Genesee County MI Archives Biographies.....Boyce, Luke 1832 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 24, 2007, 2:33 am

Author: Chapman Bros. (1892)

LUKE BOYCE, a farmer of Clayton Township, Genesee County, lives upon a farm of
eighty acres, where he settled in 1869. He is a native of Cambridgeshire,
England, and a son of Luke and Mary (Morley) Boyce, and was born December 10,
1832. His father was a farm laborer in England and there spent all his days. Our
subject is the only child of these parents and he was educated in England, not
coming to this country until he reached the age of nineteen. After remaining
eighteen months in New York he traveled through the Western States working on
the railroads and brick-making.

  In 1859 Luke Boyce married Miss Angeline E. Vice, an adopted daughter of
William Guslin, but their life together was very brief, as she died in Missouri
in 1860. In St. Joseph, Mo., he engaged in brick-making and remained there until
March 1861, when he went to Nebraska, where he was employed in chopping wood.
While in Omaha he enlisted in Company B, First Nebraska Infantry, joining the
army June 11, 1861, but was transferred to Company E. He was in the service five
years and twenty days, and during the latter part of this term was in the
cavalry service, being changed by a general order from the Government in 1863,
said order to the effect that territorial troops were to be mounted. They were
engaged in fighting bushwhackers and guerrillas and during the latter part of
the time were engaged in fighting the Indians on the plains and acting as guard
to the stage coaches of the overland route.

  Mr. Boyce was in the following battles: Ft. Henry, Ft. Donelson, Pitsburg
Landing and Corinth and after that he went to Memphis and from there to Helena,
Ark. Cape Girardeau was the next battle in which he took part. During the first
skirmish in which he was engaged they took thirteen hundred prisoners, and sixty
wagon loads of provisions were captured, He was never wounded nor captured but
in the spring of 1864 he was in the hospital in Nebraska, as he was suffering
from scurvy. After his discharge at Omaha, July 1, 1866, he came to Michigan and
settled upon the farm where he now lives, in 1890. It was then all covered with
timber and he has improved and cleared it and put it in first class condition.
All the buildings upon it have been put there by him. He is ardently attached to
the organization of the Grand Army of the Republic and is a Republican in
politics. He is a Director of the school and in every way one of the prominent
men of the township, being identified with the order of Odd Fellows and a
stock-holder in the Clayton Center butter and cheese factory. His health has
been greatly impaired ever since his army experience, and he finds it now
difficult to attend actively to business and has withdrawn from most matters
which require much effort.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

Portrait and Biographical Record of Genesee, Lapeer and Tuscola Counties,
Michigan, Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative
Citizens, Together with Biographies of all the Governors of the State, and of
the Presidents of the United States

Chicago:
Chapman Bros.
1892

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/genesee/bios/boyce968gbs.txt

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