Santa
Clara County
Biographies
WILLIAM SHEPHERD BOYLES
With one exception Mr. Boyles is the oldest builder in San Jose who still actively follows the occupation. During the long period of his residence in this city (dating from the fall of 1867) he has worked at the carpenter's trade or followed the kindred occupation of contracting, and meanwhile has had charge of the erection of many business and dwelling houses, including the O'Connor, Leib and Schoenheit residences, the Tinic building, the chapel at Notre Dame College, the Rebekah Orphans Home at Gilroy, and the chapel at the O'Connor Sanitarium. He is a member of an eastern family, and was born at West Wheeling, Belmont county, Ohio, November 29, 1837, being a son of John P. and Rebecca (Shepherd) Boyles, natives respectively of Hagerstown, Md., and Belmont county, Ohio. His father, for some years a contractor and builder at West Wheeling and also proprietor of a boat yard where boats were built for the Ohio trade, removed to Iowa in 1856, buying a small farm at Cincinnati, Appanoose county, and later engaging in the lumber business in the same town. At the time of his death he was eighty years of age. His wife was a daughter of William S. Shepherd, a native of England, and a pioneer farmer of Belmont county, Ohio. In her family there were three sons and four daughters, all of whom are living but two daughters. All remain in the east with one exception.
The boyhood years of William Shepherd Boyles were uneventfully passed in his native town. While still a mere boy he learned carpentering and boat-building under his father's oversight. In their shop dozens of flat boats were built every year. In was their custom to build two of these boats for their own use, load them with coal, and go to Cincinnati or perhaps some smaller town on the Ohio, where the coal was sold, the boat being thrown in without cost to the purchaser. On one occasion the son made a trip to New Orleans on a flat boat, returning to Ohio via steamer. In 1856 he went by boat to Keokuk, Iowa, where he secured teams and proceeded to Van Buren county, that state. The next year he settled in Cincinnati, Appanoose county, where he gave his attention to farming and the building business. When new settlers came in he was engaged to erect cabins and barns for them, and in that way kept busy.
In company with a few others, in the spring of 1859 Mr. Boyles started across the plains with a wagon and ox team, Pike's Peak being the objective point. However, all along the route they met people returning and their reports were so discouraging that the travelers changed their plans. When within twenty-five miles of Denver they decided to proceed to California and so took the old California trail via Salt Lake, where they laid in a supply of provisions for the remainder of the trip. Thence they took the Placerville route, arriving in California October 13, 1859. The friends with Mr. Boyles were Frank Ryas, now of Berkeley, and Charles Wilkins (now of Lompoc) who was accompanied by his wife and child. After a short experience in mining on the Feather river and in Nevada county, in 1866 Mr. Boyles started for Montana, but the move proved an unfortunate one, for during the two summers and one winter that he mined on Bear creek he lost all he had made in Nevada county, returning to California discouraged and ill. Thinking it advisable to seek another occupation, he abandoned the mines and in the fall of 1867 came to San Jose, where he has since followed the building business. He built his residence at No. 70 North Tenth street, also another house on the same street. Fraternally he is a member of the Garden City Lodge No. 142 I.O.O.F., and in politics has always been a pronounced Republican. His marriage took place in San Jose in 1877 and united him with Miss Jennie Wallace, who was born in Michigan, and by this union they have a daughter, Mennette Rebecca Boyles.
Transcribed
8-26-15 Marilyn
R. Pankey.
ญญญญSource: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 736-739. The Chapman Publishing
Co., Chicago, 1904.
ฉ 2015 Marilyn R. Pankey.