JOHN BOYNTON

Santa Clara County

Biographies

JOHN BOYNTON

JOHN BOYNTON. None known as the bachelor contingent of the Willow district, in San Jose, are more popular and successful than John Boynton, an optimistic rancher who looks on the bright side of life and philosophically accepts its dark as well as brighter side. He has owned and occupied his present ranch since the fall of 1890, purchasing five acres as a nucleus on the corner of Pine and Cottle avenues, and since adding five acres, both being set out to prunes. His cheerful home is presided over by his niece, Clara I. Smith, and in this quiet retreat life flows by peacefully and rationally, each day adding something in the way of gain, either material or mental, and each season witnessing some improvement toward an ideal ranching condition.

Mr. Boynton is one of the many Canadians who appreciate the contrast between their northland and the cloudless skies and complacent nature of California. He was born at what was then Compton, but is now Easton, August 28, 1830. His parents, James G. and Betsey (Stearns) Boynton, were born in Vermont. James G. Boynton married in Vermont and went to Canada as a supposed improvement over his native state, working there at the shoemaker’s trade, at which he was an expert. Two years after the birth of his son John, in 1832, he took his family to near Mendon, N. Y., where he followed his trade until 1840, and then settled eight miles east of Janesville, Wis. He followed shoemaking until his faculties began to wane and his hand trembled while using the tools, and died at Spring Valley, Wis., at the age of sixty-three. His wife, who died in Chicago, Ill., bore him thirteen children, six sons and seven daughters.

The seventh in his father’s large family, John Boynton remained at home until twenty-four years of age, latterly managing the farm while his father worked at his trade. He secured a fair common-school education, and in 1854 removed to near Etna, Fillmore county, Minn., where he took up a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, remaining on it until taking up another farm near Waverly, Iowa, in 1866. In 1874 he located in a still less populated district, selecting Spring Valley, S. Dak., which continued to be his home until coming to California in 1890. It will thus be seen that Mr. Boynton is a seasoned pioneer, for in at least three of his homes his neighbors were far apart, and few advantages were available for at least a number of years. He is an ardent lover of nature, and has always felt the indescribable fascination of an unsettled country. His neighbors have always been his friends, and all with whom he has been associated have felt the force and influence of his large and generous nature. Politically he votes the Republican ticket, but has never desired or accepted office.

Transcribed by Marie Hassard 11 November 2015.

Source: History of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 866-867. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.

Santa Clara Biography

Golden Nugget Library