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Sarah Tittle Barrett Bolton was an American poet and social activist. She was a correspondent for the Cincinnati Commercial.
Background
Sarah Bolton was born on December 18, 1814, in Newport, Kentucky, United States, the daughter of Jonathan Belcher and Esther (Pendleton) Barrett, pioneer settlers of Indiana. Her grandfather, Lemuel Barrett, was an Englishman who emigrated to New Jersey sometime before 1754, and her mother's father, a cousin of James Madison. Her early days were spent in the wilderness, about six miles from Vernon, Indiana, where her father had staked a farm. When she was nine, her father sold his farm and moved to Madison.
Education
Sarah got some knowledge in the schools of Madison, and as much outside.
Career
Before Sarah was fourteen, verses from her pen had been published in the Madison Banner, and she soon became a regular contributor to the newspapers of her hometown and Cincinnati. In her seventeenth year she married Nathaniel Bolton, a young newspaperman, and went to live in Indianapolis. Thereafter her life was shaped by her husband's fortunes until his death in 1858. He was first editor of the Indiana Democrat; then proprietor of a farm outside the city, his house there a tavern which became a stopping place for distinguished men and something of a social center, Mrs. Bolton acting as housekeeper and cook, besides running a large dairy. Later he was state librarian, then clerk of a United States Senate committee, and finally consul at Geneva, which appointment gave Mrs. Bolton opportunity for extensive travel. Two children were born to her.
About five years after his death, Sarah married Judge Addison Reese, and for the next two years lived with him at his home in Canton, Missouri. The climate there was not favorable to her health, and she returned to Indianapolis, where she made her home until her death, though she spent two or three years abroad.
She was always known as Sarah T. Bolton, and used the name "Reese" only for business purposes. She was a true child of the rising West, an ardent democrat and champion of freedom, full of fiery patriotism and faith in the country's future. These characteristics are reflected in many of her poems. As a whole these are of no great literary merit, but have the melody, sentimentality, and moral and religious flavor relished by the fireside magazine readers of their day. Paddle Your Own Canoe and a few others had wide popularity. Poems appeared in 1865, and a collection of her writings with a sketch of her career was published in 1880 under the title The Life and Poems of Sarah T. Bolton. A volume of selections, Songs of a Life Time, edited by John Clark Ridpath, was published in 1892. It contains an introduction by Lew Wallace and a proem by James Whitcomb Riley.
Achievements
Sarah Bolton is famous through her writings and participation in public affairs, which made her a prominent figure in Indiana. She was interested in various reforms, and was an active aid to Robert Dale Owen in his effort to secure property rights for women in the constitutional convention of 1850. She was called Indiana's "pioneer poet" and is best known for her poems "Paddle Your Own Canoe" and "Indiana. "
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Connections
In October 1831, Sarah married Nathaniel Bolton, a young newspaperman. Five years after his death, Sarah married, September 15, 1863, at Keokuk, Iowa, Judge Addison Reese.
