public weal, and his integrity in private life are 
 worthy to be emulated by us all; 
 
 ^^ Resolved, That we extend to his family our 
 most sincere sympathy and regard ; and be it 
 further 
 
 [107] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 ^^ Resolved, That these resolutions be made a 
 part of the records of this meeting. 
 
 "W. R. COATES, 
 
 "Chas. W. Chase, 
 " Harvey R. Keeler, 
 
 " Committee'* 
 Mr. Bolton was a man of unusual energy, 
 perseverance, and skill in the management of 
 affairs. He was self-reliant, believing as Em- 
 erson wrote : " The man that stands by him- 
 self the universe will stand by him also." He 
 had great persuasive powers, strong personal 
 magnetism, and was a remarkable conversation- 
 alist, being well read upon almost every sub- 
 ject. Language impure or coarse was never 
 allowed in his presence. He had the utmost 
 system, and gave close attention to detail, 
 either in business or writing, so that mistakes 
 were rarely made. He used to say he could 
 not work at his desk unless all was clean 
 and in order. He daily ruled an ordinary 
 business card into three columns, and wrote 
 with a very sharp-pointed pencil a list of 
 [io8] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 things to be done, calling it "his chart**; he 
 was never satisfied unless all the items had been 
 attended to. 
 
 He was conscientious in a marked degree, 
 loyal to principle, courageous to meet danger 
 or obstacles, very manly, and honest with a 
 self-sacrifice that took many of the best years 
 of his life. An ardent lover of art, and sci- 
 ence, and nature, he rejoiced in the sunshine, 
 and gave cheer to thousands by his own sunny 
 temperament. Broad-minded and versatile, he 
 was willing to interest a child in the structure 
 of a flower, or to carry a baby in his arms 
 when it cried on the steam cars, to help some 
 tired and overworked mother, or to talk with 
 an expert about the making of steel, or building 
 bridges or docks or ships, the wonders of elec- 
 tricity, or the great matters of government and 
 the future of the nation. 
 
 Tall, erect, and well-proportioned in body, with 
 
 distinguished bearing, naturally a leader, Mr. 
 
 Bolton was a marked man in any circle. With 
 
 clear complexion, dark, curly hair, pleasant gray 
 
 [109] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 eyes, and a smile that illumined his face, he 
 retained and even increased the good looks of 
 his young manhood. Social by nature, though 
 domestic in his tastes, he enjoyed meeting people 
 and entertaining them. Genuinely interested in 
 others, he made friends easily and kept them. 
 He had keen insight into character, and was 
 rarely deceived either in persons or business. 
 Enthusiastic and sympathetic, his eyes often 
 filled with tears at the recital of wrong or suffer- 
 ing, or some heroic act. He was quick to ask 
 forgiveness if he had hurt the feelings of an- 
 other, and was ready to forgive. He was very 
 cordial and sincere, with a kind word for every- 
 body. He loved life and its countless activi- 
 ties, for which his strong body, able mind, and 
 warm heart fitted him, and toward the last, 
 when asked by his physician if he wished for 
 anything, replied, " If you could only give me 
 health!" 
 
 He kept over his writing desk : — "I expect 
 to pass this way but once ; if, therefore, there be 
 any kindness I can show, or any good thing I 
 [no] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON, M. A. 
 Taken when Mayor of East Cleveland, 1S99-1901 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 can do to my fellow human beings, let me do 
 it now, let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall 
 not pass this way again." 
 
 "It is whatjy^^ do and not what is done for 
 you that develops character.'* 
 
 Also these last words of Tennyson's " In 
 Memoriam " : — 
 
 *< One God, one law, one element. 
 And one far-off divine event 
 To which the whole creation moves.'* 
 
 Refined and courteous, he was always the gen- 
 tleman, equally at ease with the highest and the 
 most humble. With a dignity of manner which 
 forbade familiarity, he was yet gracious, and ap- 
 proachable from his thorough goodness of heart ; 
 responsive to kindness and appreciation ; a lover 
 of home and kindred ; and with all his strength 
 of character so gentle in feeling that he would 
 help his wife to take a frightened little mouse 
 from the cats, and carry it into the fields to a 
 place of safety. 
 
