 Erastus Bolles was born in Madison County, New York, in 1821.In 1855 he traveled to Minnesota to visit his uncle Lemuel Bolles, who had settled in Washington County in 1842 and built the first private gristmill north of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.The younger Bolles liked what he saw and returned the following year with his wife Sophronia and their children to settle permanently.