James W. Bolton Winn Parish, Louisiana
Contributed by Greggory E. Davies
120 Ted Price Lane
Winnfield, LA  71483
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James W. Bolton


James W. Bolton is one of the prominent bankers and business
leaders of the City of Alexandria, having succeeded his father as
a banker, and has a son of his own now taking executive
responsibilities in the same institution.  

Mr. Bolton was born at Winnfield, Louisiana, August 4, 1869, son
of George W. and Tennessee Wade Bolton, his father a native of
Griffin, Georgia, and his mother of Union County, Arkansas. 
George W. Bolton was a child when brought to Louisiana, became a
merchant at Pineville, and subsequently a banker, and is now
living retired at Alexandria at the age of eighty-three, while
his wife is seventy-four.  Of their ten children, six are living. 
George W. Bolton has been active in the Baptist Church, is a
staunch democrat, and was a member of the House of
Representatives in 1888-1890 during the Nichols administration,
and in 1892 was elected speaker of the House under the Foster
administration.  During the war between the states he was a
Confederate soldier and was wounded and captured at the Battle of
Nashville, remaining in prison during the last months of the war. 
He was elected first president and is now chairman of the board
of the Rapides Bank and Trust Company.  He still attends to some
business every day.

James W. Bolton was educated in the schools at Pineville, in
Baylor University at Waco, Texas, and in the Soule Commercial
College at New Orleans.  At the age of twenty he took a position
in the Rapides Bank and Trust Company, and has given the best of
his time and talents faithfully to that institution ever since. 
At first he was a bookkeeper, then cashier, and since 1914 has
been president of the institution.

He married February 8, 1893, Miss Annie White, who was born at
Alexandria, Louisiana, August 23, 1869, and died March 19, 1895. 
On October 21, 1896, Mr. Bolton married Miss Mary Calderwood, who
was born at Monroe, Louisiana, December 2, 1876.  She became the
mother of five children, three now living.  The son James
Calderwood Bolton was educated in high school at Alexandria, in
the Colver Military Academy in Indiana, and in 1920 graduated
with the Bachelor of Science degree from the University of
Pennsylvania, where during the war he enlisted in October, 1918,
and was with the Students' Army Training Corps until after the
armistice.  He is now assistant cashier of the Rapides Bank and
Trust Company.  The two younger children are Mary Elizabeth, who
graduated from Newcomb College, at New Orleans, in June, 1924,
and Robert Harvey, a graduate of the Bolton High School.  The
family are members of the Baptist Church.  Mr. Bolton is a York
Rite Mason and Shriner, and was elected master of his lodge at
the age of twenty-five.  He is also affiliated with the
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.  A democrat, he was
appointed a member of the school board in 1904, later was elected
vice president, and since 1916 has been president of the board. 
Among his many business interests he is interested in an
insurance agency, a sawmill, a real estate and an automobile
business, and a private mortgage loan business.


(The above was extracted from "A History of Louisiana", by Henry
E. Chambers, 1925.  Submitted by Greggory Ellis Davies,
Winnfield, Winn Parish, Louisiana)