LIVING

Family 1: LIVING

  1. +Paul Woodrow HARDINGER 
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|--LIVING
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INDEX

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LIVING

Father: LIVING
Mother: LIVING

          _Howard Norman DENNIS _
 _LIVING_|
|        |_LIVING________________
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|--LIVING
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|         _LIVING________________
|_LIVING_|
         |_LIVING________________
INDEX

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LIVING

Father: LIVING
Mother: LIVING

Family 1: LIVING

  1.  LIVING 
          _LIVING_________________
 _LIVING_|
|        |_LIVING_________________
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|--LIVING
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|         _LIVING_________________
|_LIVING_|
         |_Marjorie Diane DENNIS _
INDEX

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LIVING

Father: Neil Atwell BOYCE
Mother: LIVING

                      _John Henry BOYCE _______
 _Neil Atwell BOYCE _|
|                    |_Almira Georgina WALTER _
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|--LIVING
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|                     _________________________
|_LIVING_____________|
                     |_________________________
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Almira Georgina WALTER

Father: George Hunt WALTER
Mother: Mary Catherine MCRAE

Family 1: John Henry BOYCE
  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 
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 _George Hunt WALTER ___|
|                       |__
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|--Almira Georgina WALTER 
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|_Mary Catherine MCRAE _|
                        |__
INDEX

Notes

The following is from A History of Two Families by Clayton Boyce and Dori s Forbes Boyce, information provided by Linda Mae Boyce-Morgan:

Almira Georgina Walters was born December 16, 1873, at Gore Bay on M anitoulin Island in Lake Huron, in the province of Ontario, Canada. She w as the daughter of George Hunt Walter and Mary Catherine (McRae) Walter ( see Chapter 3 for their story). Earlier we related how her family moved t o Seattle by way of Vancouver, British Columbia in 1889, when Almira wa s 16 years old.
I have already told how Alinira met John on the steamer that brought th e family from Vancouver to Seattle, and that they were married two year s later, on March 2, 1894. There is some discrepancy in certain dates a t this point, because two years prior to 1894 would make the family comin g to Seattle in 1892 rather than 1889. Perhaps they lived in Vancouver fo r a time before moving on to Seattle. Also one account states that John a nd Almira moved to San Juan Island the same year that they were married . Another account, the report of Almira's death in the Friday Harbor Jour nal, states that John and Almira lived in Seattle two years before movin g to San Juan Island. From my conversations with Aunt Beryl, I believe th e first account is factual. Because my father was born in Seattle in 1898 , John and Almira must have returned to Seattle to live for a short time . This had to have been during the years he was steamboating.
Anyway, when John and Almira moved to San Juan Island, they landed a t Argyle, on the north end of Griffin Bay, on the west side of the island . Argyle was a primitive little village, and when they landed there, an d proceeded by horse and buggy up the muddy, dirt road to Stephen and Luc inda Boyce's farm, Almira thought she had reached the "Jumping off plac e of the world!" She later told how she would have died from homesicknes s if it hadn't been for Lucinda's love and care .
My memory of my grandfather Boyce is very dim. When I was somewher e around one or two years old, which would have been in 1926 or 1927, h e came to Prosser where my family lived and spent some time there. We hav e a picture in our album showing my grandfather in Prosser, in our fron t yard, standing with my grandmother Mary Harris holding me in her arms . We also have a picture showing John standing with a group of relatives . I am also in this picture. While I have little recollection of my grand father Boyce, my dad told many stories about him and their life on San Ju an Island. Now I wish that I had recorded these stories in some way. Th e loss of these stories is vivid reason why it is important for familie s to get their stories recorded in some way before they are lost forever.
Some time in 1922, Almira Boyce, her sons Cecil and Ham, and their siste r Beryl made an automobile trip to Prosser, Washington, where Mary Harri s lived. None of the children had ever met their Aunt Mary (This visit t o Prosser was to have great implications for the future of both Cecil an d Ham). One must be given a little perspective in order to appreciate th e magnitude of this trip. They drove an open-air Model T Ford two-seat to uring car. Their route would have taken them from their farm home to Roch e Harbor to get on a ferry to Anecortes. They would then have to drive o ver mostly unpaved roads to get to Snoqualmie Pass. The highway over th e pass was itself a winding, narrow, dusty gravel road. I imagine their a verage speed for the entire trip couldn't have been more than 25 MPH. I f they were able to get across the pass without getting a flat tire, the y were fortunate. Needless to say, it took them a little longer than we a re able to drive it today!
I do not know what time of the year they made this trip. I know tha t they were there when it came time for school to start in the fall. At t hat time, Almira went home, probably by train, and Cecil, Ham and Beryl s tayed in Prosser. Beryl went to Prosser High School for one semester of h er junior year, and then she, too, went home by train. Cecil and Ham stay ed in Prosser. What happened to them is told elsewhere in this book (se e under "James Hamilton Boyce" in this chapter, and in Chapter 5).
I have many fond memories of my grandmother Almira Boyce. In my youn ger years, my father often was gone from home in the summer time, workin g somewhere on a highway construction job. Frequently, my mother would tr avel with him. On a number of these occasions, I would get to stay with G randma Boyce on San Juan Island. By this time, the old family house had b urned down, and Grandma was living in another house that had been built f or her on Little Road, still on the Boyce property, but farther to the ea st, toward Cattle Point Road (more about those days in Chapter 10). In ad dition to those times, I remember looking forward to her visits to our ho me in Prosser, and later, after Doris and I were married, to my parents ' home in Seattle. Grandma Boyce had a way about her that just made me en joy being around her.
Almira Boyce was baptized into Christ at an early age. Her faith i n God was an important part of her entire life, and the way she lived an d treated others exemplified this.
Grandma Boyce passed away peacefully on July 9, 1960 at age 86. At t he time of her death, she had four living children, 13 grandchildren an d 32 great-grandchildren. I remember attending her funeral at the Valle y Church and how impressive it was to honor the memory of this great lady . She is buried in the cemetery adjoining the Valley church beside my gra ndfather, John. In the report of her death in the Journal, it was said o f her that "she was known as a woman of culture, refinement, a kind neigh bor, devoted mother and a true friend."
What more could one want said of them by those who knew them?

John and Almira Boyce had seven children. All but my father and Aun t Beryl were born on San Juan Island. Although my father told many storie s about his parents, himself, and his brothers and sisters during their e arly years, none of it was recorded, thus, most of it is lost. The follow ing is what I can remember or what I have

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