Some people live in North Dakota for a short time before moving on, leaving only a scattering of information. Today we consider the example of Civil War veteran Charles Bolyard. His tombstone is in the Union Cemetery in Egeland, North Dakota. It’s one of the few traces of his time here. Engraved on his marker is the inscription “Charles Bolyard,” a private in the 123rd Ohio Infantry; born Feb. 3, 1840, and died Jan. 20, 1941.
It is evident that Bolyard lived for 100 years, but other facts must be gathered from various veiled sources. A book about Towner County Families revealed that Bolyard established a 160-acre homestead in Twin Hill township in 1898, 6 miles northeast of Egeland. He was 50 years old when he moved to the state, bringing his two youngest children with him. In 1914, after 16 years, he moved to Hubbard County, Minnesota, “where he developed several farms.” Bolyard lived there, near the town of Guthrie, until 1941, when he died at age 100.
It was on this date, in 1940, when the Bemidji, Minnesota, newspaper had a nice story about Charles Bolyard, revealing a wealth of information. Born in Ohio, Bolyard joined the Union army in 1862 as a private in the 123rd Ohio Infantry. And so, at age 22, he went to the battlefields of Virginia. In the Battle of Winchester, June 13, 1863, a Confederate bullet hit him in the thigh, passing into his hip, finally lodging near his backbone. This severe wound healed after a while, but the musket-ball was never removed, and so he lived with a lead bullet in his body for the next 78 years.
Private Bolyard rejoined his regiment when he got back on his feet, serving in the U.S. army until 1865, the end of the war. Returning home to Little Sandusky, Ohio, Bolyard married Catherine Fitzgerald in 1866, and they had twelve children.
They raised their children in Ohio until his wife died in 1892. The widower “kept the family together” until he moved to North Dakota with the youngest of the children.
When asked about the secret of his longevity, Bolyard said it was simply “hard work and plenty of it.”
Dakota Datebook written by Steve Hoffbeck, retired MSUM history professor
Sources:
- “Chas. Bolyard, Civil War Vet, Hundred Years Old Saturday,” Bemidji Pioneer, January 31, 1940, p. 4.
- “Bolyard, Charles,” in Towner County, North Dakota, Families, Vol. 1 (Long Beach, CA: M.J. Hader, 1958), p. 136.
- “Bemidji Civil War Veteran, 100, Dies,” Minneapolis Star, January 23, 1941, p. 13.
- “List of Killed and Wounded of the 123rd Regiment O.V.I. at Winchester, June 13th and 15th, 1863, Wyandot Pioneer [Little Sandusky, OH], August 7, 1863, p. 2.
- “Charles Samuel Bolyard,” Find A Grave Index, Ancestry.com.
- “Charles Bolyard,” Twin Hill Township, Towner County, N.D., 1910 U.S. Federal Census, Ancestry.com.
- “Twin Hill Township,” Standard Atlas of Towner County, N.D. (Chicago: Alden Publishing Company, 1909).
- C.M. Keyes, ed., Military History of the 123rd Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry (Sandusky: Register Steam Press, 1874), p. 16.
- “Patentee, Bolyard, Charles,” U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records, Towner County, Patent Issued 11/20/1901, under Homestead Act of 1862.
- History of the Egeland Community (Egeland, ND: Egeland, ND, 1955), p. 2.
