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Below is a family biography included in the Biographical Annals of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania published in 1904 by T. S. Benham & Company and The Lewis Publishing Company; Elwood Roberts, Editor.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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JACOB EDWARD BOYER, a farmer of West Pottsgrove township, was born August 10, 1840, in York county, Pennsylvania. He is the son of John and Eva (Diehl) Boyer. John Boyer (father) was born in York county, Pennsylvania, and lived in that county and Cumberland county, which adjoins it, all his life. He was a millwright, and in the latter part of his life became the owner of a mill. He died at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, at the age of seventy-four years, and is buried in St. John’s churchyard, Cumberland county. His wife survived him ten years, dying at the age of eighty-eight. She is buried in the same place. In politics he was a Democrat, and the family were members of the Lutheran church. John and Eva (Diehl) Boyer had eleven children: Israel (deceased), married Anne Zimm, who lives in Virginia, they being residents of Centre county at the time of his death, and having two children; Sarah (deceased) married Edward Pleager (deceased), they having lived in York county, and having one child; John (deceased) married Caroline Herring (deceased), they having been residents of Cumberland county, and having no children; Amelia, married Dr. Bigler, a practicing physician in York county, and they have three children; Amanda (deceased), married William Shoemaker, and had three children, they having made their home in Washington, D. C.; Rebecca, married Henry Heyd, and lived in Mechanicsburg, he being superintendent of an iron industry of Harrisburg, and they had no children; Adeline, married J. W. Moser, they being farmers in Berks county, and having ten children; Elmina, married Irwin Barrett (deceased), they having resided in Florida, which is still her home, he having been a carpenter, and they had one child, Miles, who is unmarried, and is a truck raiser in Florida; Permilla, unmarried, lives in Florida also; Jacob E., subject of this sketch.

John Boyer (grandfather) was a native of York county, Pennsylvania, and died at an advanced age many years before Jacob E. Boyer was born. He and his wife were buried in York county, where he was a farmer. Jacob and ___(Pleager) Diehl (maternal grandparents) were residents of York county, and are buried at York, Pennsylvania.

Jacob Edward Boyer went to school until he was twenty-two years of age, and was afterwards engaged in farming and milling until the death of his parents. For nine years he managed a farm for himself, and then spent a year in Topeka, Kansas. After returning from the west he lived on a farm in Berks county for six years before removing to his present home.

In Mechanicsburg, June 15, 1879, Jacob Edward Boyer married Clara, daughter of Jacob and Sarah (Smith) Eppley. Mr. and Mrs. Eppley are both deceased, she having died May 10, 1883, and her husband in April, 1902, she dying at the age of forty-one, and he at the age of eighty-eight. He was a merchant and farmer in Cumberland county, and they are buried in St. John’s churchyard, that county. They had eleven children. Jacob Edward and Clara (Eppley) Boyer have three children: Permilla, born January 20, 1883, married George Francis, son of Hiram and Emma D. Francis, the couple living with J. E. Boyer, and having one child, Charlotte May, born December 12, 1901; Walter E., unmarried, born August I, 1886; Bertha Irene, born January 17, 1890.

Mr. Boyer is a Democrat in politics, and the family are members of the Lutheran church of Stowe.

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This family biography is one of more than 1,000 biographies included in the Biographical Annals of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania published in 1904 by T. S. Benham & Company and The Lewis Publishing Company.  For the complete description, click here: Biographical Annals of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania

View additional Montgomery County, Pennsylvania family biographies here: Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Biographies

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