My Genealogy Hound

JOHN BOYLE, farmer and contractor, P. O. Fayetteville. John Boyle was born in the county of Donegal, Ireland, March 21, 1815. His parents, Edward and Mary (Nesbitt) Boyle, emigrated to the United States in 1816. They first settled near Westchester, N. Y., and engaged in farming. In 1819, Mr. Boyle with his family, then consisting of his wife and two children, John, the subject of this sketch, and William, who was born during the voyage across the sea, resolved to make the perilous voyage of crossing the Alleghany Mountains by wagon and descending the Ohio River in a skiff. After all the trials and hardships incident to such a journey, they arrived safely at their destination in this township in 1820; his first purchase was 200 acres of land, one and one-half miles southwest of Fayetteville, on the East Fork of the Little Miami; he afterward bought tracts in different parts of the township, including 800 acres near St. Martin’s; he bought the mill on the latter place from Ebenezer Davis. It was the first flouring mill in the township. This mill is still in operation, having been improved from a “corn-cracker” to one of the finest of its kind in the State. John Boyle was married in 1848, to Elizabeth, daughter of Patrick and Mary McCloskey. They have six children living — Mary Alice, Robert Emmett, John, Fanny, Annie and Ada, and three who died in childhood, James, Edward and William. Since 1839, Mr. Boyle has been extensively engaged in public works. He laid thirty miles of the first railroad west of the Alleghany Mountains — the Little Miami Railroad. In 1853, he entered into partnership with Patrick E. Roach, of Cincinnati, which lasted twenty-five years. The firm of Boyle & Roach constructed some of the most extensive public works in the Western States during their time. Among them may be mentioned the following: An aqueduct across the Little Auglaize River, in Paulding County; the Lewistown Reservoir, in Logan County; Eggleston Avenue Sewer, Cincinnati; a large part of the Louisville Canal Reservoir, at Cincinnati; Hydraulic, at Piqua; built Lock at the Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, which is considered the finest piece of work of its kind in this country; they completed the King’s Mountain Tunnel, after all other contractors failed; also, twenty-two miles of railroad at Greenupsburg, Ky., with eleven tunnels; they completed forty miles of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad. In 1881, Mr. Boyle moved to his farm in this township, upon which he built a splendid residence and improvements to the extent of $15,000. Mr. Boyle owns at present 1,700 acres of land in this township, including the extensive flouring mills at St. Martin’s, which are provided with four run of buhrs and all modern improvements, and do an extensive local and shipping business.