In the spring of 1844, he visited the Wisconsin Territory and reviewed lands in the Lodi and Portage region of Columbia County.[2]: 380–381 The following spring, he and his elder half-brother, Marston Clarke Bartholomew, set out to establish a settlement at Lodi. At the time of their settlement, the nearest post office was twenty miles south, in Madison.[1] Their families followed in the Fall, along with their younger brother William Milton Bartholomew.[2]: 267 George Bartholomew's daughter, Josephine, was said to be the first white child born at Lodi.[2]: 382
The Bartholomews participated in the organizing of the town government in 1846.[2]: 382 In 1847, he was elected to the three-member county board of commissioners—the board of commissioners was the government for Columbia County prior to Wisconsin's statehood.[2] After Wisconsin became a state, he was elected county surveyor in 1854, 1872, and 1876. He also served as chairman of the county board of supervisors in 1865, 1869, and 1870.[2]: 109–110
In 1856, Bartholomew was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly on the Republican ticket. He represented Columbia County's 1st Assembly district—the western parts of the county.[3][4]
George Bartholomew married Susan C. Hefner in 1833 at McLean County, Illinois. They had at least eight children. Their son Joseph Milton Bartholomew became one of the first justices of the North Dakota Supreme Court, and was the 2nd chief justice.[5]
The Bartholomews were active with the Methodist church and led the effort to establish the church in Lodi.[1]
