Fourth
Generation:
The Family of William B. Boyer of Easton, Pennsylvania (1843-1925) This section focuses on William B. Boyer, the sixth child of David Boyer and a member of the fourth generation of the family of the immigrant Johann Friedrich Boyer. It includes: * The
Life of William B. Boyer
* William in the Civil War * His Marriage to Martha A. Yeager * His Move to Easton to Work for the Railroad * William's Final Years * List of William's Eleven Children * Details on His Children o Hannah Louisa Boyer Shaneberger o Robert C. Boyer o Francis Allen Boyer o Charles Harvey Boyer o Mary (Mame) Boyer Eckert o William Harry Boyer o David W. Boyer o Bernard Oscar Boyer o John Edward Boyer o Lillian A. Boyer Nixon o George A. Boyer * Footnotes * Genealogical Chart of William Boyer's Family LINKS: Neil Boyer's Home Page Boyer Family of Orwigsburg Boyer Family of Easton The Immigrant Johann Friedrich Boyer Children of Johann Friedrich Boyer David Boyer, Gunmaker of Orwigsburg George B. Boyer, Brother of William George Boyer's Son, Lewis Elmer Boyer Origins of the Boyer Family Association of American Boyers Waltman Family of Northampton County The Life of William B. Boyer William B. Boyer was born on April 29, 1843, in Orwigsburg and lived there until about 1872, when he would have been 29 and moved to Easton. One family member believed that the middle initial "B" stood for "Benjamin," but no source for that has been located. William in the Civil War. A report prepared by the U.S. Army and Navy Historical Association said that on September 17, 1862, William enlisted in Harrisburg to serve "during the emergency" as a private in the 17th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia; he was 19. The regiment was organized in response to the call of Pennsylvania Governor Curtin for 50,000 volunteers to protect Pennsylvania from invasion by the rebel army, which was marching northward from Maryland after success at Manassas. When the army was defeated at Antietam, the 17th Regiment returned to Harrisburg for muster out. William was honorably discharged on September 28, only eleven days after he enlisted. However, on July 7, 1863, William reenlisted, in the 39th Regiment, this time in response to Governor Curtin's call for 60,000 men in emergency forces to defend against the invasion of Lee's army. After a decisive defeat at Gettysburg by the Army of the Potomac, the rebels retreated to Maryland and Virginia and the volunteer troops were soon mustered out. William was honorably discharged again, on August 2, 1863, 26 days after his second enlistment. "The emergency troops," according to the history, "while not permitted to take part in any great battle, . . . participated in a number of skirmishes. . . . They quickly rallied round the flag from every walk of life at a time of the greatest need."[1] On January 2, 1864, not long after returning from his brief Civil War duty, William married Martha A. Yeager,[2] who had been born on December 27, 1841. He was 20, and she was 22. In 1987, Martha's small pocket Bible, written in German and dated in Orwigsburg on October 27, 1860 (when she was 17), was in the possession of her great‑grandson, Donald J. Boyer of Easton. It was reported that she was Reformed, and William was Lutheran, and that "both are consistent Christian people." In 1865, according to one report,[3] William worked for the Schuylkill Navigation Company, then in 1869 for the Reading Railroad. In 1872, he moved to Easton to work for the Lehigh Valley Railroad, about the same time that his brother George B. Boyer moved to Easton. On June 8, 1875, William was a fireman on the first passenger run of the Easton and Amboy Line, and on September 17, 1876, he served as engineer on the first run between Easton and Wilkes‑Barre. A report written in 1905 said he was still an engineer on the same line ‑‑ 29 years later! ‑‑ although his obituary said he retired from the railroad on April 28, 1904. The report said that in 1889 William was involved in a serious train wreck in which two people died. However, William was found "altogether innocent of negligence" and was "recognized by the company as a most careful and painstaking engineer, and one well worthy of the arduous and responsible position which he is now capably filling." His obituary called him a "well‑known engineer." The report also said that William had built his home in Easton in 1889, "a beautiful brick structure that was a monument to his labor, built with his own honest earnings and supplied with all modern improvements." This apparently was the home at 512 Centre Street, the address given for William B. Boyer by the Easton City Directory in 1892 and also by the 1900 census. In 1908 his address was given as 613 Centre Street, which is near the intersection with Lincoln Street, but it is not known whether this was the same house (street numbers were changed about this time) or if he moved.
