Bolton was formed from Thurman March 25, 1799, originally including the present town of Hague, part of Caldwell and part of Horicon. The first white child born in town was Lydia Ware, daughter of James Ware, who was elected one of the first assessors, just as the town began its second week of existence and was afterward promoted to supervisor.

Jonathan Coolidge, father of Jonathan Coolidge, and grandfather of Jonathan M. Coolidge and Thomas S. Coolidge, settled here in 1805. The first church was a union edifice erected in 1811 and Rev. Reuben Armstrong was the first preacher. The pioneer tavern keeper was Roger Edgecomb, after whom Edgecomb pond was named who began selling liquor from the ell of a frame house on the site of he Mohican House about 1802. He was succeeded in 1807 by Myrtle Hitchcock, who built the first store in town on the neighboring point running into the Lake.

The first store keeper was Samuel Brown and tradition still tells of his little stone dock and mysterious trap door, used to store goods smuggled in from Canada. Potash factories were among the early enterprises but lumbering soon became the principal activity. In 1820 John J. Harris of Queensbury built three saw-mills in Bolton and the business thus established flourished until nearly down to the Civil War.

Shortly after that conflict summer hotels and boarding palaces began to abound. The Sagamore on Green Island was opened in 1883 and not no part of the lake is more widely or more favorably known by the rest and pleasure seeking community than the shore and island and hillsides of Bolton.

The town early began to show its public spirit by appropriating thirty dollars for the support of the poor at its first town meeting and at the same time voting that "swine shall not run at large the ensuing season." Travelers in crowded trolley cars of the present day might joyfully welcome the enactment of the latter provision into a general statute. In 1811 it was resolved "that the poor be sold at vendue to the lowest bidder." Quite possibly the later and ever-increasing prosperity of the town may have largely sprung from this early discouragement of poverty.

Supervisors List 1799 to 2004

1876                 H.  A.  Dearstyne

1877                 Truman N.  Thomas

1878                 Myron O.  Brown

1879                 Elbridge Cilley

1880                 Myron O.  Brown

1881                Harvey Robinson

1882               Truman N.  Thomas

1883                Elbridge Cilley

1884                Myron O.  Brown

1885-86           Frederick W.  Allen

1887-88           S.  M.  Pratt

1889-90           Robert T.  Taylor

1891                 Frederick W.  Allen

1892-93           Jonathan D.  Gates

1894-97           Fred R.  Smith

1898-1901       Robert T.  Taylor

1902-03          Charles B.  Maxim

1904-07          Fred R. Smith

1908-11         William J. Thomas

1912-19         Fred R. Smith

1920-30         Bert W. Lamb

1931-35        Harry Ward

1936-42        Edward Vandenburgh

1943-51        Bert W. Lamb

1952-53        Barney Snyder

1954-59        James D. Smith

1960-61        Barney Snyder

1962-77       Walter F. Lamb

1978-7/20/87    Frank Leonbruno

7/20/87             Frank Dagles appointed to unexpired term of Frank Leonburno

1988-95            Frank Dagles

1996-2001       Deanne Rehm

2002-2007     Alexander G. Gabriels III

2008 - 2009  Kathleen Simmes

2010 to Present Ron Conover

This site was last updated 01/23/10