Stephen Bolles

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Stephen Bolles (June 25, 1866 - July 8, 1941) was a newspaper editor, and later a congressman from Wisconsin.

Born in Springboro, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, Bolles attended the public schools; was graduated from the State Normal School of Pennsylvania at Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, in 1888 and from the law department of Milton College, Milton, Wisconsin.

In his early career, he worked as reporter, correspondent, managing editor, and publisher of newspapers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, 1893-1901.

Bolles was superintendent of the press department of the Pan American Exposition at Buffalo, New York, in 1901. He was reportedly among those with President William McKinley when the President was shot while visiting the Exposition.

He was managing editor of the Buffalo Enquirer in 1902 and 1903; superintendent of graphic arts of the St. Louis Exposition 1903-1905; director of publicity of the Jamestown Exposition in 1907; engaged as a special writer and also in private business, including the "brokerage" business, in Atlanta, Georgia, 1907-1919.

Bolles moved to Janesville, Wisconsin, in 1920 as editor of the Janesville Gazette until 1939. That year, Bolles won election to Congress and served from January 3, 1939, until his death in 1941 in Washington, D.C.. As Congressman, Bolles fiercely opposed to Lend-Lease and tried to exclude the Soviet Union from the Lend-Lease program.

Bolles is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Janesville. His children include Don Bolles and author, reporter, and corporate executive Blair Bolles. His grandchildren include Don Bolles, a journalist murdered under mysterious circumstances in 1978, author Richard Nelson Bolles, and economist Edmund Blair Bolles. His great grandchildren include Washington, D.C. fundraiser Elizabeth Bolles.

This article incorporates facts obtained from the public domain Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.