The entries in the City Directory make it appear that William fell upon hard times, but also that he was a very hardy individual, still working when he died at the age of 82. In 1897, the Easton City Directory described him as a "tax collector." His obituary said he was "the last tax receiver in the old South Easton borough." In 1908, he was listed as an "invalid." The 1910 census said he was a laborer at an "enginehouse." In 1918, when he was 75, he was described as a "watchman," as he was up to 1925. He died of nephritis on December 11, 1925. His wife Martha had died on December 16, 1914, just short of her 73rd birthday. A record held by one of William's descendants shows that he bought his plot at Hay's Cemetery on December 24, 1881, nearly 44 years before he needed it. He did this just after the death of his son John Edward, and John is buried there with William and his wife. The price of the plot was $14. In the custom of the time, the rules of the cemetery declared that plot holders were allowed to use their plots for the burial of themselves and their families and heirs forever, "and also for such white persons as they shall choose to admit, provided that such admissions are free of charge." Only William, Martha and son John are buried there. There is no mention of William Boyer in Lew Boyer's diary, and the impression is given that George Boyer and his brother William had little to do with each other, although they lived quite close and were both railroaders. When Lew Boyer's diary spoke of visits to "Uncle William," it was apparently William Waltman, brother of his mother, and not William Boyer. The children of the two families, however, did know each other. The Children of William B. Boyer Martha and William Boyer had 11 children, according to two accounts. Eleven is also the number reported in the 1900 census (9 living, 2 deceased), although there is recollection among some descendants that they liked to joke that children were "cheaper by the dozen."[4] The 1880 census showed the family living in the 2nd Ward in South Easton (the address is not given). There were: William Boyer, 38, railroad
engineer
Martha, 39, wife, keeping house Hannah, 15, daughter Robert K., 14, son Charles H., 10, son Mamie A., 8, daughter William H., 6, son David W., 4, son Bernard O., 2, son John, 3/12, son. There was no 1890 census record for Pennsylvania since the documents were destroyed by a fire at the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington, D. C., in 1921. However, the 1900 census showed the family living at 512 Centre Street in the 11th ward of Easton. The information presented in the census was as follows: William B. Boyer, head of
household, locomotive engineer, 59, born in
April 1841 [this is contrary to his tombstone, which says he was born
April 29, 1843, and the tombstone appears to be correct. One
obituary
said
he was born in 1845, another in 1842.]
Martha, wife, 59, born in Dec 1840, mother of 11 children, of which 9 are living Hannah Shaneberger, 36, daughter, born in July 1864, mother of 2 children, both living Bernard O. Boyer, 22, son, single, born Jan 1878 Lillie A. Boyer, 19, daughter, single, born Jan 1881 George A. Boyer, 16, son, single, born May 1884 Howard Shaneberger, 15, grandson, born April 1885 Mabel Shaneberger, 13, granddaughter, born Nov 1887. These census reports appear to confirm that there were 11 children: the ten named in these two census listings, plus Francis Allen Boyer, born 1867, who died in 1870. The known children were these: 1. Hannah Louisa Boyer
(Shaneberger) (1864-1939)
2. Robert C. Boyer (1866-1951) 3. Francis Allen Boyer (1867-1870) 4. Charles Harvey Boyer (1869-1943). 5. Mary (Mame) Boyer (Eckert) (1872-1943) 6. William Harry Boyer (1874-1947) 7. David W. Boyer (1876-1917) 8. Bernard Oscar Boyer (1877-1952) 9. John Edward Boyer (1880-1881) 10. Lillian A. Boyer (Nixon) (1882-1939) 11. George A. Boyer (1884-1968) See the genealogical chart based on David Boyer and his wife Hannah. David was the father of William B. Boyer. The chart includes all of William's children. Details on the Eleven Children 1. Hannah Louisa Boyer, born on July 13, 1864, was baptized on February 19, 1865, in Orwigsburg, according to St. John's Reformed Church records.[5] She moved to South Easton with her parents and was married on June 14, 1884, to William Shaneberger, of Easton. According to his tombstone, he was born in 1860. He died on November 29, 1889, at the age of 29. Hannah lived 50 more years, dying on September 27, 1939, at the age of 75. They are buried in Hay's Cemetery. According to the 1900 census, they were parents of Howard and Mabel Shaneberger, who were aged 4 and 2 when their father died.
