LIVING

Family 1: LIVING

  1. +LIVING 
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|--LIVING
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INDEX

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John Henry BOYCE

Father: Stephen V. BOYCE
Mother: Lucinda Elizabeth STEWART

Family 1: Almira Georgina WALTER
  1. +John Leroy BOYCE
  2.  George Ernest BOYCE
  3.  Cecil Verner BOYCE
  4. +Adrian Allen BOYCE
  5. +Rex Hamilton BOYCE
  6. +Neil Atwell BOYCE
  7. +Edna Beryl BOYCE 
                              _John BOYCE ______
 _Stephen V. BOYCE __________|
|                            |_Catherine COBIE _
|
|--John Henry BOYCE 
|
|                             _Riley STEWART ___
|_Lucinda Elizabeth STEWART _|
                             |_Jane GENTRY _____
INDEX

Notes

Information prepared by:
Linda Mae Boyce-Morgan
2936 W. 2150 N.
Arco, ID 83213
USA
(208) 527-8944

The following is from A History of Two Families by Clayton Boyce and Dori s Forbes Boyce, information provided by Linda Mae Boyce-Morgan :
John Henry Boyce, my grandfather on my father's side, was born o n January 1, 1859 in Victoria, British Columbia (the circumstances of hi s birth are discussed in Chapter 1). In 186,. the family moved to San Jua n Island, where John spent his childhood and grew to manhood.
On his 21st birthday, he left San Juan Island and set out to se e the world (Maybe he inherited this urge from his father!). He headed ea stward and came to the state of Idaho. There, he went to work on a constr uction crew for one of the transcontinental railroads then building track s across the continent. His work eventually took him to the state of Uta h where he left the railroad. While in Utah, he worked at various jobs un til some years later, when he returned to the Pacific northwest.
Upon John's return to the northwest, he located at Edison, in Ska git County, where he entered the mercantile business with N. E. Churchil l (who later operated a general store in Friday Harbor). After working i n the mercantile business for several years, John entered the United Stat es Customs Service. It was while John was in the Customs Service that h e met his future wife, Almira Walter. Her family was in the process of mo ving from Ontario, Canada to Seattle by way of Vancouver, British Columbi a. John Boyce was the Customs officer on the ship that brought them to Se attle. He saw this beautiful young woman on the vessel and became attract ed to her. After the Walter family got settled in where they were to liv e in Seattle, John somehow or other found his way there with the intentio n of calling on Almira. The first lime John came to the house, Almira wa s in her bare feet, walking a fence! This was the start of a courtship wh ich culminated in their marriage on March 2, 1894 in Seattle. That same y ear they established their home on San Juan Island (more about this later ).
In 1892, John resigned from the Customs Service to go steamboatin g. He was master of many of the early steamboats sailing on Puget Sound w aters and up and down the coast. At some time during this period of his l ife, John captained a tug for the Roche Harbor Lime Company, towing barge s of lime to Bellingham. This tug was named the Roche Harbor, but previou s to her service for the lime company, she was known as the Jenny Linn. A fter the Jenny Linn was taken out of service, she was pulled up on land a t Roche Harbor near the Hotel de Haro and remained there for many years . We have pictures that we took of her in 1959. Some years later, someon e set her on fire and afterward, nothing remained but the machinery. In 1 993, Doris and I were at Roche Harbor and found some of the old machiner y half buried off in the underbrush not far from where the Jenny Lynn res ted all those long years.
John Boyce quit steamboating in 1904 and the family moved to Orca s Island where John became superintendant of the Orcas Lime Company, a po sition he held for eight years. While living on Orcas Island, he served o ne term as county commissioner. The family returned to San Juan Island i n 1912 and settled in a farm home on Little Road, which lies between wha t is now Douglas Road and the Cattle Point Road. Stephen Boyce had give n each of his sons a parcel of land from his holdings. John's parcel cons isted of a farm of about 40 acres. On it, they raised some grain, but mos tly sheep. Their house, which fronted Little Road, was pretty good-sized . In order to accommodate the seven children they were to eventually have . It was located not too far from the old Boyce home near False Bay. Nea r the house stood a large oak tree that had been planted by Lucinda Boyc e many years before. The old house is long since gone, and someone else o wns the property, but this tree is still standing today.
On visits to San Juan Island when I was young, I was in my grand parents' home a number of times. We have several family pictures showin g the old house in the background. The most striking picture we have of t his house is a panoramic view looking down Little Road at John and Almir a and all their children, spread out standing in front of the house wit h their Model T Ford parked on the road in front.
John Boyce continued to participate in public service after retur ning to San Juan Island. There, he served two terms as county commissione r, one term as county assessor, one term as county treasurer, and an unex pired term again as county commissioner.
John Boyce was a handsome man. Almira Walter was a beautiful woman. Thei r early pictures, both together and separate, show what a handsome coupl e they were. This charac-teristic was passed on to their children, for th ey also were all handsome people.
On September 12, 1926, when he was 67 years old, John Boyce was ba ptized into Christ, into the faith that was a part of the life of Almir a and her family.
John Henry Boyce died on August 12, 1930. He had suffered a head injury i n a fall some years earlier and this gradually affected his mind at certa in times. At the time of his death, he had been taken to a hospital on th e mainland for treatment, and had been there for about a week when he pas sed away. His funeral services were held at the Valley Presbyterian cemet ery where he was buried, along with his parents and many of his relatives .

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William Oscar STEWART

Father: Simeon STEWART
Mother: Mary Ann SULLIVAN 

                      _Riley STEWART ______
 _Simeon STEWART ____|
|                    |_Jane GENTRY ________
|
|--William Oscar STEWART 
|
|                     _James P. SULLIVAN __
|_Mary Ann SULLIVAN _|
                     |_Mary Ann ANDERSON, _
INDEX

Notes

William Oscar was 17 in the 1880 census.

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