Nevada Genealogy Trails Storey County Edward E. Boyle Biography

EDWARD DOUGHERTY BOYLE was a native of county Donegal, Ireland, coming with his parents to the United States in 1833. when they settled in the state of Pennsylvania. As a youth he worked in the iron works of Brady's Bend, and in 1852 came to the Pacific coast by the isthmus route. He mined through California until 1863. when he came to Nevada, where he was identified with the mining industries of the state, and especially the Comstock Lode, until his death.

He was prominent in politics, having represented Storey county for twelve years in the senate of the state legislature, took an active interest in the militia, in which he was a lieutenant colonel; and was an active and conspicuous figure in the public work of the communities in which he resided. He was a fellow in the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and devoted his spare time to astronomical and literary research.

Lack of opportunity in his youth did not hinder him in the gaining of an exceptionally broad and finished education, for he was as competent in the technical branches of his engineering profession as his vast mining experience made him in its practice.

Prior to 1877 he was in charge of the Justice and Waller Defeat Mines in lower Gold Hill, leaving the former named to take the supcrintendency of the Alta, which position he held for twenty-five years, accumulating at the same time extensive mining interests throughout the state and the west.

In 1901 he took the management of the North Rapidan Mine in Como, Nevada. On January 2, 1902. while driving to Dayton from the mine with a companion, his team became unmanageable, and from the injuries received he died on the 9th of the following month, leaving a wife, who survived him only a few weeks, and two sons. Emmet D., and Alexander M., the former of whom succeeded his father in the management of the North Rapidan.

Mr. Boyle leaves a memory conspicuous for charity, ability and scrupulous honesty, and his death deprived the state of Nevada of one who for nearly a third of a century hail devoted his best energies to her upbuilding. By his death Nevada lost one of her most honorable and respected citizens.

Source:
A History of the State of Nevada: Its Resources and People
By Thomas Wren, Lewis Publishing Company
Published by The Lewis publishing company, 1904