Former Wisconsin congressman and newspaper editor Stephen Bolles was born in Springboro, Crawford County, Pennsylvania on June 25, 1866. He attended rural schools in Waushara County in Wisconsin and received his higher education at the state normal School in Edinboro, Pennsylvania.
Bolles served in an editorial capacity with newspapers in New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania and was superintendent of graphic arts for the St. Louis Exposition (1903-1905), director of publicity for the Jamestown Exposition (1907), and worked for several years in writing and private business in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1918 he moved to Oconto, Wisconsin, where he edited the Oconto County Enterprise. From 1920 until 1938 he was editor of the Janesville (Wisconsin) Gazette. In 1933 and 1934 he was president of the Wisconsin Associated Press Association.
A Republican, Bolles was a member of the State Central Committee for ten years. In 1938 he was elected to Congress from the first district, serving from January 1939, until his death on July 8, 1941.
