John Boyle was born 30 March 1840 at Pittsburgh, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania. All that is presently known of his family is that both his parents were likewise Pennsylvania natives.

On 5 December 1861, John enlisted in the 1st Battery 16th Infantry at McGregor, Clayton county, Iowa. His service during the Civil War continued until 24 December 1864 when he was discharged at Oswego, New York. His admission record 56 years after his enlistment describes him as being 5' 11" tall and being able to read and write.

By 1880, John had arrived in Utah where he lived, along with several other miners, in the Cottonwood area of Salt Lake county. While in the Salt Lake area, he met Mary Ellen Guest. They married at Mission Methodist Episcopal Church on 5 February 1889. Mary Ellen already had two children, Lewis and Grace, who John adopted as his own. Two additional children joined the marriage, John and Ida Fern, all born in Salt Lake City. Sometime before the 1900 Census, son, John, died. The 1889 directory for Salt Lake City lists John at 47 Franklin Avenue, an auctioneer. When Ida was born in 1893, the family resided at 553 N 1st W.

He continued as an auctioneer in Salt Lake City and then at Butte, Montana, where the family appears in the 1900 census and directories in 1908 and 1914. For a time in late 1899 and early 1900 he was out of work, but seems to have established himself, employing (or at least working with) his daughter, Ida, who was a clerk at the same business addresses.

On 27 July 1916 John was admitted to the Montana Soldiers' Home in Columbia Falls. For the next three years he was released on leave each spring (12 April 1917, 23 April 1918 and 24 March 1919) and readmitted each fall (28 September 1917, 3 October 1918, 3 October 1919). His readmission appears to be his last, and he died 4 January 1924. He was buried at Butte.