Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 395
NELSON G. BOYNTON

Nelson G. BOYNTON (Portrait), a representative farmer of Calhoun Township, whose charming farmhouse is situated on section 29, came to Harrison County, February 12, 1856, and bought eighty acres, which is a part of his present farm. He paid five dollars per acre for the same, but did not make any improvements the first year. He being of a business turn of mind, persuaded himself that there was something to be made in the mercantile business, so he formed a partnership with Isaac W. Day, and put up a store building in the old village of Calhoun. This building was 20x36, and one story and a half high. The following autumn they stocked it with dry goods and groceries, and operated under the firm name of Day & BOYNTON, and continued together until the spring of 1857, when our subject sold to his partner, and at once commenced breaking up his land. But not having enough land to occupy his whole attention, he worked out for others at times. In the summer of 1861 he had cottonwood lumber sawed at the mill in Cincinnati Township and black-walnut at Calhoun, of which that autumn he erected a house 14x22 feet, one story high, boarding it up and down with the black-walnut lumber.

A great National storm had been brewing for years, and our once peaceful land was now divided into two contending forces, the anti and pro-slavery elements. Each successive Congress waxed warmer and warmer. The radicals of the North and the radicals of the South, through their representatives, crossed swords in Congress; the press, the pulpit and the rostrum, with the more conservative element tried to avert the impending crisis, but the political conflict was irrepressible, and the blood of tens of thousands of the Nation's best men must needs be sacrificed for the purification of the Nation and the final overthrow of human slavery. Our subject watched with much interest the progress of the Civil War from April, 1861, to January 28, 1862, when he became impressed with the thought that it was his duty to take a personal part in the conflict. So he enlisted as a member of Company H, of the Fifteenth Iowa Infantry, and wore the loyal blue until honorably discharged at Vicksburg, February 20, 1864, and re-enlisted. February 21, 1864 -- the next day -- in the same regiment and company, and served until July 24, 1865, when he was discharged at Louisville, Ky. He participated in the battle of Shiloh, which had not its equal in the world's history at that time. Here he was wounded in the right hip. This laid him up three weeks, but he joined his company as soon as the surgeon would allow him to. He was also in the battles of Corinth, Iuka, and Vicksburg. He was also at the battle of Atlanta, where brave Gen. McPherson was killed, and where Gen. John A. Logan commenced his brilliant career. Here fifteen of our subject's company were taken prisoners. After coming out of the service, the last bugle having sounded and peace fully established, our subject returned to Harrison County, and like legions of his comrades, again became a tiller of the soil.

To acquaint our readers with our subject's earlier career, it may be stated in this connection, that he was born May 12, 1832, in Wethersfield. Vt., and is the son of Levi and Mary (GRISWOLD) BOYNTON. The father was born March 10, 1787, in Connecticut, and was of English descent. The father married Mary GRISWOLD, June 26, 1812. He passed from the scenes of this life at Wethersfleld, when our subject was but three years old, the date of his death being May 10, 1835. His mother died at the same place May 15, 1832, three days after his birth. It was found by referring to a genealogical register by Frederick Field, that Mrs. Mary (GRISWOLD) BOYNTON (mother of our subject) was born at Westfield, Conn., June 28, 1788, and was the second child of a family of ten children, born to Daniel and Anna (AMES) GRISWOLD. Daniel's ancestors date back to Sir Humphrey GRISWOLD, of Malvern Hall, England, but the first record of coming to this country, was when Edward and Mathew, brothers, came to America in 1645, and settled in Connecticut. Edward, the direct ancestor of Daniel, was born in England in 1607, married there and had a family of nine children, one of whom was John, who was born August 15, 1658, and married and had a family of four children, after which his wife died, and he was again married to Bathsheba NORTH, by whom eleven children were born, among whom was Joseph, born September 26, 1690. He married Temperance LAY, December 29, 1714, and had a family of children, one of whom was John, who married Mary WARD, and reared a family of twelve children, of whom David, father of Mrs. BOYNTON, was the eighth child. The date of his birth being December 5, 1762. He married Anna (SINTHAL) AMES, of South Farms, Middletown, Conn., in January, 1826, and they had a family of ten children. The mother was born February 17, 1764, and died June 8, 1826, and the husband was again married to Mrs. Abigal (DAVIS) WOODBURY, June 6, 1832, and she survived him.

When our subject, Mr. BOYNTON, was three years old, he was left without father or mother, and went to live with his oldest sister, Mary SHERWIN, where he resided until he was seven years old, and then went to live with his next youngest sister, Emily ROBINSON, of Addison County, Vt., and during the two years with them, they moved to Washington County. In each of these two counties our subject attended district school. At the age of sixteen he returned to Windsor County, where his sister, Martha TOPEY, lived, and there remained until twenty-one years of age. In the nineteenth year of his age he attended the Springfield Wesleyan Seminary one term, and in October, 1853, he, with about one thousand dollars in money (the most of which had been bequeathed him by his parents), "started West to grow up with the country." He came to Sangamon County, Ill., where for one year he worked out by the month, and the next year rented land. In January, 1856, he again started West, this time making his way on horseback to Harrison County, Iowa, where he had friends living. By exposure on the way he froze his face and ears, and that night travelled until ten o'clock before he could get a place to stay. At that late hour of the night he reached Winterset.

After having pioneered it in Harrison County, and marched and tented and fought under the burning Southern sky, with none but men for companions, our subject very naturally, after the close of the war, sought the heart and hand of one of the gentler sex, and upon January 2, 1867, he was married to Mrs. Hattie (CUTLER) DAY, a native of Illinois, and May 22, 1867, she died. July 3, 1888, after having lived a widower for eleven years, he was united in marriage to Mrs. Irena (BEST) ELMA, a native of Adams County, Wis. By this marriage union two children were born -- Carrie I. and Ida M.

Politically, Mr. BOYNTON is a Republican. He belongs to no church or civic society. He has seen the hardships coincident to pioneer life, having hauled wheat to Council Bluffs, and sold it for 35 cents, one-half being in trade, at that. He now has in his home farm six hundred and eight acres, and all told seven hundred and twenty-two acres, of which about two hundred are under the plow; three hundred and sixty in pasture, and the balance in timber and meadow.

Since living in Iowa, he has made four trips to the old Green Mountain State, where he was born, and attended the Centennial, in 1876, at Philadelphia. The BOYNTON family hold reunions each year, and are now publishing a family genealogical record, which cannot fail of being of much value.

To thoroughly understand part of this man's success, it should be stated that he has never allowed his name to be presented for any public office, believing that he had all he could do, and do well, to remain at home, and attend to his own private interests, let alone the interests of the public. The house he erected in 1861 has served as a shelter from the cold blasts in winter and the sun and rains of the summer -- just thirty years -- and in the autumn of 1891 Mr. BOYNTON and family moved into their new apartments, which is a large two-story frame house, second to none in the township in way of architecture or finish. If you go to his house to-day you will find him the same plain "home spun" man that you found in 1856, while Mrs. BOYNTON will convince you you are welcome.

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