Earl B. Bolton House/Fred & Ella Cook House/Nelson Funeral Home

The Earl B. Bolton House is located at 135 North Center Avenue in Gaylord, Michigan. Earl Bolton was a businessman and prominent citizen in Gaylord. He also brought a piece of history from the Civil War to Gaylord. Today, the house built by Earl Bolton is known as Nelson Funeral Home.

Earl Bolton, also known as E.B. Bolton, lived at 135 North Center Avenue in Gaylord, Michigan. He moved to Gaylord from southern Michigan in 1882. He married Olivia Puryear four years later and they had one daughter, Hazel.

Earl Bolton owned a lot of property in Gaylord, including the E.B. Bolton Hardware Company. He owned two brick stores in one block and a brick store in another block in Gaylord. With Sanford Buck, another resident of Gaylord, he was a member of the firm Buck & Bolton, which was a company of potato buyers. Also with Sanford Buck and Frank Kramer, he helped organize Gaylord State Savings Bank. He was also a part owner in banks in Vanderbilt and Wolverine.

In 1900, E.B. Bolton was elected representative in the legislature from the Presque Isle district. This district comprised of the counties of Otsego, Crawford, Montmorency, Oscoda, and Presque Isle. He was re-elected to this position in 1902.

Earl Bolton secured the Civil War cannon to be put on the lawn of the Otsego County Building and it was a yearlong effort. The cannon was put there on July 4, 1905. The Otsego County Building was formerly called the "Court House."

Earl Bolton died in 1913.

Drs. Elmer and Ruey Ford lived in the house from 1922-1928 and had their medical offices within their residence for a couple of years.

Years later, the house was owned by Fred and Ella Cook, who owned the Cook Department Store.

The Cooks sold the house to Howard C. Walker, who owned a furniture store and a funeral home on Main Street. He moved the funeral home to 135 North Center Avenue and then added the brick chapel on the front of the building in 1962.

Clark Bates purchased the funeral home in 1966 and it was re-named Walker-Bates Funeral Home.

In 1974, the funeral home was purchased by Harry Charles "Chuck" Nelson and Patricia Nelson. It is now known as the Nelson Funeral Home.

This entry was added by Girl Scout Troop 4226 (Noelle, Corinne, Inara, Madeline).

Otsego County Historical Society. "Historical Homes - Gaylord, Center Avenue - North." Otsego County Historical Museum, Otsego County Historical Society, http://www.otsego.org/ochs/photogallery/Historical%20Homes/historic%20homes%20of%20gaylord/Center%20Avenue%20NORTH/135%20Bolton%20-%20Nelson%20Funeral/Bolton,%20Hon.%20E.B.pdf.

Nelson Funeral Home. "Our Team." Nelson Funeral Home, https://nelsonsfuneralhome.com/our-staff/#:~:text=Chuck%20Nelson%20established%20the%20Nelson%20Funeral%20Home%20in,is%20buried%20at%20St.%20Mary%20Cemetery%2C%20Gaylord%2C%20Michigan.

Lorene Parshall. "The history behind the cannon on the 'Court House' lawn." Gaylord Herald Times. 2014 August 18. https://www.petoskeynews.com/story/news/local/gaylord/2014/08/18/he-history-behind-the-cannon-on-the-court-house-law/45249429/.

Alexander, Phil. "History Matters: Update #80." Otsego County Historical Museum, Otsego County Historical Society. 2021 April.