Cyrus S. Bolton was born on January 23, 1837, in Ohio.

 

He enlisted in the Union army in September 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company F of the 21^st Ohio Infantry. In October 1861, he wrote that he felt “ready to serve as a soldier for the rights of our Country.” Later that month, he added that “Our trust is still in God. O may he protect us from all danger & may we all go forth boldly in the strength of God in defending the rights of our Country.” Army officials eventually transferred him to the Signal Corps, and he earned a promotion to sergeant. He mustered out on September 18, 1864.

 

He returned to Ohio after leaving the army. He married Lydia M. Shelly on October 26, 1865, and they had at least five children: Eva, born around 1867; Mary, born around 1869; Minnie, born around 1871; Wilson, born around 1873; and John, born around 1877. They moved to Vermillion, Kansas, in the late 1860s, and Bolton worked as a minister there. They moved to Colfax, Missouri, in the 1870s. He applied for a federal pension in July 1890 and eventually secured one.

 

By 1910, he was living in Davenport, Nebraska. His wife died on September 6, 1919, and by 1920, he was living in a daughter’s household in Lawrence, Kansas. In March 1920, he was admitted to the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Leavenworth, Kansas. His patient records described him as 5 feet, 7 ½ inches tall, with grey hair and blue eyes. He died of arteriosclerosis in Lawrence on March 5, 1925.  

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