William Alonzo Bole
The residence of the Bole family in Jefferson Township, dates back to the year 1877. In Section twelve of that township, one of the most productive and valuable farms in the community is that of Mr. Bole, who in later years has retired largely from active participation in farming, but has sons who are carrying forward the work and continue to increase the prosperity so long enjoyed by this family.
The name Bole is of Dutch origin, and Grandfather William Bole was born in Pennsylvania in 1791, and died in Shelby County, Indiana in 1862. He was married in Pennsylvania, and they moved out to Ohio and lived at Georgetown in Brown County, where all their children were born. Their family were: David, John, William, Abraham and James and four daughters, Jane, Anna, Elizabeth and Mary.
William Bole, father of the Jefferson Township resident, was born in Brown County, Ohio, in 1814, and though reared on a farm, early in life he began an apprenticeship at the shoemaker's trade, and finally located at Neville, in Clermont County, Ohio, where he married Rosanna A. Melvin, who was born at Snow Hill, Maryland, in 1810, and came to Ohio with her father, William Melvin, who located at Neville, on the Ohio River. William Melvin was likewise a shoemaker, and William Bole worked in the same town with him after his marriage, but later moved to Foster's Landing in Kentucky, and in 1856, brought his wife and three children to Fayette County, Indiana, later lived both in Madison and Henry Counties, an finally in Delaware County. In 1874 he moved to Grant County, but returned to Muncie, where his death occurred in 1898 at the age of eighty-four years of age. His wife passed away in 1895 and she too was past eighty years of age. William Alonzo Bole, the oldest of the family, was born at Neville, Ohio, March 6, 1841. His sister Melissa, born in 1845, married J. S. Petty, a prominent and well known man whose death occurred in Martinsville, Indiana. For her second husband she married a Mr. Fisk, a Massachusetts banker, and since his death her home has been in Muncie. She was at one time a skilled instrumental musician, and is a cultured and highly intelligent woman. She had two sons: Wilbur and Walter, both of whom died after being married. James M. Bole, brother of William A. Bole, is a farmer in Jefferson Township, and has a family.
William Alonzo Bole grew up in his father's home in the different localities of their residence, and was still under age when he enlisted September 5, 1861, in Company E of Eighth Indiana Infantry. One of his early engagements was the battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, and in the course of that conflict he passed his twenty-first birthday. With his regiment he saw a long and varied military service. From the early Missouri and Arkansas campaigns, the regiment went east to the capture of Vicksburg, at Fort Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hill, Black River Ridge, and the Siege of Vicksburg. The regiment later was sent to the east, and was placed under the command of Sheridan, which valiant leader they followed in the battles of Winchester and Cedar Creek. He was never in the hospital a day, never wounded or captured. On returning home to Delaware County, he took up the quiet vocation of farming, but after five years learned telegraphy and became an operator. While living at Muncie, he married Miss Ida V. Hill, who was born in Indiana and died two years after their marriage. The one son of that union is Robert Bole, who is married and lives in California. In 1877 Mr. Bole came to Jefferson Township in Grant County, and here married Mrs. Mary D. (Havens) Payne. She was born in Mill Township of Grant County, July 29, 1845, was reared in Jefferson Township until her marriage, and represents an old and prominent family in Grant County. Her parents were Jonathan and Gabriella (Clark) Havens, her father a native of Ohio, and her mother of Pennsylvania. They married and came at an early day to Grant County, where Jonathan havens improved a farm in the midst of the timber in Jefferson Township, and spent the rest of his years there until his death in 1863, when forty years of age. His wife is still living, her home being in Fowlerton. For further information concerning the Havens family, the reader is referred to the sketch of Jonathan Havens, elsewhere in this volume.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Bole are as follows:
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Rolly, born October 14, 1875, educated in the public schools, a resident of Hartford City, married Ann Hickman, and they have four children, two sons and two daughters, Clarence, Robert, Clara and Pauline.
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Capitola, born November 12, 1877, is the wife of Alonzo G. Monroe, a farmer of Jefferson Township. Their living children are four sons and one daughter, Raymond, Doris, Derward, Dwight and Dean.
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Winifred, born in 1880, is the wife of Walter Deddys of Hartford City, and they have one son and two daughters: Helen, Catherine and John.
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Jesse, born in 1882, is unmarried, and is the active superintendent of his father's farm of one hundred acres, a place thoroughly improved and kept up to the best standards of Jefferson County life.
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Jennie is the wife of Dwight Blumer of Toronto, Ohio, and they have two sons and a daughter, Clifford, William and Helen.
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Arley E. lives at home, and also assists in managing the farm. He was well educated in the local high school, and in a business college.
Mr. Bole belongs to the Christian Church, while his wife is of the Primitive Baptist. He is a Republican in national politics, and in local affairs gives the strength of his influence in every movement to make life better and more comfortable in his township and county. His three sons are all members of the Socialist party.
Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914.