Thomas Boylon—No one unfamiliar with pioneer life can fully appreciate what it means to bring a wilderness, such as the Grand river v alley was a half century ago, to the present highly improved condition, with its myriad of finely cultivated farms, each having comfortable, and in many instance, elaborate residences, supplemented by commodious barns, erected on modern ideas of architecture, that embody beauty with utility and great storage capacity.

Probably no man living has contributed more labor, energy and intelligence to the growth and improvement of Kent county than he whose biography is here briefly considered.

Thomas Boylon, one of the oldest and most substantial farmers of Ada township. Kent county, Mich., as well as one of the most respected of citizens, was born in county Lowth, Ireland, April 15, 1827, a son of Cornelius and Mary Boylon.

Cornelius and Mary (McCabe) Boylon came to America when Thomas was a lad of seven years, and until 1844 lived at Seneca Falls, N. Y. They then came to Michigan, and August 15^th of the same year located at Green Oaks, Livingston county, where they remained until 1852, when they came to Kent county and settled in Vergennes township, where they hewed a farm from the wilderness, on which they passes the remainder of their lives, Mrs. Mary Boylon dying at the advanced age of eighty years, and Cornelius Boylon at the patriarchal age of ninety-five. They were of a hardy and vigorous race and imparted much of these essential qualities to their children.

Thomas Boylon knew what hard work meant from his earliest years; and after devoting his minority to that incident to clearing new farms with his father, set himself about the hardest work that was to be done, and that which most men dreaded, the breaking of the virgin soil. The great number of stumps rendered it necessary to have the power of several yoke of heavy oxen to pull the immense plow. No man was so widely known as a breaker thirty-five years ago as Thomas Boylon, his services for this work being sought over an area of many miles. He can truly say that his efforts have turned more soil to light of day for the first time than any other half dozen men. If not the first, he was among the pioneers in threshing grain by power. He introduced the earlier thresher, which consisted simply of a cylinder run by tread power. It was necessary to separate the grain and straw with forks, after which the grain was run through a hand fanning-mill. He was the first to bring in and operate a more modern machine, and attained as much of a reputation as a thresher as he had as a land breaker.

In 1861 Mr. Boylon settled on his present farm of 160 acres in Ada township. This tract, extending along Grand river, had been held by the Indians long after all their other land had been disposed of and was in a wild state when Mr. Boylon purchased it, but most of it has been cleared off by himself, and converted into one of the best farms of the valley. After settling on this place he continued his work as a breaker and thresher, also working in the forests as a lumber-man, and for a time held the position of foreman in grading four

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miles of the D. & M. railroad. At another time he was foreman for his brother in building a stretch of five mile of road near Belding. In fact, the county never had within its limits a more industrious and hard working man, and though he has met loss by fire of both house and barn as well as other discouragement, he has ever pressed on, disaster only adding to determination to win.

Mr. Boylon was united in the bonds of matrimony, February 5, 1860, with Miss Susan Murray, a native of Troy, N. Y., who came to Michigan at the age of seven years with her parents, John and Mary (Brady) Murray, who settled where the city of Belding now stands, and where they passed the remainder of their days. Mrs. Boylon, a most accomplished lady, engaged in the work of teaching at the age of seventeen years, and taught in the old log school house in Grattan seven terms, at Orleans, in Ionia county, and elsewhere, until her marriage. To this marriage thirteen children have been born, of whom two died in infancy, and four—Kate, aged eleven years, Cornelius, age nine, Alice, aged five, and Frank, aged fifteen—died of diphtheria, within a few weeks, in 1880. The survivors are Winnie, wife of Charles Hoyge, a grocer at the corner of Fifth avenue and South Ionia street, Grand Rapids; James, a livery-man in the same city; Fred, a street railroad employee, who served in the army at Porto Rico; Lillian, a stenographer in the employ of Dr. Johnson, in Grand Rapids; Anna, who graduated from the city high school and is now a teacher, and Kate and Thomas at home. The family are communicants of St. Alphonsus Catholic church in Grand Rapids, and to the support of which they are among the most liberal contributors.

In politics Mr. Boylon is a stanch democrat, is frequently a delegate to conventions, and is active in securing party success at the polls. He has filled various township offices, including that of justice of the peace two terms, school commissioner, etc.

Thomas Boylon is as solid in character as a rock. There is no equivocation or beating about the bush in his makeup. Hewing close to the line himself, he expects equal rectitude from others, and has no sympathy with those whose lives are on less substantial lines. His sturdy character has made him enemies—but those who have known him for nearly half a century feel for him only the highest respect, and no greater honor could be paid a young man in their estimation than to say he resembled Tom Boylon.

As a teacher Mrs. Susan (Murray) Boylon is remembered by the writer, who learned his letters at her knee, as a lady of rare intellectual attainments and ability to impress upon her pupils not only the lessons in hand, but also those precepts that grew into their inner consciousness and made them better men and women in after life. All who knew her were her friends, and her charming manner, coupled with handsome features and womanly grace, made her one of the most popular of women. She still retains much of her grace and winsomeness of youth, and many of the traits that made her so popular among the last generation have been transmitted to her daughters, who possess much of the charm of their mother’s youth. Mrs. Boylon has proved a most worth helpmate in all life’s trails and struggles encountered by her husband, and now, when these have been overcome, she has the satisfaction of looking back with a consciousness of a well spent life, and the gratification of feeling that she holds a sacred place in the memory of those who knew her in the early days, and have been influenced for the good and right through contact with her. To such women, Kent county owes much of its greatness.