Northampton County, NC - News - Dr. Mahlon Bolton ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (From two newspaper clippings of unknown origin and date regarding Dr. Mahlon Bolton.) "Dr. Mahlon Bolton. Member of the House of Representatives From Northampton County. Dr. Mahlon Bolton, son of James Bolton and Luvenia McDaniel Bolton, was born in Northampton county near Woodland N.C., October 2, 1863. He attended Wake Forest College, session 1881-1882, and read medicine one year under Dr. C. G. Bryan, and graduated from Jefferson Medical College, Philidelphia, in 1865. He passed the State board and joined the State Medical Society that year. He located at Rich Square in his native county, where he has ever since practiced medicine. Dr. Bolton was married to Miss. Emma J. Baugham, of Rich Square, December 20, 1888. He is a member of the Methodist church has been a steward in his church 23 years and chairman of the church board of stewards several years and represented that lodge deputy and president of the district lodge. He is postmaster of Rich Square, a director of the bank of Rich Square, x-cashier and now vice- president of the bank. He has always been intamtely identified with every movement looking to the industrial, educational, and moral up lift of his community and his neighbors have honored him with many positions of distinction and trust. He is a member of the county Tri- Medical societies, ex-president of the Northampton County Medical Society and the Seaboard or Tidewater Medical Association of Viginia and North Carolina, and one of the charter members of the North Carolina Anti-Tuberculosis Society and delagate to the State Medical Society the past three years. Dr. Bolton has always been a Democrat. His majority was about 1,600, there being very few Republican votes in his county. He was a chairman on the committee on Public Health, and a member of the committees on Salaries and Fees, Education, Insane Asslyums, Penal Institutions and the Joint Committee on Enrolled Bills. As a member of such committees he has visited Charlotte, the Goldsboro Asslyum, Raliegh Asslyum, the penitentiary and the State Normal and Industrial College. Dr. Bolton was interested in legeslation affecting the sanitary and educational interest of the State and was one of the wisest legislators in the House." "Dr. Mahlon Bolton. Brief Sketch of His Life and Character--A Life of Good Deeds. The subject of this sketch, Dr. Mahlon Bolton, son of James and Luvenie Bolton, was born at Woodland County N. C., Oct. 26th, 1863, and died Aug. 24, 1921. Perhaps no other man was better known throughout the county than was Dr. Bolton. It was in the midst of those dark days of the Civil War that he first saw the light of this world. He was a small boy during those still darker days, if possible, of reconstruction, when our state, and the entire South lay prostrate in ruins. As the fire tempers the metal, so those trying days of early and middle childhood tempered the metal that was in him, and prepared him for the life he lived, and the strong and beautiful character he made. Educational advantages were very poor in those days and the great majority of young men were deprived of an education, but he had the good fortune of being in reach of the Woodland High School, which perhaps, was the best school of its kind lying between the Roanoke and the Chowan Rivers. Mahlon took advantage of his oppertunity and spent four years in that institution. Later he went on Wake Forest College for two years. He graduated in medicine from the Jeffreson Medical College, in Philidelphia, 1885. After his graduation he located in Rich Square where he spent the remainder of his life in the practice of his chosen profession. During those thirty five eternity can reveal the suffering he alleviated, and the hearts he soothed. He answered the call at all hours, day or night, until the last year or two of his life, when failing health made it impossible to do much night practice. In the year 1888 he was united in marriage to Miss. Emma Baugham, of Rich Square. This Union was blesed with three children, two boys and a girl, Leonard, Jannie, and Ronald. The last named preceded his father by only a few years. Dr. Bolton was a quiet unassuming man. He never pushed himself forward, but the confidence and esteem, in which he was held, put him forward, almost everywhere a leader was needed. He was a well poised man, and a safe councilor. Many went to him for advice when they were in doubt as to the best thing to be done, and his judgement was usually correct. His medical brethren honored him by making him president of his county medical society, and of the Seaboard Medical Society of Virginia and North Carolina. The Bank of Rich Square honored him by making him Director Cashier, Vice President. The people of Northampton County honored him by making him their representative in the General Assembly of North Carolina, 1901 and 1921. The U.S. honored him by making him a medical examiner. His home town honored him by making him Mayor of the town and a member of the school board. The church honored him by making him steward, trustee and Sunday School Superintendant, besides electing him a delegate to the District and Annual Conference for years. He filled these places with credit to himself and to the offices into which he had been called. When young he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and lived an active and useful member to the end of his earthly pilgramage. He loved his church, its doctrines and polity, and was true as steel to all its institutions. All the interests of the church were dear to his heart, wheather in the local church, the district conference, or throughout the entire connection. And yet while devoted to his own church, he was no narrow sectarian. He loved God's people wherever they might be found, irrespective of denomination. He especially loved his Sunday School, of which he had been for years, the Superintendent, and gave much thought to it. It has been said by many that he will be missed in this community as no other man has been. Dr. Bolton was a strong true man in every relation of his life. He despised sham and trickery. His self-respect and unselfish spirit kept him far above the arts of the self-designing and self-seeking. He had conscentious respect for the rights of others, wheater white or black, rich or poor. Sufferring appealed to his sympathies wheather among his neighbors or the starving people of the Orient. His record during that terrible "flu" scourge is known to all and reveals the self-sacrificing spirit that was in him. About three o'clock Wednesday afternoon he passed away, very unexpectedly; though all knew it would come, and many thought it would come suddenly. He leaves a wife and two children and a host of friends and loved ones to mourn their loss. But we do not mourn for him, but for ourselves, for we are left behind poorer and more lonely. Funeral services were held in the Methodist church conducted by the pastor, and assisted by Rev. J.E. Holden of Kenely N. C. a former pastor of the deceased. You rarely see so many people at a funeral service- all anxious to pay tribute to him whom they loved. His body sleeps in the Rich Square cemetery, by the side of his son, Ronald. He has gone from- God called him from labor to rest. Hee heard the call, mounted the chariot, and assende to the Golden City, wher the choice spirits of the ages gather to he; heirs and joint-heirs with the God of Glory. We shall see him again some great day in the ranks of the blood-washed, in our Father's house of many mansions. The faithful husband, farther, friend and physician is forever safe. He died as he had lived, strong in the faith once delivered to the saints. "Servant of God well done! Rest from thy loved employ; The battle fought the victory won Enter the Master's joy" H. M. Eure" ___________________________________________________________________ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Harvey Harrison ___________________________________________________________________