Boyles, J. Wesley

BOYLES

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/28/2021 at 23:03:13

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.607

J. WESLEY BOYLES
J. W. Boyles, who well deserves the proud American title of a self-made man, is now living in Virginia Township. His birth occurred in what after­ward became Barbour County, West Virginia, on the 27th of June, 1846. His father, Gilbert Boyles, who was of English descent, was a native of Preston County, Virginia, and followed merchandising in that state. In 1856, however, he came with his wife and six children to Warren County, Iowa, driving across the country with teams. There was but five dollars in the family exchequer when they reached this county and settled in Virginia Township, where the father operated rented land until he had gained means sufficient to purchase forty acres of unimproved land. He built the first residence on the place, fenced and broke the prairie and here made his home until the time of his demise, at the age of eighty years. By unremitting industry, capable management and careful expenditure he acquired a good measure of pros­perity and left an estate of two hundred acres. He was a lifelong member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and a licensed exhorter. His political alle­giance was first given to the Whig party but on its dissolution he became a Re­publican. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Johanna Felton, was born in Virginia and was a sister of John Felton, the first settler of Virginia Town­ship. She was also a lifelong member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and passed away in this township when seventy-five years of age. In the family of this worthy couple were six children, as follows : Sarah M., the wife of Edward Cline, of Des Moines; J. W., of this review; H. R., a carpenter of Des Moines; Jennie, the wife of Martin Stapleton, of New Virginia, Iowa; Benjamin a resident of Warren County, and C. E., who resides in Kansas.
J. W. Boyles was twelve years of age when brought to Warren County and he acquired his education in the district schools. When twenty years of age he started out in life for himself as a farmer, purchasing eighty acres of unimproved land in Clarke County, on which he made his home for twelve years. Subsequently he bought one hundred acres, where he now resides, on sections 19, 20 and 29, Virginia Township, Warren County, though he has added to his holdings until he is now the owner of two hundred acres of finely im­proved and valuable land. His prosperity is entirely the result of his own well directed labor and enterprise and he is now numbered among the pro­gressive and substantial citizens of the county. For the past six years, how­ever, he has suffered from rheumatism and now rents his land and lives retired, although still active.
Mr. Boyles was married in Virginia Township to Miss Sarah Strawn, a native of Greene County, Pennsylvania, and a daughter of Jelin Strawn, who is now residing with a daughter in Osceola, Iowa. This union has been blessed with five children, namely: Charles M., a carpenter of Des Moines, Iowa ; James, who married Ida Hylton and follows farming in Clarke County, Iowa; G. W., at home; Anna, the wife of Chauncey Bebe, of Des Moines; and Arthur who married Ola Lance and follows merchandising at Liberty, Clarke County, Iowa.
In his political views Mr. Boyles is a staunch Republican, and long served as school director, acting as president of the board for fifteen years. Both he and his wife are devoted members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and are highly esteemed throughout the community by reason of their many ex­cellent traits of character. He was an early settler of Virginia Township and has witnessed and participated in the work of development that has trans­formed the district from a barren tract into a rich agricultural region, inhab­ited by an industrious, prosperous, enlightened and progressive people.