JOHN R. BOULDEN, a farmer of Rockford Township, was born in Miami County, Ohio, November 20, 1825, the son of William L. and Nancy (Patterson) Boulden. The parents were natives respectively of Maryland and Delaware, and of Scotch and Irish ancestry. The father was born and brought up on a farm. On attaining the stature of manhood he drove a stagecoach between Baltimore and Philadelphia.

In 1811 he was detailed by the Government to take his team to Fort McHenry, where he was made wagon master and was there during the bombardment. He served through the war of 1812-14. In 1817 he came westward over the mountains by wagon to Wheeling, Virginia, where he placed his family on a flatboat and floated down to Cincinnati, while he with the horses came overland through Ohio to that point. In 1810, in Philadelphia, he had married the daughter of Joseph Patterson, who had served in the Revolutionary war, and was engaged in thirty-two different battles. Out of 700 of the regiment he was one of only thirty-five who came out under command of General DeKalb, who fell at the battle of Camden. He had marched from Delaware to engage in the siege of Boston; he was also at the battle of Brandywine and many other hard fought battles of the Revolution. Afterward he was sent south under the command of Gates. After the war was over he returned to his native home in Elktown, Delaware, where he died July 4, 1798. He was intimately acquainted with General Washington. At his death he left his wife and five children, of whom Abraham, Jemima and Benjamin are dead, and Nancy was the wife of the late Mr. Boulden and Sidavant was the wife of Jerome Bonaparte. She was known as Lady Bonaparte in Baltimore, where she survived the death of her husband a short time. Mr. William L. Boulden had but one sister, Rachel, who married Robert Moody, both of whom are now deceased. When he moved to Miami County he bought a tract of heavy timbered land there and cleared and made many valuable improvements; and there he made his home until his death, September 18, 1830, leaving a wife and five children, namely: Lewis, born in 1813, died in March 1866; William H., born March 16, 1816, and died in October 1857; Joseph P., born August 11, 1819, residing now in Pottawattamie County; Mary Ann, born September 7, 1822, and died a year afterward; John R., the subject of this sketch; Maria, now the widow of Levi G. Brandon, born November 27, 1828, and now residing in Des Moines.

Mr. John R. Boulden, brought up in farm life, at the age of nineteen went to Piqua and learned the shoemaker's trade. At the age of twenty-four he married Mary Miller, daughter of Elias and Catherine (Moore) Miller, natives of New Jersey, who came to Ohio in 1803. Mrs. Catherine Miller was a native of Kentucky and came to Ohio at an early day. Mr. and Mrs. Miller were of German and Irish extraction, and were the parents of nine children: Rebecca and Ellis, deceased; Lucretia, residing in Ohio; Hannah, wife of Solomon Winters, and living in Indiana; Philetha, widow of Adam Schaeffer, in Piqua, Ohio; Philip, in the West; Mary, the wife of Mr. Boulden; John residing in Ohio, and Elias, in Lafayette, Indiana. Mrs. Boulden was born February 18, 1829, and brought up in farm life, and married at the age of twenty years. Mr. Boulden remained in Miami County on a farm until 1871, when he moved by emigrant wagon to this state, being six weeks on the road. He purchased a quarter section of land in Wayne County, but sold it and bought the present place of 125 acres of heavy timberland on section 36, range 44, and here he began clearing and breaking and starting the man improvements essential to a complete home in the country. He has a fine orchard of about six acres, besides a nice vineyard. He raises all the small fruits. The residence is beautiful and the locality healthful. During a period of nineteen years the family has resided here, with no sickness worth mentioning. Fifty acres of the place is cultivated to grain, while the rest remains in pasture and timber. Having learned the trade after he was married, Mr. Boulden has done a great deal of carpenter work in connection with farming; and also, for some years past, has made about 1,000 bushels of charcoal per year. He is a live, energetic man.

Politically he is a zealous Democrat, taking an active part in the interests of Democracy, and as such he enlisted in the service of his country, in the One Hundred and Forty-Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, at Piqua, being mustered in at Camp Dennison. Being taken to Washington he was placed in the First Brigade, under General Derusa, in the Twenty-Second Army Corps, and fought in many hotly contested battles. He was advanced to the position of Sergeant, and was finally mustered out as such September 4, 1854, at Camp Dennison. He also enlisted in the Mexican War, but was held for orders at Cincinnati, Ohio, in readiness for a call. He has also been connected with the township in its various offices, of which he has been Justice of the Peace for three terms. He is now officiating on the Board of Education, taking a leading part. He is a member of the Farmers' Alliance, of which he is now president. He was elected to represent Miami County, Ohio, in 1867, in the legislature, with the overwhelming majority of 440, over a Republican majority of 1,600, being on the ticket with Allen G. Thurman when he ran for Governor of Ohio; and he was on the stand when Vallandigham made the famous speech for which he was taken captive and banished.

Mr. and Mrs. Boulden are the parents of twelve children: Charles W., born October 1, 1850, and now residing in Missouri Valley; John F., born February 19, 1852, at home; George W., born November 15, 1853, and is now living in Seattle, Washington; Martha C., born June 15, 1855, is the wife of James Garrison in Los Angeles, California; Catherine A., born February 20, 1862, is the wife of Charles Wiltfong, in Council Bluffs; Eva, born June 16, 1865, is now Mrs. Richard Thornton, in Fremont, Nebraska; Benjamin Thurman, born August 20, 1868; Emma, born November 15, 1870; Maggie M., born June 15, 1877, the last three at home; Aldezara, born May 10, 1857, died July 8, 1858; Joseph Orra, born September 10, 1859, died June 14, 1860, and Louis E., born September 12, 1863, died march 16, 1865.

Contributed by: Darlene Vergamini