Family traditions: Bolte family accepts a Centennial Award from the state

Submitted photo A view of harvesting on the Bolte farm in 2019.

A Wayne Township farm owned by the same family since 1881 became the second Bartholomew County recipient of the Hoosier Homestead award in August.

Several members of the Bolte family were on hand to accept the Centennial Award at the Indiana State Fair. While proud of their heritage, the family acknowledges their story also reflects loss and heartbreak – much like most pioneering farm families.

Most of the history below was gathered by family member Craig Bolte, as well as from online sources and archived news stories.

The story begins in the early 19th Century when a boat carrying German immigrants Johann and Christine Bolte docked in Baltimore, Maryland.

The couple would later move on to Pennsylvania where the founder of the future homestead, Johann Heinrich Bolte (1842-1899) was born. It’s believed the family may have lived in southwest Ohio before staking out their permanent home in the White Creek area of Bartholomew County in 1847. Craig Bolte said this was the path that many pioneering farm families took who later settled in Wayne Township.

On May 3, 1868, Johann Heinrich married the daughter of another German immigrant, Charlotte Hannah Kruse (1850-1940) while working with his father on his White Creek farm. The Kruse family made their way north to Indiana after their boat docked in New Orleans, Louisiana.

After 13 years of marriage and living in the White Creek area, Johann and Charlotte Bolte moved six miles in 1881 to establish their own 300 acres homestead south of Jonesville near the Jackson County line in 1881. The homestead was considered more fertile for farming than the White Creek property.

Unlike his parents, Johann Heinrich could speak English without any hint of a German accent and decided to anglicize his first and middle name to John Henry.

Once their farming operations got underway, John Henry and Charlotte also opened their own dairy operation. Decades later, the Bolte brand of milk became well-known in the Seymour area. Their milk bottles, which prominently featured the family name, are now collectors’ items selling for as much as $1,000.

Even today, agriculture is considered a dangerous profession, family member Tony Bolte said. But in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, the mortality rate among members of farm families was frighteningly high.

One of the family’s worst heartbreaks took place near the end of the 19th Century. While using dynamite to blast out stumps in what is now a riverbed, an explosive went off prematurely and fatally injured John Henry Bolte in September 1899.

John Henry, who had just turned 57 a few months earlier, left 11 children. Three died in infancy or early childhood, while a majority did not live to see their 40th birthday.

Charlotte was still able to maintain what Craig Bolte described as amazing control of the large farm for several more decades with the assistance of her surviving children.

Charlotte would eventually give control of the southern half of the farm to older son Theodore (1884-1923), and the northern half, which includes the homestead, to younger son Frank (1889-1980). While the southern land was eventually sold off as parcels, Frank kept his land and the homestead intact.

Frank and his wife, Sarah Tiemeyer Bolte (1892-1972) became the second generation to reside on the farm. But tragedy struck again when their first-born son, John H. Bolte, died at the age of 30 in 1947. News accounts say he had been in ill health for at least 10 years. Charlotte, who died in 1940, lived to be 89.

Another of Frank and Sarah’s sons, Marvin Bolte (1919-2001), came to represent the third generation to live on the homestead. Marvin was the milkman for much of Seymour, proudly delivering his Bolte brand dairy products.

One of the family’s favorite keepsakes is a photograph taken on May 4, 1941 that shows Marvin and his bride, Martha, standing next to the family’s milk truck in their wedding attire. Few knew it, but the milk truck doubled as Marvin’s personal vehicle. While the personalized brand bottles were dropped in the late 1940s, the family kept the dairy in operation until the mid-1970s.

The couple would be married for 33 years until Martha’s death in 1974 when she was 58. Marvin’s second wife, Hope native Susie Meier Bolte, was 56 when she died in 1982.

Before his own death at the age of 82, Marvin Bolte made arrangements in his will that the farm will continue to be in the Bolte family for several more generations, if possible.

“The Bolte family has farmed this land since 1881, and there’s no plan for that to change,” Craig Bolte said.

The two men most associated with the farming operation are Marvin and Martha’s son, Tony M. Bolte, and Tony’s son, Craig. Tony’s brother, David L. Bolte, resides in a ranch-style house built in the 1960s to replace the original homestead residence.

Tony and David, along with their sister, Melody Wischmeier, are the legal owners, along with their respective spouses. The three siblings represent the the fourth generation raised on the homestead.

Like many farmers, the Bolte men have held or currently hold other jobs. Tony retired from Product Engineering Company, while fifth-generation family member Craig is an engineer for the Indianapolis-based Vertex Co. David worked for over 32 years at Cummins, Inc. before he retired.

Melody and her husband, Ron Wischmeier, operated their own dairy farm in Tampico, before Ron took early retirement over 20 years ago.

Farmland either owned or leased by the Bolte family totals a little over 1,200 acres, growing mostly corn and soybeans.

There seems to be plenty of sixth generation family members who will someday consider strengthening their association with the family legacy.

David and his late wife, Paula, had two children: son Paul and daughter Donna.

Besides son Craig, Tony and Connie Bolte also have a daughter named Tina.

Ron and Melody Wischmeier have three children: Leah, Tyler and Roni Jo.

Of course, nobody can accurately predict the future. But Craig Bolte, who married Dawn Boggs in 2009, already has his 10 year old son, Anthony, helping on the farm.

It’s too early to know if another son, 5-year-old Nicholas, will be interested in agriculture. What is known is that Nicholas won’t be the baby of the Bolte family much longer. Craig just announced that his wife, Dawn, is expecting twins in February.

More about the Hoosier Homestead Awards

Administered through the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, the Hoosier Homestead Award Program recognizes families with farms that have been owned by the same family for 100 years or more.

The program was instituted in 1976 and recognizes the contributions these family farms have made to the economic, cultural and social advancements of Indiana. In the past 45 years, more than 5,800 farms have received the honor.

Indiana family farms may qualify for the following:

Centennial Award – 100 years of ownership

Sesquicentennial Award – 150 years of ownership

Bicentennial Award – 200 years of ownership