Memorial Record of Western Kentucky, Volume I and Volume II, Lewis
Publishing Company, 1904, pp. 70-75.  Lyon Co. [portrait, p 71]

LOUIS A. BOLI, JR.

     The term "captain of industry," which has become a familiar one in the
parlance of the day, may well be applied to Louis Alexander Boli, Jr., a
gentleman whose marked business ability and enterprise have built up one of
the largest industrial concerns of western Kentucky and one which
materially increases the prosperity of this region, paying annually
thousands of dollars to its employes.  Honored and respected by all, there
is no man in this part of the state who occupies a more enviable position
in industrial and financial circles than he, not alone by reason of the
splendid success he has achieved, but also because of the honorable,
straightforward business policy he has ever followed.  Far-sighted,
energetic and enterprising, he forms his plans readily and is determined in
their execution, and at the same time he has ever maintained a business
policy that will bear the closest investigation and scrutiny.
     Mr. Boli is one of Ohio's native sons, his birth having occurred in
the city of Hamilton, on the 29th of May, 1871.  His parents, Louis
Alexander, a native of Indiana, and Carrie (Buckle) Boli, a native of Ohio,
lived in Hamilton, Ohio, during the boyhood of their son Louis.  In 1890
the father removed to this state and became owner and operator of the
business carried on under the name of the L.A. Boli Wood Stock Company,
which was the predecessor of the Suwanee Spoke & Lumber Company.  He
continued the operation of the plant until 1896, when, in January, the new
company was formed, Mr. Boli, Sr., accepting the vice-presidency, but
retiring from the active management of the business in order to enjoy a
well earned rest.  He then returned to his old home in Ohio, where he is
now living.
     L.A. Boli, Jr., was reared in his native city and is indebted to its
public school system for the educational privileges which he enjoyed, being
a graduate from the Hamilton high school, which fitted him for a practical
and successful business career.  Coming with his father to Kentucky when
nineteen years of age, Mr. Boli became associated with him in business, and
in connection with the Wood Stock Company he received the training which
well qualified him for the active management of the extensive business now
under his control.  On the 1st of January the Suwanee Spoke & Lumber
Company was formed, and on the 22nd of February, L.A. Boli, Jr., assumed
charge.  The officers of the company are S.N. Leonard, president, and also
president of the Farmers' Bank of Eddyville; L.A. Boli, Sr. vice president;
L.A. Boli, Jr., secretary, treasurer and general manager; and W.C. Lady,
superintendent. The practical training which he had received under the
direction of his father, and the comprehensive knowledge which he had
gained concerning timber, its uses and capabilities of manufacture enabled
him to make the new enterprise a profitable one from its inception, and for
three years the business was successfully conducted.  The plant was then
destroyed by fire, but the energy and enterprise of the management was
undaunted by the calamity, and within a few months a larger and superior
plant took the place of the old one.  It is now one of the finest
manufacturing plants to be found in the south.  Situated on the right bank
of the Cumberland river, the wharfage and docks for receiving timber are
unexcelled.  The Illinois Central, by spur tracks, enter the grounds,
affording excellent shipping facilities for the manufactured product.  The
company owns its own steamer and fleet of barges, and collects its raw
material from the inexhaustible forests on the banks of the Cumberland and
Tennessee rivers and along the line of the Illinois Central Railroad.  The
company spends thousands of dollars annually for material and labor, thus
adding directly to the wealth of the state.  The reputation of the Suwanee
spokes has long since become international.  The product is shipped to
every state in the Union and exported to every country of Europe.  For years
the export trade has been a specialty with this company, and in 1898 they
were awarded a contract to supply the British artillery with spokes for use
in constructing their artillery pieces.  The annual output of the spoke
department reaches the enormous amount of five millions.  There is also a
large business done in the lumber department, and in this connection the
company handles a large supply of finished doors, glazed sash, moldings and
every item of material used in the construction of a modern house.
     The energy and business capacity peculiar to the people of his native
state are fully exemplified in Mr. Boli, who has infused his northern zeal
into southern resources, with the usual result - success.  He is familiar
with every detail of his great manufacturing plant, and finds much pride in
being able to personally direct the most minute detail of his business.
Improvement and progress are thoroughly instilled into his very nature, and
every piece of machinery about the vast plant is of the latest improved and
scientific make.
     A man of resourceful business ability, Mr. Boli has extended his
efforts into other lines.  He was one of the organizers of the Kuttawa
Mercantile Company, which was formed June 1, 1902, and of which he is the
president.  The company conducts a department store, in a large and
handsomely appointed building, carrying a large stock of goods.  Mr. Boli
is also the secretary and treasurer of the Cumberland Towing Company and a
stockholder in many other institutions of the city, his business sagacity
being a desirable factor in the conduct of enterprises of importance.
     In 1892, in Hamilton, Ohio, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Boli
and Miss Maud Gwinner, and to them have been born two children, Louis
Gwinner and Lois Rebecca.  Mr. Boli is a prominent Mason, having attained
the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, and he has passed all the
chairs in the blue lodge and royal arch lodge and in the Knights of Pythias
fraternity.  He belongs to the Baptist church, and is deeply and helpfully
interested in all that pertains to the welfare of the city, being at the
present time a member of the board of education.  His name is a synonym for
business integrity and commercial enterprise, and he belongs to that class
of representative American men who, while promoting individual success,
also advance the general welfare.

Boli Buckle Leonard Lady Gwinner
=
Butler-OH IN

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