He remained in that town as its leading architect and builder till death, about 1845, at the age of thirty-seven years. He was a "Green Mountain" man by birth, and there learned his trade. He went into Canada on leaving home, and while in the vicinity of the St. Clair river he met and married Miss Fannie Rendt, the daughter of a German who had come to America as a soldier in the English army. On being transferred to Canada all officers of foreign birth were placed on half pay, for the purpose, it was discovered, of forcing the said foreigners to resign and thus reduce the number of officers and bring the personnel of the army to actual Englishmen. This officer and the father of Mrs. Boynton was Captain Lewis Rendt, who settled on the St. Clair river. The young carpenter brought his wife to Michigan about the year 1831. After his death she became the wife of Jonathan Graves. Mr. Boynton was a Master Mason and a member of the Congregational Church, and was a man of the highest integrity of character, respected by all who knew- him. His father, the grandfather of our subject, was likewise a mechanic, a bridge-builder, born in Vermont, who, in his extensive operations, frequently contracted for work far away from home. On one occasion his work brought him out to Ohio, putting abridge at Perrysburg, and while there he took the Maumee fever and died, and thus ended the career of Nathan S. Boynton. He was the father of seven children whose sons and daughters are broadcasted over this country and are occupying positions in every calling.

Captain L. R. Boynton is his father's first born. The next is Major M. S. Boynton, of Port Huron, Michigan, the father of the Knights of the Maccabees in the United

States, and who is now the Grand Commander of the order. The Major went into the Union army as a Lieutenant of cavalry, served under General Thomas, and was mustered out with the rank of Major. Granville L. is the third and last of the Boynton sons. He is a marine engineer at Port Huron. The two half brothers of our subject are George Graves, of Denver, Colorado, and Albert Graves, a wholesale merchant in Port Huron. The mother of these gentlemen died in 1889, at the age of seventy eight years.

In his native town Captain Boynton's boyhood days were spent, his education being received in the public schools and in a printing office. His initiatory work as a printer was performed on the Port Huron Observer, as office boy under Editor William L. Bancroft. He learned the routine of the newspaper office very thoroughly during the winter seasons, and in the summer his time was spent on the lakes. His last work in the composing room was on the Port Huron Commercial, that being just before the war. His first trip on the water was on the Grace Amelia, a sailing vessel commanded by Captain Dillon, and as a boy before the mast he exhibited evidences of becoming a proficient sailor. He has filled engagements in some capacity every summer for a period of forty-five years, and during all this time he has never met with an accident, has never lost any lives, nor has he ever caused an insurance company to pay out a dollar. For fourteen years he sailed with the Alpena Transportation Company on their steamers Winona and Galena from Cleveland to Detroit, Alpena and Mackinaw. He followed this with a term of years as captain of the St. Paul between the same points. Then he became a boat owner, buying a half interest in the steam barge Rhoda Stewart, plying between Cleveland and Alpena; ran her two years. It was at this time, 1883, he came to St. Ignace and took charge of the Algomah for the Mackinaw people. Their boats are now the Saint Ignace and the Santa Marie, the ice crushers of the straits. Captain Boynton is president and general manager of the Island Transportation Company, owning and operating the Algomah between Mackinac island and points in the straits.

He was married at Algonac, Michigan, September 15, 1853, to Sarah E., daughter of Oliver Kendall, a machinist, who came to Michigan from the Bay State. Mrs. Boynton's mother was nee Betsy Cummings, of whose family of four children only two survive, Mrs. Boynton and Mrs. Olive Crippen, the latter of Alpena, Michigan. The Captain and his wife have a family as follows: Lewis Kendall, bookkeeper in the office of Grand Commander of K. O. T. M., the Port Huron Gas Company; Fannie, wife of George Westover, of Seney, Michigan; Granville W., captain of the steamer Algomah; Adah, now Mrs. Arthur Dudgeon, of Oscoda, Michigan; Raymond E., clerk in the freight office of the D., S. S. & A., St. Ignace; Sarah Irene; Oliver Cummings, a pharmacist of Port Huron; and Walter C, quartermaster on the Algomah.

In his political affiliations, Captain Boynton has always been a Democrat. He has, however, given little time to politics. He is a Royal Arch and Knight Templar Mason, and is also identified with the A. O. U. W. and K. O. T. M. Personally, the Captain is of the average height, weighs impounds, is of pleasing address, and looks younger by many years than he really is. He has a wide circle of acquaintances in the lake region and is as popular as he is well known.

From the Memorial Record of the Northern Peninsula of Michigan, The Lewis Publishing Co 1895