Adapted from Biographical Cyclopedia of the Commonwealth of Kentucky: Embracing Biographies of Many of the Prominent Men and Families of the State, 1896
Rev. Bolling was born in Greene County, Alabama on May 25, 1846. He was the son of Warner T. Bolling and Harriet Smith. He spent his childhood in Knoxville and Memphis Tennessee. He attended Emery and Henry College in 1861, but left school at the age of 15 years old to enlist in Company C., 2nd Regiment, Tennessee Infantry. He served fours years in the Confederate army. Unable to return to school after the ware, he set out to educate himself. St. Charles College conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1886. He moved to Kentucky in 1890. In 1894 he was called to the Hill Street Methodist Church in Lexington.
He was married twice. First to Mary Coley in 1870, together they had three children. His second wife was Willie R. Jeter, whom he married in 1882, together they had five children.
