User:Tricia Gilson/MySTB

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Tricia Gilson/MySTB
Engraving by John Sartain, Philadelphia
Engraving by John Sartain, Philadelphia
OccupationPoet
NationalityAmerican
SpouseNathaniel Bolton
Addison Reese

Sarah T. Bolton (Sarah Tittle Bolton, née Barrett (18 December 1814–5 August 1893)), an American poet and Indiana's "pioneer poet," is best known for her poem “Paddle Your Own Canoe” (1850). An activist for women’s rights, she worked with Robert Dale Owen during Indiana's 1850–1851 Constitutional Convention to include the recognition of women's property rights. Her husband Nathaniel Bolton (25 July 1803–26 November 1858) co-founded Indianapolis’s first newspaper, the Gazette, and was Indiana State Librarian from 1851 to 1854.


Biography[edit]

Early life[edit]

Sarah T. Bolton was born Sarah Tittle Barrett on December 18, 1814 in Newport, Kentucky. She was the oldest child of Jonathan Belcher Barritt (1778–1855) and Esther Pendleton Barritt (b. 1790).[note 1][1] Bolton’s parents were from the East Coast, and nothing is known about when they came to Kentucky.[note 2] Her mother, Esther Pendleton (of Virginia), was the daughter of James Pendleton (b. 1751) and was U.S. President James Madison's first[2] or second cousin.[3] Bolton's father was born in Hagerstown, Maryland to Lemuel Barritt (1722–1814) and Sarah Tittle (1774–1814); he was named after Lemuel Barritt's friend Jonathan Belcher, the colonial governor of the provinces of Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, and New Jersey.[4]

Bolton was one of six children, and public records suggest only she and her sisters Beth Pendleton Barrett (1814–1893) and Missouri Tittle Barrett (1826–1883) survived to adulthood. When she was three years old,[5] her family moved from the busy city and military post of Newport, Kentucky about 75 miles west to a homestead along Sixmile Creek near the city of Vernon in Jennings County, Indiana.[6] Late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century accounts of Bolton’s life emphasize the rugged conditions in which her family lived, describing their family’s farm as belonging to the wilderness where the family saw almost no other people.[7]

From 1817 to 1823, the family lived in this remote area where her father cleared the land for farming.[8] Although they lived six miles from the town of Vernon, their life was not one of total isolation as some sources have suggested. Jonathan Barritt was an active member of the Vernon community serving first as Captain and later as Colonel of the local militia,[9] and in 1819 he became an associate judge on the Jennings County Circuit Court.[10] There were, however, no opportunities for the Barrett children to attend school, and so in 1823 they moved to Madison, Indiana, a city about 25 miles south of Vernon in Jefferson County.[11] Located on the Ohio River, Madison was the state’s most “thriving” city.[12] As Bolton recalled in 1888, the family’s move to Madison resulted in her father’s financial ruin after the business he had entered into on the advice of Milton Stapp, future Lieutenant Governor of Indiana, failed.[13]

She was a remarkable student despite her late start and is said to have learned to read and write in eight weeks.[14] Bolton attended Bumont Parks’s academy [15] with future Lieutenant Governor of Indiana Jesse D. Bright.[16] To supplement her studies, Jeremiah Sullivan, future Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court, gave her access to his library.[17] She studied Latin and was reading Virgil’s Aeneid until social pressures dictating that women should not have such literary aspirations forced her to abandon those studies.[18] Her first published poem appeared in the Madison Banner when she was fourteen[19] or fifteen.[20] Every week she published a poem in newspapers in Madison and Cincinnati until she was married.[21]

Nathaniel Bolton[edit]

Nathaniel Bolton and Sarah T. Barrett marriage certificate, signed by James H. Johnson of Jennings County, Indiana on 16 January 1832.

