Miles Boyles, bridge-builder and contractor, McGregor, was born on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, Ogdensburg, N.Y., Dec. 19, 1820, a son of Miles and Mary (Patterson) Boyles, natives of Ireland, who emigrated to the United States at an early day. They had a family of seven children, five boys and two girls. The father died in Erie County, Pa., in 1846; the mother in May, 1869. The subject of this sketch received his education in the common schools, and when sixteen years of age he learned the trade of a millwright, which he followed for four years, then embarked in bridge-building on several railroads in the East and West. At the time of the Erie Railroad war he was appointed United States Deputy Marshal, under Frost and John H. Kuser. Afterward engaged in building the H. & St.J. R. R. and Chesapeake R.R., and Albermarle Canals. At the breaking out of the war he enlisted in the Eighty-third Pennsylvania Infantry, Company B, three months' service, commanded by Col. J. B. McClain; he re-enlisted in the military corps, under General McClellan, acting as assistant engineer on the C., R. & Petersburg R. R. He was transferred to the Eleventh Pennsylvania Cavalry and acted as main guide on the Curtis and Blackberry raids under General Dix, remaining in the service until the close of the war. He then returned to Erie, Pa., and from there to McGregor, where he has followed railroading since. In 1845 he married Isabel Warren, who was born in Erie County, Pa., in 1822. Mr. and Mrs. Boyles had nine children, three of whom are living-- H.C., F. T. and Nancy I. In politics he is a Republican. Mrs. Boyles died in 1870; she was a member of the Lutheran church. source: History of Clayton
County, Iowa, 1882, p. 969-970 |