Captain J. N. Boling, one of the well known and leading citizens of Cedar county, within the borders of which he has resided for four decades, has long been a prominent factor in business circles and is now successfully engaged in real-estate operations. For the past twenty-four years he has been connected with the public life of Stanwood and for some years previous was successfully identified with agricultural interests in Dayton township. He is likewise one of the few remaining veterans of the Civil war and may well be proud of the splendid record he made as a defender of the Union.
His birth occurred in Holmes county, Ohio, on the 3d of December, 1838, and there he grew to manhood on a farm. His education was limited to that afforded by the common schools but since attaining mature years he has become well informed through reading, experience and observation and is largely a self-educated man. On the 14th of September, 1861, he enlisted for service in the Union army as a member of Company B, Sixteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, of which he was appointed sergeant, was subsequently promoted to the rank of second lieutenant and still later to first lieutenant. He was first under fire at Cumberland Gap and his regiment was under fire a total of eighty-seven days during the war. On one occasion he was hit by a spent ball and knocked down, receiving injuries which disabled him for a few days. He participated in the siege of Vicksburg and Jackson, Mississippi, went with General Banks’ expedition up the Red river and served in a great many other important engagements. After his term of enlistment he was mustered out and returned to Ohio, being honorably discharged at Columbus on the 31st of October, 1864, with the rank of first lieutenant. Governor Tod appointed him captain of a company of home guards immediately after his discharge.
On the 27th of December, 1864, in Holmes county, Ohio, Captain Boling was united in marriage to Miss Harriet Hoyman, who was born and reared in that county, her father being John Hoyman. Following his marriage our subject bought a portable sawmill and engaged in the manufacture of lumber for a few years. In 1869 he came west and took up his permanent abode in Cedar county, Iowa. Captain Boling owned and operated three hundred and twenty acres of land near Stanwood, in Dayton township, and devoted his time and energies to the further cultivation and improvement of that property for fifteen years, erecting a good residence, barn and outbuildings and making the place a model farm. On abandoning agricultural pursuits he sold the property and removed to Stanwood, where he erected a tile and brick yard, put in a good manufacturing plant and began the making of brick and tile, carrying on the business successfully for a period of eleven years or until his plant was destroyed by fire. For some years past, however, he has dealt largely in real estate, handling Colorado and Dakota lands, in which connection he has built up an extensive business. He built a good brick residence and business house for himself and also owns other buildings. For seven years he was identified with journalistic interests, publishing the Stanwood Herald. He has been connected with various local enterprises and is well entitled to a foremost place among the substantial, progressive and public-spirited citizens of the county. His connection with any undertaking insures a prosperous outcome of the same, for it is in his nature to carry forward to successful completion whatever he is associated with. He has earned for himself an enviable reputation as a careful man of business, and in his dealings is known for his prompt and honorable methods, which have won him the deserved and unbounded confidence of his fellowmen.
Unto Captain Boling and his wife were born three sons and five daughters, namely: A. J., a farmer residing in Stanwood; C. O., a lawyer by profession, who makes his home at Tipton; John F., a stock-dealer of Stanwood; Nellie M., the wife of E. H. Anthony, of Stanwood; Minnie, who was called to her final rest in May, 1898; Hattie, who passed away on the 2d of January, 1900; Nettie, whose demise occurred on the 23dof May, 1906; and Mary Ellen, who died in infancy.
In politics Captain Boling is a stanch republican, having supported every presidential nominee of that party since casting his ballot for Abraham Lincoln in 1860. For many years he has been an active and influential worker in the local ranks of the party. He has served as justice of the peace for a quarter of a century and is still filling that position and at various times has been elected mayor of Stanwood, holding that office for fourteen years. He has likewise been sent as a delegate to numerous state and county conventions and his public duties have ever been discharged in an efficient and conscientious manner. He still maintains pleasant relations with his old army comrades through his membership in the Grand Army of the Republic and recently transferred his membership to T. Z. Cook Post of Cedar Rapids from the post at Stanwood, of which he was commander for a time. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Methodist Episcopal church at Stanwood, to which his wife also belongs. At this point it would be almost tautological to enter into any series of statements as showing Captain Boling to be a man of broad intelligence and genuine public spirit, for these have been shadowed forth between the lines of this review. Strong in his individuality, he never lacks the courage of his convictions, but there are as dominating elements in his individuality a lively human sympathy and an abiding charity which, as taken in connection with the sterling integrity and honor of his character, have naturally gained him the respect and confidence of men.