A.
Howard F. Shaneberger was born in 1885. He lived
at 620
Lincoln Street, died on February 6, 1951, at the age of 66.
He
was a plumbing contractor. Howard was married to Lizzie Horn
of
Easton, who was born in 1882 and died in 1931, at age 49, following a
nervous breakdown, according to her obituary. Apparently they
had
six children. Howard later was married again, to Lydia Osmun,
born April 25, 1877. She was still living when he died in
1951,
as were Elizabeth, Howard Jr. and Harry. Lydia died in 1962.
-- One (unnamed) was stillborn in 1904.
-- Elizabeth Shaneberger lived only one day in 1907. Both are buried with grandparents Hannah and William Boyer in Hay's Cemetery. -- Apparently there was a second daughter named Elizabeth Shaneberger, born on March 5, 1915. It is believed that she married Charles Bachman, although her Social Security death notice uses her maiden name. She died in May 1983, and Charles died in Allentown in September 1989. -- Howard F. Shaneberger, Jr., a son, was born in 1914 and lived in Easton. He died in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, in July 1992. -- Harry Shaneberger was born in May 1919 and lived in Pasadena, California. He died in La Puente, near Los Angeles, on June 22, 1996. -- Robert Shaneberger, born in 1927, died on February 10, 1938, at the age of 12.
B.
Anna Mabel Shaneberger, the second child of Hannah and
William, was born July 5, 1982. She married Joseph H.
Paul, who
had been in born in 1886. They lived at 623 Milton
Street.
Hannah lived with Mabel until her death. Joseph died in
February
1967, and Mabel died in July 1973.
2. Robert C. Boyer, born in 1866, was well known to the children of his cousin Lewis Elmer Boyer as "Cousin Bob." He died at Easton Hospital on July 13, 1951, at the age of 85, according to his obituary in the Easton Express. Bob had been born in Orwigsburg and was a retired butcher. For more than 50 years, he lived at 808 Lincoln Street in South Easton. He married Ida Apple, or "Aunt Ida," also born in 1866, who had previously been married and had a son, Sergeant William L. ("Willie") Otten, Sr. Willie's poem "Somewhere in France," written while he was a sergeant in "Company 'A,' 149th M.G.B'N," American Expeditionary Force in World War I, was handed down through the Boyer family. The poem dealt with the horrors of war, including "gas or Hun shrapnel." Willie was married to Mildred Stofflet, and they had a son, Lt. Col. William Otten, Jr. Willie Sr. was an alderman in Easton's ninth ward in the 1950s and ran for city treasurer on the Republican ticket in 1959. He was a salesman for the Pollock Brush Company. He had been born in 1885 and died on August 16, 1972, at the age of 86. Ida died on September 13, 1939, at the age of 73. Ida and Bob had three children.
A.
Helen D. Boyer, born on August 2, 1898, lived to be
74.
She worked for 42 years as a bookkeeper for the Stipe Plumbing Company
in Easton and was also well‑known to the Lew Boyer family.
She
was unmarried. She died on November 17, 1972.
B. Robert C. Boyer, Jr., was stillborn and was buried on September 18, 1899. C. Emily Boyer was born in December 1901 and was buried on April 6, 1902, at the age of 5 months. All five Boyers in this family were buried, together with Willie Otten, Sr., in South Easton Cemetery, at Iron and Lincoln Streets, adjoining Hay's Cemetery. Pallbearers for Robert Sr. included nephews Clair and Marshall Boyer and Elwood Eckert, and their second cousins Dave and Art Boyer. 3. Francis Allen Boyer was born in 1867 and died three years later in 1870; his grave is in the Lutheran Cemetery in Orwigsburg. 4. Dr. Charles Harvey Boyer was born on December 20, 1869, probably in Orwigsburg. He graduated from Jefferson Medical College and became a physician in Riegelsville, New Jersey. He moved back to Easton about 1921, and lived at 1116 Northampton Street. He treated the illness of his cousin Lewis Elmer Boyer in the late 1890s. Charles married Margaret Steiner, born on July 30, 1872, and they had two daughters, Ruth and Orpha, and a son Carl. Charles died on January 13, 1943, at the age of 73. His wife Margaret died on April 2, 1972, at the age of 99. Charles, Margaret and son Carl are buried in Hay's Cemetery, Easton.