 A poem, " Hearing Ears," by the Reverend 
 William J. Gray, was found among his papers: — 
 [III] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 '* The protest of the bruised reed. 
 
 Or trampled worm's appealing. 
 Ne'er finds response to finest need 
 
 Where ears lack finest feeling. 
 
 ** Alas, too oft, e'en human hearts 
 
 Lie helpless, torn, and bleeding ; 
 Vain falls their cry midst noise of marts 
 
 While crowds pass by unheeding. 
 
 " One lesson taught to mind and heart 
 
 Abides for all to know it. 
 Fine hearing is the finest art 
 
 In people, priest, and poet.'* 
 
 In the preface of his book, " A Model Village," 
 was this sentence : " Could I have choice of my 
 last word, I would place Helpfulness upon the 
 archway of the sky in golden letters large enough 
 to reach from the rising to the setting sun.'' And 
 this was in fact his last word. 
 
 [112] 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 After Mr. Bolton's death his wife received a 
 large number of letters offering sympathy and 
 appreciation of his life and work. Rev. Dr. 
 Hiram C. Haydn wrote: "Your husband will 
 be greatly missed. He has stood for so much 
 that is vital to good citizenship and been so 
 aggressively active, his loss will be great to all 
 the community — to you how much more." 
 
 President Charles F. Thwing, of Western Re- 
 serve University, wrote : " I was very fond of 
 your husband. One's heart went out toward 
 him, as his heart seemed to go out toward every 
 one and toward all that was good. Vigor and 
 power without hardness, and sweetness and 
 gentleness without weakness, belonged to him." 
 
 Dr. William Hayes Ward, editor of the New 
 York Independent^ wrote : " Your husband was 
 one of the choicest of men, and I have been proud 
 that he was one of the sons of my own Alma 
 Mater. He did a great work for Cleveland. 
 Few men have shown so much public spirit. I 
 
 8 [113] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 have a delightful memory of one evening spent at 
 one of those great entertainments which he pro- 
 vided for the people, when the huge hall was 
 crowded with listeners. I do not remember 
 what the entertainment was — lecture or music — 
 but what impressed me was the superb service 
 done for popular culture by Mr. Bolton." 
 
 Richard Watson Gilder wrote : " I was greatly 
 shocked at the death of your husband. It must 
 have been sudden indeed. My memory of him 
 is of a strong, handsome, kindly personality. I 
 deeply sympathize with you in this great loss." 
 
 Professor Charles Zueblin, of Chicago Univer- 
 sity, wrote : " His death is a loss to Cleveland and 
 the country." 
 
 Many letters came from Amherst classmates. 
 Mr. John C. Hammond, a lawyer of Northamp- 
 ton, Massachusetts, wrote : " I read with a 
 deep sense of personal bereavement and loss the 
 announcement that my dear classmate is dead. I 
 was very sorry that he missed our last reunion. 
 But I had no thought that there were no more 
 reunions with him this side the other shore." 
 
 Rev. V. M. Hardy, D.D.,ofFoxcroft, Massa- 
 chusetts, wrote : " The days I spent with him 
 in Cleveland in early September were among the 
 
 [114] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 pleasantest days in all my recent years. He took 
 hold of me with such a strength of sympathy and 
 confidence. We gave and took of the experi- 
 ences of so many years of life. We found so much 
 in common and in the uncommon to think over 
 and talk upon, that the three days were crowded 
 with the very best of life's treasures. I said good- 
 bye in the hope of continued acquaintance and 
 longings for other communings like this, and 
 now, I shall see him no more. My heart sobs 
 over it." 
 
 The Treasurer of Amherst College, J. W. 
 Fairbanks, Ph. D., wrote that the college would 
 " be very glad to receive and make a proper dis- 
 play of the flags of various nations collected by 
 Mr. Bolton. Personally I should highly value 
 such a gift to the college. I knew Mr. Bolton 
 intimately in Williston Seminary, and we roomed 
 on opposite sides of the same corridor in South 
 Hall. I also knew him intimately for three years 
 in college. It is unnecessary for me to say that 
 he was highly esteemed by me both as a gentle- 
 man and a friend." 
 
