The Eastern Cemetery in Portland, Maine holds the memories of around 7,000 persons. Some of them are known; some are not. As we uncover stories of their lives, we share them through our e-newsletter. Sometimes the tidbits are not of life, but only of the artifact that remains. These are our subterranean celebrities.
Subterranean Celebrity: Thomas Bolton
Thomas Bolton Portrait courtesy of The Shearman Family Collection.
Bolton's Broken Head Stone
Thomas Bolton broken head stone, by Art Gaffar
Bolton's Conserved Stone
Spirits Alive conserved his marker in 2015.Our Flickr site has many photos of the conservation of Bolton's head stone in 2015.
Thomas Bolton's conserved head stone.
THOMAS BOLTON
DIED
June 13, 1859
aged 66 years
Thomas Jefferson Bolton was born May 16, 1793 to Thomas Bolton and Hannah Crockett. He was a hard worker from a young age, driving his stepfather’s oxen back and forth from Windham to Stroudwater at only 8 years old. By the time he was 16, he worked for a blacksmith in Portland. He enlisted in the military to fight in the War of 1812 in Capt. A. W. Atherton's Company (26 days) as a private. After his service he owned a blacksmith shop where he did all of the C&O Canal ironwork, built houses, and employed 30 men. A wealthy man, he was a member of the city council, vice president of the Mechanic Association, a mason, and head of the Alms House. He married Martha Noble in 1816, and they had 10 children.
Martha Noble Bolton Portrait courtesy of The Shearman Family Collection.
Martha Noble Bolton marble head stone, decorated with an urn and willow, photographed by Art Gaffar
MARTHA
WIDOW OF
Thomas Bolton,
DIED
Feb. 22, 1848
aged [54]
Thomas, Martha, and 3 of their children are buried in Eastern Cemetery.
18-month-old Eliza Ann (February 4, 1823–August 11, 1824) has a head stone decorated with an urn, floral fronds and pinwheels.
ELIZA ANN
dau of Thomas
& Martha Bolton
died Aug. 11, 1821
aged 18 mos
First-born, 12-year-old Thomas (May 9, 1817–June 3, 1829) has a slate head stone decorated an urn and willow.
THOMAS,
son of
Thomas & Martha
Bolton.
died June 3, 1829,
aged 12 years.
25-year-old John N. (February 25, 1836–December 17, 1861) died of consumption in Portland. He has a grave in Eastern Cemetery's "North Yard" (not with his parents) with a missing marker.
This information was first published in the March 2014 issue of Spirits Alive eNews with information from our friend, Art Gaffar. It will be updated here as more information is available, but my contain information that is not quite right or needs to be corrected. Text may have been edited to make sense for this page as opposed to the eNews issue it had been a part of.
Last update: Steptember 2026