Founded as a township at the southeastern corner of the Holland Land Company’s lands in New York state, the Town of Bolivar has evolved over two centuries from lumbering, to sheep and dairy farming, to oil boom town, and was at the heart of the secondary recovery of oil in New York State from 1920 to 1970. Numerous people who grew up in the town have moved on to the national stage, in the sports of baseball, football and wrestling, in publishing, politics, and in fine arts ranging from illustration to opera. The entire story is here, tracing the evolution of the changes that occurred as time passed, and the atmosphere in which people developed and grew into the distinct personalities they became.