 Large flags gathered by Mr. Bolton abroad, 
 from England, France, Norway, Sweden, Russia, 
 Italy, Holland, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, 
 
 [115] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 Germany, Turkey, Austria, with United States 
 flags, were given to Amherst College after his 
 death, to be draped in his memory, knowing that 
 he would prefer his Alma Mater to have them. 
 Ten boxes of his collection of minerals were 
 given to Oberlin College. His well-selected 
 library and collection of pottery from many 
 countries were left to his son. 
 
 A lawyer from Milwaukee who had known 
 Mr. Bolton all his married life, wrote : "He was 
 such a kindly, genial. Christian gentleman, such 
 a sincere friend, such a model husband, father 
 and citizen, that his loss must have sent a thrill 
 of sorrow to a multitude of loving hearts, and 
 the keenest of all to yours. He was always so 
 full of life, of health, and of hope, that it is hard 
 to realize he has gone. I do not think I ever 
 knew a more loving and devoted husband, or 
 one so well fitted for the harmonies of domestic 
 life. It seems so sad for such a man to be 
 called away in the prime of life, — sad for those 
 who are left." 
 
 Two well-known Cleveland lawyers wrote : 
 
 " The public virtues of your honored husband 
 
 give many people the right to share with you 
 
 the sorrow of this hour, and as a young man 
 
 [ii6] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 who has been stimulated by his kindness and 
 encouraged by his almost boyish enthusiasm for 
 the good and true in all life's higher relations, 
 I beg to express to you my personal affection 
 for his memory, and my sympathy with your 
 deep affliction." " I shall always cherish his 
 remembrance as a man who always sought to do 
 good and to benefit mankind, and the world can 
 justly say it has been benefited by his life and 
 efforts." 
 
 A friend from Paris, France, wrote ; " The 
 blow must indeed be a heavy one, for such an 
 unusually noble and beautiful character is rarely 
 met, and a hfe spent in such companionship can 
 only be recalled with tenderest recollections and 
 intense longings." 
 
 A well-known author wrote : " It is not in 
 the first great shock of grief that the heart of 
 sorrow lies. It is when that is left behind and 
 there comes the readjustment of life to new con- 
 ditions, the realization that life must be lived on 
 and lived out — and far differently. The sting 
 is there and no human touch can remove it." 
 
 A dear friend wrote : " It is a sacred sorrow 
 that watches the lines of suffering and care fade 
 away from the noble brow of your dear husband 
 
 [117] 
 
CHARLES E. BOLTON 
 
 and yield place to the hallowed calm which death 
 brings to your beloved. Many friends will 
 mourn and miss him. It will be a long time 
 before the community will lose the imprint of his 
 noble character and ceaseless efforts for good." 
 
 The widow of a former pastor wrote: "A 
 great, good, and useful man has been called to 
 his reward. Mr. Bolton has left you a rich 
 legacy in precious memories, as he has to all his 
 friends. We need such men to bless and make 
 the world better." 
 
 Others wrote: "As I think of Mr. Bolton's 
 useful life and his honorable struggle for so long 
 to prevent his own misfortunes from carrying 
 loss to others, I am glad that you have such a 
 career to recall." 
 
 " We all remember him as a most devoted 
 husband and loving father, and I shall ever 
 teach my three children to look upon his face 
 as one of the noblest types of manhood that I 
 have ever met. He was in every sense a manly 
 man, and when that is said I know of no more 
 beautiful tribute that can be offered. No one 
 knew how to appreciate the fulness of the last 
 words of our beloved McKinley, Mr. Bolton's 
 personal friend, than did your husband, and 
 [ii8] 
 
A MEMORIAL SKETCH 
 
 none will find greater consolation in ' It is God*s 
 way, His will be done/ than yourself and son. 
 When I stop and consider how such as these, 
 two of the noblest works of God, are taken, 
 and others left, I cannot help but marvel at the 
 wisdom of such taking." 
 
 " It is just two years this month that dear Mr. 
 Bolton began planning ways and means for me 
 to stay with my husband without working as long 
 as he should live. Such good deeds as these are 
 treasures laid up in Heaven for him to find 
 there. I can never forget that wonderful kind- 
 ness, followed by many others." 
 
 " He was one of the very finest men I have 
 met, in every way. While he did not live as 
 long as falls to the lot of many, you have the 
 satisfaction of knowing that he accomplished 
 so much for the uplifting and wellbeing of 
 humanity." 
 
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