Norfolk (NE) Weekly News-Journal
February 23, 1912
page 8

A digitized image of this item was found online at Chronicling America. The item below was abbreviated from the very lengthy original. Survivors were not noted, although it was mentioned that "his only daughter" was married to W. H. Bucholz, a prominent banker.

N. A. RAINBOLT DEAD FROM FALL

N. A. Rainbolt, for more than 25 years one of the most prominent men in northern Nebraska, died at his home on Koenigstein Avenue, this city, as 12:05 o'clock Wednesday afternoon as the result of an internal hemorrhage due to an accident last week when he slipped and fell on an icy sidewalk.

Mr. Rainbolt was 69 years of age on December 11, last. He has lived in Norfolk for 26 years. He was planning to build a new home in the spring, having recently purchased a lot on Norfolk Avenue between Twelfth and Thirteenth Streets.

Napoleon Alexander Rainbolt, lawyer, banker, financier, was born in Lawrence County, Indiana, on December 11, 1842. His father, A. D. Rainbolt, was a farmer ad stock grower in comfortable circumstances, and his mother, Elizabeth Sadler, was a descendant of Sir Walter Sadler of England. For more than half a century before the revolution ancestors were of the substantial yeomanry of the New England colonies.

N. A. Rainbolt began his schooling when he was 8 years old, having first been taught reading, writing and spelling by his parents at home. At the age of 8 he attended a village subscription school for a year, and later he attended the public schools. When he was 15 years old he entered the University of Indiana at Bloomington where he became a member of the Philomathean [sic] society and the fraternity of Sigma Chi. He never graduated because, in April 1861, at Indianapolis, he enlisted as a volunteer soldier, and again in Sept. 1862, served as a private and later as a second lieutenant.

At an early age Mr. Rainbolt determined to become a lawyer and as he grew to manhood he took advantage of every opportunity to further his ambition.

Typed and donated by Randi Richardson.