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<\/a>Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, 9 Oct 1891<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n
There were actually two men of the cloth, both from England, both who preached in Tivoli between 1891 and 1903, and both who caused an unbecoming scene during services at their respective churches that made the newspaper. The latter, Rev. Evan Valentine Evans, was part of Historic Red Hook\u2019s Cemetery Crawl, so I won\u2019t repeat myself. Find that sad story at Historic Red Hook<\/a><\/span>. The former you\u2019ll learn about here. If I find a third I\u2019m going to have to go for a PhD on the subject.<\/span><\/p>\n Rev. Evans\u2019 story is tragic and even sympathetic, but Rev. John H. Boyes\u2019 tale is that of a complicated man in a high-profile occupation who repeatedly made a bad situation worse. Let\u2019s get introduced to Boyes, then go back along his timeline to see how his life went off the rails.<\/span><\/p>\n First, it\u2019s important to mention who Rev. J.H. Boyes was <\/span>not<\/span><\/i>. His name was spelled \u201cBoyes,\u201d and was misspelled every way possible in newspapers, especially in our area where Boice or Boyce is a common surname. He was not farmer John H. Boyce, born c.1855, who resided in Wayne Co., NY. He was not Rev. J.H. Boyce (first name Jacob), a Methodist who served over 60 years, at one point in Wayne County and other locations in New York State but mostly in Pennsylvania. He was also not Rev. J.H. Boyce of New York State, a Methodist missionary active into the 1940s.<\/span><\/p>\n [If you want to see each source\u00a0<\/em>appropriately <\/em>footnoted, please click HERE <\/strong><\/a>for a pdf version of this article. I can’t figure out how to footnote in WordPress!]<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n John H. Boyes was born c.1850 in England. He began his work as a clergyman around 1880 (coincidentally the year that the Tivoli Baptist Church constructed the building in which he would later preach). Three years later on May 16th, 1883, Boyes married a Canadian woman named Lucinda Staples<\/span> in Wellington, Ontario, Canada,<\/span> then came to the US in 1884.<\/span> John and Lucinda had eight children, only four of whom lived to adulthood and who were born in New York State, Violet 1884, Grace 1886, Benjamin 1887, and John 1889.<\/span> He worked as a Baptist pastor in Williamson, Wayne Co., NY, Himrod, Yates Co., NY, Atlantic Highlands, Monmouth Co., NJ, and Tivoli, Dutchess Co., NY.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the 1900 census taken in Manhattan John H. Boyes\u2019 occupation was listed as \u201cartist\u201d and, indeed, the Poughkeepsie News-Press said that he had \u201cearned a promising reputation as a portrait painter. His work has found its way into some of the best and most cultured homes of Poughkeepsie.\u201d<\/span> The reporter also thought \u201cit really looks as if painting is the best way out of any church trouble that Mr. Boice [sic] may have had.\u201d He also worked in crayon (the art type, not the Crayola type), exhibiting and winning prizes for his portraits in the Yates County Fair.<\/span><\/p>\n The \u201cChurch Trouble\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Boyes was a Baptist pastor by profession who considered himself an artist at heart. He seemed to be a dyed-in-the wool Baptist and dedicated to his task. The Red Bank, NJ <\/span>Register <\/span><\/i>reported that he was \u201ca good preacher, and an earnest worker, and his labors in the churches of which he has formerly been pastor have been markedly successful.\u201d While working in New Jersey he added services and made Sunday school meet earlier in the day.<\/span> While in Williamson, he invited speakers to come to his church to talk about temperance, and he held public meetings to argue that \u201cthe teachings of the New Testament are superior and more conducive to human happiness than the teachings of Secularism.\u201d<\/span> It would seem he was a man who believed he knew How Things Should Be, but perhaps to the detriment of being gainfully employed. Only a short time into his tenure in New Jersey he argued that he was more forward-thinking than his employers, the trustees of the church he served, who had, in his words, \u201cnarrow, contracted ideas\u201d as to how to minister to the congregation.