A.
Ruth Abigail Boyer, first child of Charles and Margaret,
was
born August 21, 1895, in Riegelsville. She taught at the
Fairview
School in Wilson Borough, and her students included children of Lew
Boyer. After the death of her mother in 1972, she lived alone in her
parents' house at 1116 Northampton Street. In 1988, she died
at
the age of 92 in the same house where both her mother and father had
died. A newspaper delivery boy noted that newspapers were not
being picked up. Ruth was found dead on the kitchen floor.
Newspapers reported that $94,000 had been found in her
bedroom.
The house was later sold for $160,000. She had not been
married,
and there were no reported survivors. Books and
photographs
in the house were purchased by Marshall Brown, an Allentown antique
dealer, who lived at 449 North 4th Street, in Allentown, in what he
said was the house once owned by Sallie Boyer Apgar, Lew Boyer's
sister. Ruth also was buried in Hay’s Cemetery.
B. Carl E. Boyer (or Karl, on the tombstone), born in 1897, was found drowned on July 6, 1905, just before his eighth birthday. A newspaper report said the boy apparently had been playing on a fence at the rear of his house in Riegelsville when he fell into a race. C. Orpha Boyer, born in 1900, married Norman S. Rehrig, a bus driver, and died in Easton in 1968.
5. Mary (Mame) Boyer, born in 1872, died on April 19, 1943, at the age of 71. Mame was married to William W. Eckert, born in 1870, and they lived at 121 Fillmore Street in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. William worked 47 years for the Pennsylvania Railroad, mostly as a conductor. He died on February 6, 1944, at the age of 74. Buried with them in South Easton Cemetery is their daughter. Mame and William had two children:
A.
Viola B. Eckert was born on January 27, 1900, and died at
the
age of 2 on May 2, 1902, one month after the death of her
five‑month‑old cousin Emily Boyer.
B. Elwood Eckert, who lived in Phillipsburg, reportedly came into possession of the rifle made by his great-grandfather David Boyer and given to his grandfather William B. Boyer. However, Elwood’s daughter Lillian said in 1987 that she had no knowledge of any Boyer gun in her family. Elwood lived at various addresses on Glen Avenue in Phillipsburg with his wife Hazel. His occupation is given in various city directories from 1920 to 1955 as clerk, detective, jeweler and guard. He had two children:
--
William C. Eckert was listed at the same Glen Avenue
address from 1955
to 1970; in 1987 he was deceased.
-- Lillian Eckert married, first, William Van Syckle of Phillipsburg, and then Milton Haring. Milton owed Yock’s shoe store in Belvidere, New Jersey, in 1987. Lillian Eckert Haring worked at the Warren County Court House for 20 years, and each year she and Milton spent several winter months in Florida. Neither William nor Lillian had any children. Lillian Haring died on November 16, 2008, at the age of 90. 6. William Harry Boyer, born in 1874, is listed in several family reports as "Harry." In 1905, he was described as a shop foreman for the Lehigh Valley Railroad. His obituary said he was a tinsmith by trade and was in business for himself during the last 15 years of his life. Harry died on September 13, 1947, at his home at 735 Reynolds Street, South Easton, at the age of 73. He is buried in Hay's Cemetery with his wife, Ida M. Yeisley Boyer. Born on November 7, 1882, she died on December 24, 1958, at the age of 76, at Gracedale in Nazareth. Ida was a Yeisley, as was Ada, the wife of Harry's brother Barnie. Ida lived with brother‑in‑law Barnie Boyer after the death of Harry. 7. David W. Boyer, born on February 21, 1876, was listed as a carpenter in the 1898 Easton City Directory, living with his parents. His obituary, calling him "a well known resident of the South Side," said he was employed for many years by the Zearfoss‑Hilliard Lumber Company of Easton. He died of Bright's disease at his home, 620 Lincoln Street, on May 30, 1917, at the age of 41, eight years before his father died. David was married to Hattie King Boyer, who was born on September 15, 1876, and died on September 8, 1938, just short of her 62nd birthday. They had one child:
A.