Her poems drew the attention of Indianapolis newspaper editor Nathaniel Bolton,[22] and they married in Jennings County, Indiana on October 16, 1831.[23] Riding horseback some eighty miles, Nathaniel and Sarah Bolton moved to Indianapolis.[24]

Nathaniel Bolton, born July 25, 1803 in Chillicothe, Ohio (then the capital of Ohio), was a printer by trade,[25] and when he married Sarah, he had been the owner and editor of the Indianapolis Gazette since 1824.[26] Bolton learned the printing trade from his step-father George Smith (d. 1836),[note 3] and in 1820 they moved from Ohio to Corydon, Indiana, then the capital of Indiana.[27] When the first land offerings were made in Indianapolis in 1821, Smith purchased two lots[28] and moved to Indianapolis[29] where he founded Indianapolis’ first newspaper the Gazette in the family’s cabin on Maryland Street at Missouri Street.[30] Bolton who had stayed behind in New Albany to print the State’s laws joined Smith in Indianapolis after the first publication of the Gazette.[31] Together Bolton and Smith ran the Gazette for three years until 1824 when Smith became a judge and Bolton, its sole owner.[32]

In 1924 Bolton relocated the offices of the Gazette from the family’s house first to a house on the corner of Washington Street and Tennessee Street (now Capitol Avenue) on the State House square and then to the south side of Washington Street near the County Court House.[33] In 1829, Bolton entered a partnership with George L. Kinnard, and they changed the name of the newspaper to Indiana State Gazette.[34] Their partnership lasted only a short time, and in March 1930 Bolton sold his share in the paper to Alexander E. Morrison, state representative from Clark County and editor of Clark County Republican Statesman.[35] Bolton moved to Madison, Indiana where he had been encouraged to found and manage a newspaper.[36]

When Nathaniel and Sarah arrived in Indianapolis, Nathaniel began working for Alexander E. Morrison who had changed the name of Bolton’s former newspaper Indiana State Gazette to Indiana Democrat and State Gazette and then simply as Indiana Democrat.[37] Eventually Bolton would become the editor of the Indiana Democrat.[38] It is said that Indianapolis’s first printers’ rollers were made in the kitchen of their home.[39] Nothing seems to be recorded about Sarah Bolton’s life and activities for the first years of her marriage.

The Boltons' Tavern[edit]

In 1836 Sarah gave birth to daughter Sarah Ada (Sallie), and Nathaniel Bolton’s stepfather George Smith died leaving his Mount Jackson homestead to Nathaniel Bolton.[40] It was at that time the Boltons moved to Mt. Jackson on National Road (now West Washington Street) just outside the city.[41] The following year Nathaniel Bolton lost all his property except for Mt. Jackson in the financial panic of 1837–1838.[42] To pay his debts, Sarah suggested they turn their farm into a public tavern and charge those seeking lodging.[43] The tavern, called either “Tavern by Nathaniel Bolton”[44] or “Mount Jackson Tavern,”[45] attracted many travelers since it was located on the National Road.[46] When there were meetings of the Indiana General Assembly, the tavern was also the gathering place for state political leaders including Robert Dale Owen, Jesse D. Bright, and Michael G. Bright.[47] When United States Vice President Richard Mentor Johnson visited Indianapolis in October 1840, Sarah wrote and presented a “poetical address.”[48] The political and social connections both Boltons made while running the tavern would prove important to them when they returned to Indianapolis.

Indianapolis and "Paddle Your Own Canoe"[edit]

Indiana's Statehouse from 1835 to 1876

1846–1854 NB as Librarian purchased carpet from Shillito's in Cincinnati (JCHS clipping file). RDO & 1850 Constitutional Convention Third Presbytarian

A Grand Tour[edit]

1855–1858

Return to Indianapolis[edit]

Civil War, 1861–1865 1863: Reese 1871: move to Beech Bank

Return to Europe[edit]

1871–1873

Final years and death[edit]

Sarah T. Bolton gravestone, in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana.


Literary themes and styles[edit]

Poems[edit]

Image of "Indiana" sheet music?

