Joshua Bolles, youngest son of John Bolles (and grandfather of the writer), then living on Bolles Hill, was badly injured by a ferocious animal on his place, and brought to the house insensible. Mr. Frink, his nearest neighbor, immediately sent for Dr. Wolcott, who came to his assistance. When Mr. Bolles recovered consciousness, he saw Dr. Wolcott in the room and said to Mr. Frink, who was standing near him, “What’s Wolcott here for?” Mr. Frink replied, “I sent for him; if I had not, you would have been dead by this time.” “Then you should have let me die!” was Mr. Bolle’s answer. Joshua Bolles lived to be eighty-three years of age; only one of his fifteen children died in childhood. Several lived to be eighty and upwards, and all but one of the others to past middle age.
Since we have introduced Joshua Bolles, we will make the reader acquainted with a few more of his descendants.
Andrew W. Phillips, the distinguished Professor of Mathematics in Yale College, is a descendant of Joshua Bolles; as are also Rev. Joshua Bolles Garritt, Professor of Greek and Latin in Hanover College, Indiana, his son, Joshua Garritt, missionary in China, and his daughter, Mrs. Coulter, well known in missionary and philanthropic circles, wife of John M. Coulter, formerly Professor of Natural Sciences in Wabash College, and now President of the Indiana State University.[[23]]
Of professors in the Rogers line, we will mention Hamilton Smith, son of Anson Smith, formerly of New London. He early gave his attention to telescopic observations, and is a well-known professor of astronomy in Hobart College, N.Y. He is a descendant of John Rogers.
William Augustus Rogers, a descendant of James Rogers, 2d, also deserves honorable notice. He is a graduate of Brown University. He was Professor of Mathematics and Industrial Mechanics at Alfred University, N.Y., where he secured the building of an observatory which he equipped at his own expense. Afterwards, he was for fifteen years Assistant Professor of Astronomy at Harvard College. In 1880, he received from Yale College the honorary degree of A.M., in recognition of his services to astronomy; was elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society, London; and is now (1895) a professor in Colby University, Maine.
Prof. Nathaniel Britton, of Columbia College, New York, Professor of Botany, is a grandson of David S. Turner, of New London, a descendant of John Bolles. David Turner, son of the latter, is a prominent journalist in Florence, Italy.
Of wealthy merchants and brokers of Rogerene descent in the Rogers and Bolles line there have been and still are several millionaires.
William Bolles, of Hartford, recently deceased, whose estate was valued at more than a million, was a grandson of Joshua Bolles.
As an example of sterling business integrity we will mention Matthew Bolles, of Boston, well known in commercial circles at home and abroad, a descendant of John Bolles.
Of artists, we will name John W. Bolles, of Newark, N.J., Miss Amelia M. Watson and Miss Edith S. Watson, of Windsor, granddaughters of Frederick D. Bolles, also Miss Thurston, of Providence, formerly of New London, and daughter of Hon. B. B. Thurston, a descendant of John Rogers.