Alice May Boyer, born about 1901, married Maynard
Campbell. She died on August 21, 1929, at the
age of 28,
apparently from complications of childbirth. Buried with
Alice
are three unnamed children who died at birth, on April 23, 1926, May
28, 1927, and August 20, 1929. The obituary of Alice said
that
she died at her home in Allentown. She had two living children at her
death, Betty
Campbell and Daryl
Campbell. Both were living in
1938 when Hattie Boyer died.
8. Bernard Oscar "Barnie" Boyer was born on January 25, 1877, and died at his home on July 19, 1952, at the age of 75. The census in 1900, when Barnie was 23, listed him as a blacksmith. This was probably with the Lehigh Valley Railroad shops in Easton, where he worked for 26 years, according to his obituary. He then worked 24 years as a clerk with H.P. Kinsey, a plumbing supply dealer, first on Church Street, later on Bushkill Drive in Easton, and he retired in 1942. It is recalled that late in life he had circulation problems, causing him to lose an arm and a leg. Despite these difficulties he insisted on rolling his own cigarettes.
Barnie married Ada Pearl Yeisley, who had been born in 1882. She died on August 16, 1960, according to Hay's Cemetery records, at the age of 78. With the Yeisley family, Barnie had built a double house at 506 Line Street in South Easton in the early 1900s, when that land was "out in the country." The Boyer home served for family get‑ togethers almost every Thursday evening. In the other half of the home lived Bill and Ardie Yeisley. Bill, a brother to Ada, was a trolley engineer who was crippled from an accident in which he was pinned between two trolleys. Barnie and Ada had two children:
A.
Clair O. Boyer, first child of Barnie and Ada, born on
December 22, 1904, in Easton, was at one time the owner and operator of
the Washburn Market, a small grocery store on the 600 block of Centre
Street in South Easton (the same block where his grandfather William B.
Boyer lived). Clair attended Easton High School and Churchman
Business College. His family recalled that he was a generous
man
who gave credit to many Ingersoll‑Rand workers when they were on strike
in the 1940s, but who went bankrupt when the strike was over because
the workers refused to repay him and took their business to a newly
opened supermarket. Clair then became a door‑to‑door salesman
for
Hellick's and for a dry cleaner, and then a custodian at Easton High
School, retiring in 1975. He died in Easton Hospital on March
11,
1978, at the age of 73. His wife, Ethel M.
Rabuck, was born on
June 9, 1913, and died on April 19, 1985. She had worked for
the
Easton Area School District for 12 years. They lived in the
house
of his father, at 506 Line Street. Both were buried at
Northampton Memorial Shrine. They had two children:
‑‑
Joan F. Boyer
was born in Easton on September 17,
1938. She
graduated from Easton High School and received Bachelor's and Master's
degrees from East Stroudsburg University. She was a teacher in
the
Easton Area School District for 33 years. She was
married
to and later divorced from Willard
Odenwelder. They had one son.
Joan
Boyer Odenwelder died at her home in Forks Township on August 30,
2009. She was 70. A newspaper obituary said that, in addition to her
son, Scott, and her brother, Donald, Joan was survived by her
companion, Ray
Herman, and a grandson, Tristen Odenwelder.
-- Scott David Odenwelder,
son of Joan Boyer and Willard Odenwelder, was born on February 4, 1972.
Scott's wife, Tabitha
Odenwelder, was the
owner of Tabitha's beauty salon on Northampton Street in
Easton.