Reputation[edit]

Bronze relief of Sarah T. Bolton by Emma Sangernebo. The relief, mounted in the Indiana State House rotunda, has four lines from Bolton's poem "Indiana."
Bronze relief of Sarah T. Bolton by Emma Sangernebo. The relief, mounted in the Indiana State House rotunda, has four lines from Bolton's poem "Indiana."

where has my caption gone?

Selected list of works[edit]

• "Ralph Farnham's Last Dream." Harper's Weekly. 2 February 1861.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ The spelling of Bolton's maiden name appears most often as "Barrett" when referring to her although public documents relating to her father almost always have the name as "Barritt." This article maintains the historical record by using "Barritt" when referring to ancestors of Sarah T. Bolton and "Barrett" when referring to Bolton herself.
  2. ^ Jonathan Barritt may have accompanied his parents to Kentucky. His father Lemeul Barritt died in Harrison County, Kentucky in 1814; his mother died in Newport, Kentucky in 1817.
  3. ^ Published accounts of George Smith’s early printing career are conflicting. One, written in 1870, has Smith training in Lexington, Kentucky at the Observer then working with Charlie Hammond at the Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Gazette (Nowland, 65–66). A 1906 publication asserts that Smith worked for the American Revolutionary printer William Bradford in Philadelphia before having a printing office in Chillicothe, Ohio (Brown, 121). Smith is also said to have printed The Repository in Dayton, Ohio with William McClure from September 1808 to December 1809 (Bogan, 374), as well as owning with Joel Buttles the Worthington Western Intelligencer (later the Columbus Gazette) ("Ohio State Journal”).

References[edit]

  1. ^ "A Southern Poetess."
  2. ^ Greasley, 383.
  3. ^ Downing, 2.
  4. ^ Downing, 2.
  5. ^ Willard and Livermore, 102.
  6. ^ Dye, 254.
  7. ^ Larrabee, 69; Martin.
  8. ^ Martin.
  9. ^ Bolton letter to Cravens.
  10. ^ Monks, 789.
  11. ^ Greasley, 383.
  12. ^ Smith, 840.
  13. ^ Bolton letter to Cravens.
  14. ^ Guthrie 1972.
  15. ^ Clarke
  16. ^ Downing, 6.
  17. ^ Pictorial, 344.
  18. ^ Clarke
  19. ^ "'Paddle Your Own Canoe.'"
  20. ^ Pictorial, 344.
  21. ^ Pictorial, 344.
  22. ^ Townsend 228.
  23. ^ Indiana State Library. Genealogy Database: Marriages through 1850. Retrieved 25 December 2010.
  24. ^ Martin.
  25. ^ Boomhower, 334.
  26. ^ Brown, 126.
  27. ^ Brown, 122.
  28. ^ Brown, 123.
  29. ^ Boomhower, 334.
  30. ^ Brown, 124–125.
  31. ^ Brown, 124.
  32. ^ Brown, 125.
  33. ^ Brown, 126.
  34. ^ Boomhower, 334.
  35. ^ Boomhower, 734.
  36. ^ C. Dunn, 41.
  37. ^ Boomhower, 334.
  38. ^ Sage.
  39. ^ Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, Indiana) 28 March 1976.
  40. ^ Dunn, 109.
  41. ^ Gerard, 335.
  42. ^ Parker and Heiney, 419.
  43. ^ Barker.
  44. ^ Pictorial, 344.
  45. ^ Whicker, 235.
  46. ^ Martin
  47. ^ Pictorial, 344.
  48. ^ Pictorial, 344.

Bibliography[edit]

Primary Sources[edit]

  • Bolton, Sarah T. Letter to John R. Cravens, 6 February 1888. (Published in Madison Courier (Madison, Indiana) 24 February 1888.)
  • Bolton, Sarah T. The Life and Poems of Sarah T. Bolton. Indianapolis: Fred L. Horton, 1880.
  • Bolton, Sarah T. Paddle Your Own Canoe and Other Poems. Indianapolis: Bowen-Merrill, 1897.
  • Bolton, Sarah T. Poems. New York: Carleton Publisher, 1865.
  • Bolton, Sarah T. Songs of a Lifetime. Edited by John Clark Ridpath. Indianapolis: Bowen-Merrill, 1892.

