Gilbert, Frank T.  "Historic Sketches of Walla Walla, Whitman, Columbia and
Garfield Counties, Washington Territory; and Umatilla County, Oregon."
Portland, OR: Print & Lithographing House of A. G. Walling, 1882. p. a4.
 
JOHN F. BOYER

     of the firm of Baker and Boyer, bankers in Walla Walla City, W. T., is one
of the men whose success in life and business has been mainly achieved in the
country where he now lives by the exercise of economy, industry and business
integrity, guided with intelligent financial ability. He is now a capitalist;
twenty years ago, he was a poor man and what he has, came gradually through
those years as the result of correct business calculations, and not by chance or
a favorable turn of fortune's wheel. He was born in Rock Castle Co., Kentucky,
March 28, 1824, and while an infant, his parents moved to the Ohio river, and
some twelve years later to Jefferson Co., Indiana. At twenty years of age, he
left his Indiana home; and became a clerk for a mercantile firm in Van Buren,
Arkansas, This was in 1844, and in 1849 he crossed the plains to
California, where he first engaged in mining, but changed to the mercantile line
and started a store in Sonora of that state.  In 1852, leaving his business in
charge of a partner, he returned to Arkansas, but soon learned that a fire had
swept away most of his California property, and he determined to remain in the
States.
     In 1853, August 29, he was married in Mount Carmel, Illinois, to Miss Sarah
E., a sister of his present partner, Dr. D. S. Baker, and the following are the
names and dates of birth of Mr. and Mrs. Boyer's children: Charles S., June 1,
1854, Franklin D., August 20, 1856; Eugene H., February 6, 1859; Arthur A.,
April 21, 1861; Annie I., December 31, 1863: John E, December 29, 1866; and S.
Imogen, March 28, 1869.
     In 1859, Mr. Boyer with his family again crossed the plains to California,
where he established himself as a merchant at Sonora and remained their until
1862, when he accepted an offer of co-partnership with Dr. D. S. Baker in the
mercantile branch of his Walla Walla business. At the time Mr. Boyer first took
charge of the store in the latter place, and for years after, the miners were in
the habit of depositing their gold dust with the firm for safe keeping. They
would come with little and big sacks of it with the owner's name attached, leave
their mountain accumulation for days, and sometimes months, without a scratch of
a pen or witness in the world, except Mr. Boyer, to prove that they had ever
left anything on deposit. No receipts were given or asked for, and although this
practice was continued for years, and the deposits often reached from $30,000 to
$40,000 at a time, no trouble, misunderstanding or loss ever occurred. In 1870,
the firm decided to close out their mercantile business and settle with their
customers, many of whom had long standing bills unpaid. In carrying this design
into effect, large amounts of money were collected that it became necessary to
make use of, and they commenced loaning it, on long or short time, upon approved
security, and this new branch of business soon assumed large proportions. The
idea was thus suggested to the partners of starting a bank, which was carried
into effect, and now the banking firm of Baker & Boyer is one of the most
reliable monied institutions on the Pacific Coast. Not because of the extensive
funds invested, that only reaches $150,000, to which should be added nearly
$150,000 surplus, but because the bank risks no money upon uncertain outside
speculations, such as forced a suspension of the Bank of California with its
millions of capital.
     In conclusion we would say that Mr. and Mrs. Boyer (and the same is equally
true of Dr. D. S. Baker) have raised a family of children in a manner that
reflects credit upon them as persons possessing practical sense. Each and every
one of those children has been educated to look upon life, not as the idle
drones upon the honey stored for them by the working bees in the hive, but as a
period blocked out of time, in which they are to accomplish something by their
own acts that will not be
discreditable to themselves and the name they bear. To Dr. Baker, to J.F. Boyer,
and men of their kind, Eastern Washington Territory owes its present prosperity
and future prospects.

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Submitted to the WA. Bios Project in February 2007 by Diana Smith.

Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies
Project. Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the
individual featured in the biographies.