JOHN WELLINGTON BOYLE
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, August 6, 1851, John Wellington Boyle was brought by his parents to this country in his infancy, and nearly his entire life has been passed in Utica and vicinity. He is the
youngest child of John and Elizabeth (Sharpe) Boyle. The father had been thoroughly trained in the cotton industry, and on reaching America found employment at New York Mills, where the family
settled, and where the mother, a woman of great strength of character and rare personal attainments, died in 1868.
During his childhood the boy attended the public schools of the village, but at the close of the civil war when labor was in demand and wages high, he obtained a position in the cotton mills, and while accumulating the means for further education, acquired also that habit of persistent effort and industry which has been so potent a factor in his subsequent success. As soon as his means warranted he entered Whitestown Seminary, and was fortunate in being enrolled as a pupil of that institution during the most flourishing period in its history. He then commenced the study of the law in the office of Doolittle & Swan, in Utica, and subsequently entered the Albany Law School, pursuing his studies in term time and working through the vacations until 1872, when he graduated. On attaining his majority he was admitted to the bar and returned to Utica to enter upon the practice of his profession.
For the first three years he was associated with the firm of Waterman & Hunt, but since 1875 he has practiced alone, making a specialty of corporation and commercial law, and counting among his clients numerous corporations and some of the oldest and most reliable firms in the State. He has also been connected as attorney or counselor with many well-known cases, notably the Woodford litigations, growing out of the burning of the village of Canastota, which remained in the courts thirteen years, and proved one of the most stubbornly fought legal battles in the history of Central New York. It drew into its several trials some of the best forensic talent in the State. As attorney for the plaintiff Mr. Boyle eventually won every point involved and secured verdicts aggregating about twenty-seven thousand dollars.
It is in railroad litigation and affairs, however, that he has been especially prominent and successful. In 1886 the street railways of Utica, formerly operated by the Clinton and Binghamton Company as horse railroads changed hands, and Mr. Boyle became connected with the management as attorney for the new company. After securing valuable franchises, extending the old lines and constructing new ones throughout the city, the controlling interest in the Utica Belt Line Street Railroad Company was, in 1889, sold to a New York syndicate, one of the conditions of the sale being the immediate equipment of the property with electricity.
Mr. Boyle, as vice president and general counsel under the new management, still continued to represent the local minority interest. Early in 1890 the change of motive power in all its details was completed; but this was accomplished only after many serious obstacles and innumerable injunction cases had been successfully met and defeated, in all of which Mr. Boyle bore an active and prominent part, displaying tact, skill, excellent judgment and large executive ability. But the road under the control of non-resident owners had become financially involved, and in January, 1892, its embarrassments culminated in the appointment of a receiver.
At this juncture Mr. Boyle again came to the front. With the interests of the road itself at heart, as well as those of the Utica stockholders whom he represented, he most skillfully piloted the property through its many legal complications and financial difficulties, and in August, 1894, successfully effected a favorable and satisfactory re organization. His services now met with their merited reward in his election to the presidency of the reorganized company, and by his appointment as trustee of the entire property for a term of years, which positions he still holds, and whose duties he discharges with pre-eminent success. It is due to his tireless energy and unswerving faith in the future possibilities of Utica and the Belt Line property, that the city possesses to-day an electric railway system second to none in the State.
In politics Mr. Boyle has always been a Republican, and while devoting but little time to the subject, he is nevertheless regarded a shrewd adviser in political affairs. An excellent judge of human nature he quickly knows men and with almost unerring accuracy discovers their actuating motives. For a modern politician, however, he perhaps possesses too much boldness, individuality and independence of character. Mr. Boyle is prominent in Masonic, circles, having been for three consecutive terms elected Eminent Commander of Utica Commandery No. 3, K, T., and for seven years prior to December, 1895, was Illustrious Potentate of Ziyara Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and declined a re-election to that position on account of pressing business duties. By special act of the Legislature of 1894, New York, he was made one of the incorporators and a trustee of the Imperial Council, Nobles of the M. S., for North America. He is also a member of its committee on jurisprudence and law.
Mr. Boyle was married in February, 1878, to Miss Harriet E. Combs, daughter of Lucius and Sarah (Holmes) Combs, of Whitesboro.
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