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Andrew Jackson Boyles, a Butler county pioneer, and one of the largest land owners in Fairview township, is a native of Ohio. He was born in Hamilton county, December 20, 1845, and is a son of Cyrus and Mary (Crall) Boyles. Cyrus Boyles was a native of Pennsylvania, and when a young man, went down the Monongahela and Ohio rivers as far as Cincinnati. He was a carpenter and cooper, and was employed in Cincinnati, building keel boats which were operated in the Ohio river. Here he was married to Mary Crall, a daughter of James and Margaret Crall, the former a native of Germany, and the latter of Ohio. Thirteen children were born to this union, of whom Andrew Jackson Boyles was the eighth in order of birth.
Andrew Jackson Boyles grew to manhood in Hamilton county, Ohio, and learned the carpenter and cooper trades with his father. He was married in May, 1867, to Miss Emma Stewart, a native of Ripley county, Indiana. She was a daughter of John Stewart, a native of Ohio. In the fall of the same year that they were married, Mr. and Mrs. Boyle came west, locating in Johnson county, Missouri, where they farmed rented land for three years. In the spring of 1870, they came to Kansas, locating in Allen county, and from there they came to Butler county. They drove through, from Johnson county, Missouri, and brought eighteen head of shoats, some young heifers, and a barrel or pork, and $50 in cash. They had a unique way of inducing the hogs to follow the emigrant outfit. Mrs. Boyles rode in a spring wagon, and now and then dropped some shelled corn in the road, and the drove of hogs followed close after her, eargerly looking for more corn. While in camp one night on Harrison creek, in Greenwood county, the hogs strayed away, and after searching in vain for them for some time, through the tall blue stem, Mr. Boyles came on without them. However, the hogs were found later in that vicinity, on a little stream which was called Hog creek, from that day.
Upon reaching Butler count)^, Mr. Boyles homesteaded the northwest quarter of section 11, Fairview township, and now owns an entire section in that township. He has followed general farming and stock raising, and dealt quite extensively in cattle for a number of years, and has also been largely interested in mules. He began with a small capital, and has been very. successful. Mr. Boyles is a man who has a wide reputation for honesty and integrity, and has never endeavored to violate an agreement, regardless of whether the fulfillment of it meant profit or loss to him. He has always regarded his word of more value than profit. He is a man of whom it can be said, that his word is as good as his bond.
When Mr. Boyles came here, game was plentiful,- and he hunted a great deal, and in fact, obtained the meat supply with his rifle, which was not only profitable but furnished him with a great deal of sport, as he was an expert marksman when he was younger.
The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Boyles : P. C, operating the home farm in partnership with his father; Charles, deceased ; Earl Lee, resides on the home farm ; and Ida, wife of John Waddell, El Dorado, Kans. Mrs. Boyles, the mother of these children, and faithful pioneer wife, departed this life January 17, 1916. She will long be remembered by her many friends and acquaintances, as well as by her immediate family, as a noble Christian woman, who bore her part nobly and well, in the pioneer days and the subsequent development of Butler county. Both Mr. and Mrs. Boyles were of the hospitable kind of people who never turned a stranger from their door, and during the forty-six years that they have lived in Butler county, they have taken many weary way-farers in, and given them lodging and a square meal, and sent them on their way rejoicing. The Avorld is made better by •such people as Mr. and Mrs. Boyles, having lived in it.
