California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


C. E. BOYNTON, M. D., physician and surgeon of Los Banos, Cal, was born in Groveland, 
Essex county, Mass., March 16, i860, and is the only representative of his family on the Pa- 
cific coast. His family has long been represented in the New England states. The founder of the 
name in America was William Boynton, born in East Riding, Yorkshire, England, in 1606, and 
who came to Essex county, Mass., in 1638. He became a man of affairs in the colonies, acquir- 
ing wealth and governmental influence. His son, Joshua Boynton, was born in Rowley, Mass., 
March 10, 1646, and in 1673 removed to a farm in Newbury, Mass. The next generation was 
represented by a Joshua, born in 1679, who married Mary Gerrish Dale, and their son Enoch 
was born in 1727. Enoch was a fisherman and farmer, and served his country in the battle of 
Louisburg. Enoch, Jr., was born on the old Boynton homestead in 1748. and married Abi- 
gail Tarring, and their son, Captain Methusaleh, who was born in 1777, was a sailor and captain 
of a vessel. He attained distinction in the war of 1812, and was noted for his great physical 
strength. He married Abigail Dodge, and their son, Enoch, was born in Newburyport, Mass., 
June 12, 1816. Enoch was a man of courage and strong convictions, and as early as 1836 was 
stanchly in favor of the abolition of slavery. He married Charlotte Gage Kimball, born in Brad- 
ford, Mass., a daughter of George Kimball, of old Massachusetts stock, who died in that state 
about 1862, at the age of sixty-eight. Thus is traced the American occupation of the family, 
yet record has been kept of the Boyntons since the time of William the Conqueror, at which 
time baronets and peers maintained the family prestige, one of the soldiers having been 
Bartholemew de Boynton, who, in turn, owed his lineage to the vikings of the northland. 

Until his seventeenth year Dr. Boynton lived in Groveland, Mass.. when owing to the death 
of his father, he was obliged to earn his own living. At this time he had not a cent in the 
world, and the position of deck-hand, offered him by a considerate employer, was readily ac- 
cepted. His education was a matter entirely of his own getting, for while working he walked 
to Amherst College and back, studied diligently as only boys spurred by necessity and poverty are 
apt to do, and in time worked his way through the Massachusetts Agricultural College, gradu- 
ating in 1881 with the degree of B.S. In 1881 he began traveling through the middle states, 
continuing his studies at various seats of learning, finally entering the Orange Street Medical 
College in Syracuse, N. Y., from which he received his professional degree in 1888. A 
student of more than ordinary application and resource, he carried away the highest honors 
of his class, and was appointed medical superintendent of the Onondaga Insane Asylum near 
Syracuse. Holding the same for eighteen months, he came west to Wyoming in 1890, prac- 
ticed medicine and surgery at Almy and Redcanon, and in the mines near Evanston. A year 
later he located in Cathlamet, Wash., on the Columbia river, later practicing in the islands of 
Puget Sound, taking his way from one island to another in a rowboat. His next location was 
Portland, Ore., and later for three years he was located in Polk county, that state. Coming to 
San Francisco, he practiced for a time, and then, through a friend, Dr. J. A. Anderson, learned 
of the excellent opportunity awaiting an ambitious practitioner in Los Banos. 

From the start he was successful in Los Banos, and at the end of six months had a creditable 
and paying practice. Continuing here during 1896-97. he then went to Smithfield, Utah, where 
he succeeded for a year, but owing to the high altitude was obliged to make a change of location. 
Then he practiced in Dungeness, Clallam county, Wash., but not liking the place he located in 
Hamilton, Wash., meeting with success. He next returned to Smithfield, Utah, for a time, 
but soon after decided to locate permanently in Los Banos. reaching here in 1901. Two years 
here proved both profitable and pleasant, in the meantime a petition had been signed by the peo- 
ple of Smithfield, calling attention to the favorable impression he had made in that town, and 
requesting his return. Accordingly he shifted his field of operations, but again finding the alti- 
tude too high, he sold out and came back to Los Banos in May, 1904. Since then he has strength- 
ened his hold upon the hearts and minds of the people of this town, and is conducting a prac- 
tice in every way worthy the best tenets of medical science,' having before him a career in which 
continued success is happily assured. Dr. Boynton has an office equipped with a static machine 
and the most modern of medical and surgical appliances, and avails himself of the latest and 
most practical innovations evolved from the highest professional authorities. He is a Repub- 
lican in politics, and is an ordained elder in the Church of the Latter Day Saints. 

Mrs. Boynton ranks with the public-spirited and capable women of California, being an orator 
of acknowledged strength and persuasiveness, and a power in the ranks of the Republican party. 
With Mrs. Foster she stumped Utah for President McKinley, and undoubtedly was the means 
of securing that territory to the Republicans. Before her marriage she was Lucretia Houston 
Hall, daughter of a physician, and the heir on her mother's side to mental endowments of a 
high order. Her mother was a medical practitioner and scientist, and did much for the west 
along these advanced lines.