Secondary Sources[edit]

  • “The American Communities.” Bulletin of the International Institute of Social History 6.2 (1951): 89–122.
  • “Death of Sarah Bolton.” Indianapolis Sentinel (Indianapolis, Indiana). 5 August 1893.
  • “Ohio State Journal.” Ohio History Central. 1 July 2005. Retrieved 30 January 2011.
  • “‘Paddle Your Own Canoe:’ The Writer of that Noted Song Still Alive and Vigorous.” Bismark Daily Tribune (Bismark, North Dakota). 26 March 1892.
  • “Pen, Pencil and Brush.” The Trenton Times (Trenton, New Jersey). 26 April 1892.
  • “Pen, Pencil and Brush.” The Evening News (Lincoln, Nebraska). 26 April 1892.
  • Pictorial and Biographical Memoirs of Indianapolis and Marion. Chicago: Goodspeed, 1893.
  • "Plan Home as Memorial." Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, Indiana). 19 April 1926.
  • "Proposed Park Entrance.” Perry Township Weekly. Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, Indiana). 19 March 1990.
  • “A Southern Poetess. The Author of ‘Paddle Your Own Canoe’ Passes Away.” Galveston Daily News (Galveston, Texas). 14 August 1893.
  • Obituary. The Publishers Weekly 44 (12 August 1893).
  • Banta, R. E. Indiana Authors and Their Books, 1816–1916. Crawfordsville, IN: Wabash College, 1949.
  • Barker, Myrtie. “Sarah Bolton Given Broom and Pen Well.” Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, Indiana). 8 August 1966.
  • Bodenhammer, David J., and Robert Graham Barrows. The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994. ISBN 9780253312228.
  • Bogan, Dallas. Warren County, Ohio and Beyond. Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Press, 1979.
  • Boyer, Paul. Notable American Women: 1607-1950. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1971. ISBN 0674627342
  • Brown, Austin H. “The First Printers in Indianapolis: George Smith and Nathaniel Bolton.” The Indiana Quarterly Magazine of History 2.3 (September 1906): 121–126.
  • Bryant, William Cullen. A New Library of Poetry and Song. Volume 2. New York: The Baker Taylor Company, 1923.
  • Buley, R. C. “Indiana in the Mexican War (Continued).” Indiana Magazine of History 15.4 (December 1919): 293–326.
  • Clarke, Grace Julian. “Pioneer Woman to Whom Honor Is Due.” Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, Indiana). 17 October 1926.
  • Clement, J. “Hoosier Minstrels.” The Western Literary Messenger 22.1 (March 1854): 1–3.
  • Coggeshall, William T. The Poets and Poetry of the West. Columbus, OH: Follett, Foster and Company, 1860.
  • Coggeshall, William T. The Protective Policy in Literature: A Discourse on the Social and Moral of Cultivation of Local Literature. Columbus, OH: Follett, Foster and Company, 1859.
  • Cottman, George S. XXX Home and School Visitor. Sketch of Bolton possibly in 1911.
  • Cottman, George S. “The Western Association of Writers: A Literary Reminiscence.” Indiana Magazine of History 29.3 (September 1933): 187–197.
  • Dana, Charles A. The Household Book of Poetry. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1858.
  • DeMarr, Mary Jean. “Sarah T. Barrett Bolton: Nineteenth-Century Hoosier Poet.” Midwestern Miscellany 17 (1990): XXX.
  • Dershem, Elsie. An Outline of American State Literature. Lawrence, KN: World Company, 1921.
  • Downing, Olive Inez. Indiana’s Poet of the Wildwood. Marion, IN: News Publishing Company, 1941.
  • Draegert, Eva. “Cultural History of Indianapolis: Literature, 1875–1890.” Indiana Magazine of History 52.4 (December 1956): 343–367.
  • Dunn, Caroline. “With the Notes of the Robin and Bluebird.” In Yearbook of the Society of Indiana Pioneers by Society of Indiana Pioneers. Indianapolis: The Society, 1960. 41-44.
