Dickinson Co., KS AHGP-Portrait and
Biographical Record of Dickinson, Saline, McPherson and
Marion Counties-A. E. Boyland
Portrait and Biographical
Record of Dickinson, Saline, McPherson and Marion
Counties
Chapman Brothers, Chicago, 1893
A. E. BOYLAND may be justly proud of his
highly improved farm, which is one of the
finest in Fragrant Hill Township, Dickinson
County. It is situated on section 25,
and comprises one hundred and sixty acres of arable
land on the site of an old military post on
Spring Branch, one of those that formed a line
from Denver eastward in an early day. The well tilled
fields and many improvements upon the
place indicate the thrift and enterprise of the
owner. There are good buildings and a pleasant
home, which is almost hidden from the road by
the beautiful shade and ornamental trees which
adorn the lawn in front. A beautiful spring of
pure, cold water issues from the banks of the creek
that flows across his farm. In all the accessories
of a model farm it seems complete.
The owner of this desirable place was born in
Muskingum County, Ohio, in 1822. and is a son of
Samuel Boyland, who was born in Licking County,
and was a farmer by occupation. The grandfather
of our subject was a native of Scotland and settled
in the Buckeye State among its pioneers. A.
E. Boyland when only three years of age was left
fatherless and his mother died when he was a lad
of nine years. He then went to live with a Mr.
Reynolds, with whom he remained until seventeen
years of age, at which time he started out
in life for himself. He has since been dependent
upon his own resources.
As a companion and helpmate on life's journey,
Mr. Boyland chose Miss Julia Hartmann, a native
of Fairfield County, Ohio, although her parents
were natives of Germany. Her father, Henry
Hartmann, emigrated thence to America and settled
in Westmoreland County, Pa., with his parents
when a lad. At twenty-one years of age he
removed to Ohio and there married Katherine
Benedon. Her father, George Benedon, was a
minister of the United Brethren Church, and came
with the family from Westmoreland County, Pa.,
to Lancaster, Ohio. She was a resident there at
the time of her marriage to Henry Hartmann.
The union of Mr. and Mrs. Boyland was celebrated
near Findlay, Ohio, in 1851, and they began
their domestic life upon a farm, devoting their
time and attention to farm labors until 1868. In
that year, Mr. Boyland came to Kansas, accompanied
by their only child, Henry H., who is now
married and is traveling in Tennessee with a patent
of his own invention. Locating in Manhattan,
our subject there resided for five years and
was at the head of the Agricultural College in the
department of practical farming.
In the meantime, Mr. Boyland purchased one
hundred and sixty acres of land in Fragrant Hill
Township, his present farm. It was then a wild
tract of raw prairie, with only a few trees along
the bank of the creek. He experienced many
hardships and trials in the earlier days, and his
crops suffered severely from grasshoppers. In
1874 those insects were so thick on and about his
farm that it was impossible to see the sun, and
they destroyed fifteen acres of corn for him in a
few hours. However, Mr. Boyland has triumphed
over his adversities by his perseverance and industry.
He has excellent taste in landscape
gardening, which fact is evinced by the tasty and
beautiful manner in which he has laid out his
grounds. The pleasant home is presided over by
his genial and agreeable wife, who extends to her
guests that free hospitality for which the early pioneers
were noted. This worthy couple well deserve
representation in the history of their adopted
county, and it is with pleasure that we record their
sketch.
(c) 2009 Sheryl McClure for
Dickinson County KS AHGP