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Herbert wrote, “all except English Language and that I detest.” Teachers had already noticed that tall, blonde, good-looking Herbert was a likely prospect for their calling, because they sometimes allowed him to teach classes. He was in the same business that Fred was, “teachin skule,” he once joked, because the teacher was sick.¹⁰ Herbert liked school, although he described many of his fellow pupils as “country Jakes.” Of course, he was a country Jake also, fresh from the farm. In high school he studied history, but at fifteen Herbert did not think of this subject as a professional option. He studied “very hard evenings as well as day time. Don't have much time for mischief.”¹¹

      But Herbert did find a little time for devilment. He cut school once to look over the old Bolton farmstead at the Ridge, perhaps wishing that his father had not left his good farm for a dream in Nebraska. Sometimes he got a “good ‘solemn lecture’ ” at school for failing to keep up with his homework, but these occasions were rare.¹² Another time, spring weather inspired Herbert and some friends to skip school and go fishing. They were caught in a cold rain, but Herbert persevered and returned home with a bit of doggerel that described his experience:

      Thirty-six trout.

      Fisherman's luck:

      Wet ass

      And a hungry gut.¹³

      He was not above a practical joke. One night Herbert and some friends saw one of their schoolmates visiting his girl. They “tied the [barn?] doors when he was up there and he stayed till morning too.” If this adventure became common knowledge, it would have set small-town tongues wagging. “He don't know who ‘twas,” Herbert told his brother, and “you needn't tell him ever either.”¹⁴

      Rural life was not Herbert's idea of an attractive future, but the countryside had its charms for an active boy. He loved to saddle a horse and ride around the country with his friends. In Tomah Herbert made a name for himself as an athlete. He played baseball with the local team, the unfortunately named Skunks. Herbert was the fastest sprinter in high school, and the best broad jumper.¹⁵ He would always revel in the outdoors and in physical activity as long as they had nothing to do with farming.

      Herbert was a likable youth who liked other people. Affability was one of his most endearing traits, though he committed himself to solitary habits of study. In some ways, the adult would become almost monkish in his pursuit of scholarship, but the teenaged Herbert was no monk. He liked his friends and enjoyed parties. “Had a good time,” he reported to Fred after attending a social. “I guess it wouldn't be me if I didn't, would it?” he added with a touch of self-awareness that pegged him as a good-natured, social animal.¹⁶ Yet Herbert's teen years were marked by unusual seriousness of purpose. He had his fun but worked to make a success of high school just as he worked hard on the farm. As he said, he would have to work hard if he ever intended “to be anybody, which I cert[ainly] do.”¹⁷ Herbert's ambition to be somebody marked his whole life.

      Girls noticed the blonde boy with the sunny disposition. They smiled at him, and he smiled back, although he sometimes reported that he was giving up girls in favor of hard work so that he could get ahead. One girl in particular commanded Herbert's attention: Gertrude Janes of Tunnel City—“snapping-eyed, beautiful Gertie Janes,” as Fred remembered her.¹⁸ Herbert met her when carrying blueberries from the farm to sell at the Tunnel City trading post. Eventually she attended high school in Tomah, so Herbert saw a lot of her there. He kept her in sight on Sundays by going to church in Tunnel City. In his senior year Herbert liked Gertrude well enough to be jealous of a boy who competed for her affection. Consequently he planned to attend church a little oftener than usual, “till he has withdrawn from the field.”¹⁹

      In the summer of 1888 Herbert worked as printer's devil at the weekly Tomah Journal. It paid six dollars per week and was preferable to “granging it,” as Herbert derisively called farmwork.²⁰ His stint with the weekly may have sharpened his interest in current events. “What are your politics?” he asked Fred. “I don't know what mine are, I'm either a Pro[hibitionist] or a Republican.” Herbert's adult political sympathies seemed to hover around the progressive side of the Republican Party, but he made it a point not to discuss his party affiliation (at least not in writing).

      Essentially apolitical in the partisan sense, Bolton had a keen sense of personal and institutional relations that would serve him well throughout his career. He probably acquired these skills in the Bolton family matrix. As historian Frank Sulloway argues, siblings must develop strategies for obtaining their shares of family resources such as food, shelter, wealth, affection, and encouragement. Thus each child develops a niche in the family and a way of maximizing his or her chances for survival.²¹ The fourth son in a very large family, Herbert capitalized on his innate strengths and developed talents that set him apart from his older brothers. His good looks, athletic prowess, pleasing personality, affability, sense of humor, good health, capacity for hard work, attention to detail, and ability to get along with people made Herbert a good son, a successful student, and a valued employee. These personal qualities served him well throughout his life.

      Fred, the second son, blazed the trail of higher education and escape for Herbert, but his older brother's struggle for advancement showed that the scholar's life was not a perfect meritocracy. A certain amount of shrewdness was needed in order to succeed, and Herbert, even as a teenager, seemed to have it. In 1887 Fred wanted a teacher's job at Tunnel City, so he wrote to Mrs. Janes (Gertrude's mother), who was a school board director.²² After Fred's mother went to see Janes and the board clerk about the position, Herbert reported to Fred, “I guess they want you.”²³ Herbert was certain that his brother was the best man for the place, but it helped to know someone. His brother got the job.

      Such jobs were just stepping stones for the Bolton boys. The following year, Fred resigned so that he could attend the state normal school in Milwaukee. Education was a family affair, with most of the older siblings helping to pay for expenses whenever they could. Fred was only the third graduate of Tomah High School to attend college, so his matriculation in Milwaukee was a big thing, especially to Herbert. He asked his older brother about everything—girls, extracurricular activity, books, everything.²⁴ Herbert was already looking past Milwaukee and hoped to attend the state university in Madison. He knew that he would “have to work a while,” but the dream was there. Fred was showing that with hard work and some help from home, the dream could be realized. “You encourage me,” Herbert wrote.²⁵

      A senior now, Herbert was anxious to be out on his own. Graduation was fast approaching. The teachers had chosen him to speak at commencement, and this honor brought out his insecurity. “But I can do my best.”²⁶ As always, doing his “best” meant working hard on the task at hand. Commencement evidently came and went without great trauma caused by a botched valedictory. At least Herbert never mentioned it in his letters to Fred.

      Now the road was open to the future. Nearly nineteen, Herbert had accomplished as much as he could have in the little community bounded by the farm, Tomah, and Tunnel City. Optimistic, attractive, and outgoing, Herbert faced the future certain of only one thing: a lot of hard work. Even so, success was not assured. The track for advancement he had chosen, higher education, was virtually unknown to him. From Tomah he could see only a few paces ahead as his brother proceeded. Yet he was determined to make something of himself through ambition and hard work.

      Herbert did not know it, but a place was already being prepared for him. In 1884 forty-one historians had gathered at a resort in Saratoga, New York, to found the AHA. Their purpose was straightforward: the promotion of historical studies “without limitations of time or space,” as Harvard professor Justin Winsor explained.²⁷ “The future of this new work is in the young men of the historical instinct,” he continued, “largely in the rising instructors of our colleges.” Founded for the promotion of history, the AHA would become primarily an organization of, by, and for college professors of history. They would form a new professional class: college professors with a doctorate. The AHA founders took the German academy and its faculties as their model. The new American doctor-professors would transform their universities into Germanic research institutions whose mission was

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