  • Dunn, Jacob Piatt. Greater Indianapolis: The History, the Industries, the Institutions, and the People of a City of Homes. Volume 1. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1910.
  • Dunn, Jacob Piatt. Indiana and Indianans: A History of Aboriginal and Territorial Indiana and the Century of Statehood. Volume 1. Chicago: American Historical Society, 1919.
  • Dunn, Jacob Piatt. Indiana and Indianans: A History of Aboriginal and Territorial Indiana and the Century of Statehood. Volume 2. Chicago: American Historical Society, 1919.
  • Dye, Charity. Some Torch Bearers in Indiana. Indianapolis, 1917.
  • Engel, Bernard F. “Linoln, Twain, Certain Lesser Midwestern Poets, and the Civil War.” The Great Lakes Review 8.2–9.1 (Fall 1982–Spring 1983): 38–50.
  • Engel, Bernard F., and Patricia W. Julius. A New Voice for a New People: Midwestern Poetry, 1800–1910. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1985. ISBN 0819144525.
  • Fowke, Edith. “‘Old Favourites’: A Selective Index.” Canadian Journal for Traditional Music 7 (1979): 29–56.
  • G.S.C. “Mrs. Sarah T. Bolton, Poetess.” The Indiana Quarterly Magazine of History 8.4 (December 1912): 181–190.
  • Garrison, Gertrude. "XXX: Essay on STB." Indianapolis Journal XXX (22 February 1880): XXX.
  • Greasley, Philip A. Dictionary of Midwestern Literature: The Authors. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001.
  • Guthrie, Wayne. “ Once Unofficial Poet Laureate.” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, Indiana). 30 July 1965.
  • Guthrie, Wayne. “Women Indebted to Sarah Bolton.” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, Indiana). 11 February 1972.
  • Hamilton, Holman. “Versatility and Variety: Hoosier Literary, Political, and Diplomatic Prominence, 1871–1901.” Indiana Magazine of History 65.2 (June 1969): 103–114.
  • Hayward, J. Henry. Poetical Pen-Pictures of the War: Selected from our Union Poets. New York, 1863.
  • Henricks, Sylvia C. “Adjourned in Peace: A History of Piner Baptist Church.” Indiana Magazine of History. 72.4 (December 1976): 291–314.
  • Holloway, William Robeson. Indianapolis: A Historical and Statistical Sketch of the Railroad City. Indianapolis: Indianapolis Journal Print, 1870.
  • Howe, Daniel Walt. “Browsing Around Among Old Books.” Indiana Magazine of History 11.3 (September 1915): 187–210.
  • Huston, James Alvin (editor). A Hoosier Sampler: An Anthology of Indiana Writers. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2000.
  • Hyman, M.R. The Hoosier Year of 366 Indiana Writers and Speakers. Indianapolis: Max Hyman, 1916.
  • Jesse, Kathy. “Sarah T. Bolton Worked for Property Rights.” Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, Indiana). 26 March 2001.
  • Leary, Edward. “Hoosier Writer’s Poem Became Top-Selling Song.” Perry Township Weekly. Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, Indiana). 25 February 1971.
  • Mann, Lloyd Bolton. “Beech-Bank” Bouquet: The History of a Hoosier Homestead. Indianapolis: Galena Press, 1951.
  • Manser, Martin H., Rosalind Fergusson, and David Pickering. The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. New York: Checkmark Books, 2007. ISBN 0816046085.
  • Martin, Paul R. “Famous Poem Indorsed as Song by State Federation: Fritz Krull Provides Musical Setting for ‘Indiana,’ Written by Sarah Bolton.” Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, Indiana). 27 October 1912.
  • McDonald, Daniel. History of Freemasonry in Indiana from 1806 to 1898. Indianapolis: The Grand Lodge. 1898.
  • Murray, Agnes M. “Early Literary Developments in Indiana.” Indiana Magazine of History 36.4 (December 1940): 327–333.