‑‑ Donald J. Boyer was born on January 7, 1954, in Easton, and graduated from Easton High School in 1971 and from Penn State University in 1975. He was living on Third Street in Avona Heights, Wilson Borough, in 1986, working as an insurance agent for American General Insurance Company. He was married on June 19, 1982, to Christina “Chris” Calzetti, born on September 21, 1955, in Martin's Creek, Pennsylvania. In 1987, she was a real estate agent for Greentree Realty Associates in Easton. She later became a real estate appraiser. They had one son:
--
Jonathan (Jon) Daniel Boyer was born in Easton on
September 5,
1987, and
graduated from Easton High School in 2006. Jonathan, standing
6
feet 5 inches and weighing 210 pounds, made 28 out of 28 extra point
attempts for the Easton High School football team in 2005, and 6 of 9
field goals. He was named All-Conference and All-Area first
team. After high school, he attended Temple University and then
transferred to Towson University, near Baltimore, where
he was a placekicker
in 2009.
B.
Marshall B. "Marsh" Boyer, second child of Barnie and Ada,
was
born in 1911. His wife's name was Helen,
and
they lived in Riegelsville, New Jersey. Marsh served with the
U.S. Army in the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. He worked as a
lineman and in other capacities with New Jersey Power and
Light.
He died in Riegelsville, Pennsylvania, in November 1984. They had no children.
9. John Edward Boyer was born on February 29, 1880, in Easton, and was buried on September 28, 1881, at the age of 19 months. John is mentioned in a record of Northampton County deaths.[6] He is buried with his parents, William and Martha, in Hay's Cemetery. 10. Lillian A. Boyer, the tenth child of William B. Boyer, was born in 1882. She married William A. Nixon, also born in 1882, who worked for 25 years as a salesman for H. P. Kinsey Hardware Company. Lillian worked as a "matron" at Laubach's department store in Easton. She lived in a large stone house at the intersection of Lincoln Street and Philadelphia Road in South Easton; it was recalled that when the road was widened, the house was moved several blocks, to 203 Lincoln Street, in order to preserve it. William and Lillian had no children. He died on October 19, 1939, at the age of 57. Lillian died on May 28, 1968, at the age of 86. She was the last surviving child of William and Martha Boyer. 11. George A. Boyer was born in Easton on May 6, 1884. He was the eleventh child of William, who was then 41, and Martha, who was 42. He was married three times and died on January 23, 1968, in Saunders House, Philadelphia, at the age of 83, four months before the death of his sister Lillian. George was listed as an "apprentice" in the Easton City Directory of 1903, when he was 18 and living with his parents. His obituary described him as a retired self‑employed cabinet maker. It is reported that he lived at one time in Trenton, New Jersey, but he also lived on the South Side of Easton. (It is possible that some details of his life have been confused with those of his uncle, George B. Boyer (1839‑1907), who had two wives and also lived both in South Easton and New Jersey.) George is buried in Hay's Cemetery and shares his grave with his first and second wives. His first wife, Nellie K. Flynn Boyer, was born on September 12, 1873 (almost eleven years before George), and died at her home at 613 Milton Street, Easton, on February 3, 1921, at the age of 47. She was a native of Glen Gardner, New Jersey, and had lived in Easton about 18 years. Elizabeth Anders Boyer, George's second wife, was the principal of the Webster School in Easton for 12 years, and a teacher for 28 years. She had been born on January 5, 1887, and she was listed in the 1930 census as single, living with her mother on Wilkes-Barre Street. She died on November 18, 1940, at the age of 53. She and George lived at 446 West Wilkes‑Barre Street. Apparently, she and George were married only a short time. They were not yet married in September 1938, according to a newspaper item about a trip they took to New York. When George died in 1968, his obituary gave his address as 26 South 11th Street, Easton, and said that his wife Lillian Bollinger Boyer (apparently his third wife), died before him. It is reported that George's sister Lillian took care of George and his third wife when both were ill. LINKS: Neil Boyer's Home Page Boyer Family of Orwigsburg Boyer Family of Easton The Immigrant Johann Friedrich Boyer Children of Johann Friedrich Boyer David Boyer, Gunmaker of Orwigsburg George B. Boyer, Brother of William George Boyer's Son, Lewis Elmer Boyer Origins of the Boyer Family Association of American Boyers Waltman Family of Northampton County Back to Top of This Page
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