Was born in the state of Ohio, in the year 1824. In 1837 he moved with his father, to Illinois, who settled in
Pleasant Hill township, Pike county. He remained with his father on the farm until the year 1846, when he married
Miss Rebecca McCoy, and immediately settled on a farm in Pleasant Hill, and commenced farming and stock- raising,
which he continued until 1850, when he sold his effects on the farm, and moved to the town of Milton, in Montezuma
township, where he engaged in the general mercantile business, which he continued successfully for twelve years.
In 1850 Mrs. Bolin departed this life, leaving Mr. Bolin once alone in the world. Becoming dissatisfied with the
mercantile business, he sold his store and purchased a valuable tract of land, and with his own labor and good
management, got the same under a state of good cultivation, and commenced farming and raising stock, at which he
was very successful. In 1864, he married Miss Mary A., daughter of Daniel and America Hoover, and came into possession
of a valuable tract of land on section 8, where he has made first-class improvements, and is now residing.
John O. Bolin is the son of Charles and Betsey Bolin, who were born in the state of Delaware, in the years 1796,
and 1802, and died in the state of Illinois, in the years 1849, and 1868. Mr. Bolin has been exclusively engaged
in farming, raising, and dealing in stock, since the year 1865, and has, perhaps, been one of the most successful
men, during that time, in Pike county. He commenced his course in life a poor boy, depending upon his own labor,
at low wages, for his support, for several years. But being of industrious and energetic habits, he continued his
course of perseverence, until he is at this time one of the wealthy and well-to-do farmers of Montezuma township.
In his younger years, the advantages of an education were meager, consequently he did not receive even a share
of education until after his first marriage, when he attended school for nine months and obtained sufficient education
to make him a good and useful citizen. He is now a warm friend to education, and does much to support and forward
the science. He does not meddle with politics, more that to make his own choice when it is necessary for him to
vote, and always submits to the laws of his country with a patriotic spirit.
As a citizen Mr. Bolin is one of Pike county's best, and is a man of strict morality, and possessed of a heart
that ever sympathizes with the poor and distressed, and he does much to relieve the wants of poor people. It is
an easy matter to account for the prosperity of a country favored with such citizens as John O. Bolin