  • Nicholson, Meredith. The Hoosiers. New York: Macmillan Company, 1900.
  • Nowland, John H. B. Early Reminiscences of Indianapolis: With Short Biographical Sketches of Its Early Citizens. Indianapolis: Sentinel Book and Job Printing House, 1870.
  • Olney, Jesse. Psalms of Life: A Token for the Many. Hartford: Brockett, Hutchinson, 1855.
  • Parker, Benjamin S., and Enos Boyd Heiney. Poets and Poetry of Indiana: A Representative Collection of the Poetry of Indiana, 1800–1900. New York: Silver, Burdett and Company, 1900.
  • Peet, Louis Harmon. Handy Book of American Authors. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell and Co., 1907.
  • Post, Margaret. “Sarah Bolton was Crusader.” Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, Indiana). 22 December 1975.
  • Richey, Ish. Kentucky Literature, 1784–1963. Tompkinsville, KY: Monroe County Press, 1963.
  • Reilly, John E. The Image of Poe in American Poetry. Baltimore: The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, 1976. ISBN 0910556059.
  • Sage, Lorna, Germaine Greer, and Elaine Showalter. The Cambridge Guide to Women’s Writing in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN 0521495253.
  • Sanders, Charles Walton. Sanders’ Union Speaker: Containing a Great Variety of Exercises for Declamation. New York: Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor and Co., 1864.
  • Shumaker, Arthur W. A History of Indiana Literature. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau, 1962.
  • Spencer, Arlene. “Local Resident to Portray Hoosier Pioneer.” Spotlight (Beech Grove, Indiana). 8 March 2000.
  • Spencer, Arlene. “Betty Collins Portrays Sarah T. Bolton.” The Pen Woman (June 2000): 15.
  • Taylor, Stevens, Ponder & Brockman. Indiana: A New Historical Guide. Indiana Historical Society, 1989.
  • Telle, Franklin D. “Sarah T. Bolton.” The Magazine of Poetry and Literary Review 6 (December 1894): 536.
  • Townsend, John Wilson, and Dorothy Edwards Townsend. Kentucky in American Letters, 1784-1912. Cedar Rapids: Torch Press, 1913.
  • Trautmann, Frederick. “Kossuth in Indiana.” Indiana Magazine of History 63.4 (December 1967): 299–314.
  • Van Bolt, Roger H. “Sectional Aspects of Expansion, 1844–1848.” Indiana Magazine of History 48.2 (June 1952): 119–140.
  • Venable, William Henry. Beginnings of Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1891.
  • Whicker, J. Wesley. “Dr. John Evans.” Indiana Magazine of History 19.3 (September 1923): 226–240.
  • White, Richard Grant. Poetry, Lyrical, Narrative and Satirical, of the Civil War. New York: American News Company, 1866.
  • Willard, Frances E., and Mary A. Livermore (editors). Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-Seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women. Buffalo: Charles Wells Moulton, 1893.
  • Williams, Minnie Olcott. Indiana Authors: A Representative Collection for Young People. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1916.
  • Wilson, Floyd B. Book of Recitations and Dialogues; With Instructions in Elocution and Declamation. New York: Fitzgerald, 1869.
  • Wilson, James Grant, and John Fiske (editors). Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography. Volume 1. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1887.
  • Wohrer, Florence. “Life and Poems of Sarah T. Bolton.” North Vernon Plain Dealer (North Vernon, Indiana). 20 August 1925.
  • Wollen, William Wesley. Biographical and Historical Sketches of Early Indiana. Indianapolis: Hammond and Company, 1883.
  • Wooster, Lizzie E. The Wooster First(–Fifth) Reader. Volume 2. Chicago: Wooster Company, 1907.
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