Boyles, J. H.,
livery, Meadville, was born in Mead Township, this county, April 3, 1840, and is a son of Sylvester and Sarah (Hamilton) Boyles.
His mother was born in Mead Township in 1814. His father came here in 1835, and settled on a farm, raising a family of nine children,
of whom J. H. is the eldest He received a common school training, and was reared on the farm until 1859, when he went into the oil business,
continuing until 1863, when he enlisted in the One Hundred and Fiftieth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, serving until the close of hostilities.
He was a member of the President’s bodyguard, and saw Booth shoot Lincoln and then jump from the opera-box. Our subject has never attended a
theater since, and never expects to attend another. At the close of the war he came home and farmed one year, then again went into the oil business,
continuing until 1870, when he went into the livery business in Meadville, in which he has been very successful, although he has had to pay $6,000
bail money for other parties. The present firm is Boyles & Billings, organized in 1884. He was married in 1861 to Sarah, daughter of Jeddiah Reynolds.
They are both members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he has been Trustee, Secretary and Treasurer. Our subject’s grandfather was the Rev. Patrick Boyles, a pioneer preacher of note.
History of Crawford County, Pennsylvania: containing a history of the county, its townships, towns, villages, schools,
churches, industries, etc., portraits of early settlers and prominent men, biographies, history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co., 1885, page 716.
