At seventeen he entered the High School on Temple Hill, in Geneseo, where he fitted for college; and in the Fall of 1829, he entered Harvard University, where he graduated in 1833, the first in his class in mathematics. In this connection, it is pleasant to advert to the fact that his most intimate schoolmate, classmate and fellow graduate, was Hon. Moses Kelly, who was afterwards his partner in the law for many years at Cleveland, and that between the two from boyhood down to the present day, there has been a steadfast and unbroken life-friendship almost fraternal, both now in affluence, but still living side by side. Such life-long friendships are unusual, but whenever they do exist, they imply the presence in both parties of true and trusty qualities which preserve their character as pure cement, exposed to any atmosphere, or tried in any furnace. [Illustration: Yours Truly, Thomas Bolton] After graduating, Mr. Bolton entered upon the study of law at Canandaigua, in the office of John G. Spencer, now deceased, but then a strong and distinguished name in the profession. At the end of a year he came west, to seek a permanent location to further pursue his studies and enter upon the practice, first stopping at Cleveland, on finding that any further west was hardly within the pale of civilization. Cleveland itself was then, September, 1834, but a mere village, of about twenty-five hundred inhabitants. Superior street had not been graded, and at its western terminus was higher than the first story of the Atwater Block, and the bank of the lake extended fifteen rods out beyond the present Union Depot. The village did not become a city till 1836, when at a public meeting to determine upon the corporate limits, Mr. Bolton was appointed on a committee to draft the charter, and urged that both sides of the river should be embraced, but was overruled, and Ohio City was established on the other side of the river as a sort of rival, but since consolidated with Cleveland. His connection with city affairs was renewed as Councilman in 1839, and as Alderman in 1841. But to go back to his professional life. Having studied law in the office of James L. Conger, at Cleveland, for a year, he was admitted to the Bar in September, 1835, by the Supreme Court of Ohio, on the Circuit, Chief Justice Peter Hitchcock, that Nestor among judges, then presiding. He was in partnership with Mr. Conger for a year, when he bought him out and sent for his old college friend, Mr. Kelly, with whom he formed a partnership, which continued until the Fall of 1856, a period of twenty years, when he was elected to the Bench.