JAMES A. BOLTON, (one of the progressive and wide-awake native sons of Monroe county, resides on his farm of 105 acres in section sixteen, La Grange township, was born in Wilton township, December 29, 1867, the son of Edwin L., and Roseline (Cady) Bolton, natives of Vermont. The original Bolton ancestors came from England; the grandfather of our subject, John G. Bolton, a woolen manufacturer, settled in New York state when Edwin L. was fifteen years of age. They later came west to Wisconsin, and located in Dane county, near Madison, and in the late fifties, moved to Monroe county and settled in the town of Wilton. Edwin L., father of our subject, was a school teacher, which occupation he followed in Monroe county for twenty-one years, and occupied a prominent place in educational circles as well as the general affairs of his town. In 1873 he located on a farm in section seventeen, La Grange township, where he died in 1886, at the age of forty-nine years. During the Civil War he enlisted in Company E, Seventeenth Wisconsin Regiment, and served nine months as clerk and adjutant. His widow, mother of our subject, resided at Tomah until September 23, 1912. when she died. They were the parents of ten children, eight of whom are now living. (See sketch of W. E. Bolton.)

James A. Bolton spent his boyhood on the home farm, receiving his education in the district schools of his neighborhood; he had nearly reached his majority when he started out to make his own way in the world. He was employed at farm work for six years, and in 1894 leased the Henry Mallory farm which he conducted for ten years in connection with his own farm purchased the same year, which he has improved with a substantial residence, new barn, sheds and other outbuildings. Here he carries on general farming and dairying, using modern methods in his operations, and his equipment is of the latest and up to date. As a man, Mr. Bolton stands high in the confidence and esteem of the community and he is justly counted as one of its foremost citizens. He has devoted his time to home matters, and believes in the welfare and progress of his community. Mr. Bolton and his estimable wife, who was Miss Lillian Stowell, of Big Springs, Adams county. Wis., and the daughter of Ceylon and Mary Stowell, of New York, were married November 24, 1898.