<\/span><\/p>\n Boyes must have seemed good on paper to be hired by four different houses of worship. He received praise and exhibited dedication and a desire to go above and beyond what was expected of him. But like so many who make their fortune through something other than that which gives them the satisfaction their hobbies do, it would seem that Rev. Mr. Boyes was often more concerned with getting paid than doing right by his flock. He spent just under two years in the employ of each congregation that hired him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Early Career<\/strong><\/p>\n Rev. Boyes\u2019 first (or perhaps second) stateside gig was in Williamson, Wayne Co., NY, east of Rochester. When he attended a Baptist convention in Rome, NY in October of 1884 the newspaper said that he hailed from \u201cLa Fargeville\u201d (north of Watertown and 125 miles from Williamson) but I could not find a record of his employment before Williamson. As a married Baptist pastor in his thirties with small children, he seemed poised to make a nice life for himself in America. However,\u00a0 just two years later his reputation would be announced far and wide by syndicated news when in July of 1886 he sued <\/span>Baptist Weekly<\/span><\/i> magazine for $50,000 for libel.<\/span><\/p>\n The magazine printed \u201c[Baptist] Churches are warned against receiving Rev. J.H. Boyes as a minister. He has a bad record\u201d in their July 1st, 1886 issue.<\/span> In the following pages, you will learn why they may have felt it important to state this for the record. Shortly after the July issue was printed, the <\/span>Palmyra Democrat<\/span><\/i> reported about the suit, saying that Boyes \u201c…has always borne an excellent reputation and has certificates of commendation from every society to whom he has preached. He is an original thinker and an able speaker\u2026\u201d<\/span> which sounds not unlike words he would say about himself. As this was his local paper and the syndicated story wouldn\u2019t be picked up for another two months, the possibility that Boyes wrote and submitted this story himself is fairly high. The case was to come before the circuit court in November in Lyons, but, before that could happen, the magazine printed a retraction \u201csaying that the reflections on the reverend gentleman were caused by a correspondent who had been misled\u201d and the suit was undoubtedly dropped as there is no more mention of it after 1886.<\/span><\/p>\n Rochester Democrat and Chronicle 21 Aug 1886<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n The first notice advising congregations against hiring Boyes was printed in July. Despite the story being picked up by numerous papers, his next three employers appear to have been none the wiser. By September he left Williamson and was hired by a church in Himrod, Yates Co., NY where he worked for a year and a half. In February 1888 in Himrod, he and Lucinda added a baby daughter, Olive to their family. Boyes was briefly absent from work in April 1888, the same month in which the Red Bank, NJ <\/span>Register <\/span><\/i>reported that he had been hired to preach at Atlantic Highlands Baptist Church.<\/span>,<\/span> His departure from Himrod seems to have been a smooth one, at least as far as was reported. He preached a farewell sermon in late April, was on his way to New Jersey the following week, and began his pastorate there in May of 1888.<\/span> In August, he and daughter Olive were ill with a \u201cbrain fever\u201d (possibly scarlet fever). John recovered, but Olive died on August 14th, one of four children the Boyes family would lose before 1900.<\/span><\/p>\n Trouble in New Jersey<\/strong><\/p>\n Nine months after beginning work in New Jersey, at a business meeting of which Boyes (as their pastor) was the chairman, the trustees of Atlantic Highlands (all of whom had the surname Leonard) asked him to resign. They felt his \u201cministrations (had) not been satisfactory to a part of the membership.\u201d<\/span> They had him relinquish the chair to another board member so that the board could discuss his departure. When he returned, Boyes said he wanted some more time to think about it, but waffled saying he may or may not resign. They got him to leave the meeting <\/span>again <\/span><\/i>and resolved to get him to resign by May 1st, 1889 or \u201cthe church members would take matters into their own hands.\u201d<\/span> When he couldn\u2019t be located to return to the meeting, they simply voted to fire him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That Sunday, during morning service before his sermon, Boyes used the pulpit to complain about this development in his career to those in attendance. His sermon talked about \u201cprophets who prophesied smooth things\u201d thinly veiling \u201c those who had led him to believe that everything would go smoothly\u201d when he took the job at Atlantic Highlands. The Sunday evening service was reported to be more personal than the morning, resulting in the members becoming even more convinced they needed to get rid of him.<\/span><\/p>\n What exactly was it that irked the members and deacons so much about Boyes that they felt they had to not only ask him to politely resign, but to insist when he didn\u2019t immediately agree to do so? Unfortunately, the only statements found alluded to the members being unhappy with the way he preached\u2014that \u201chis services were unacceptable to the church.\u201d If you are so bad at your job that your employer fires you, do you hang around, dig your heels in, and say \u2018no, boss. I\u2019m awesome and you\u2019re dumb and wrong\u2019? Truly baffling behavior.<\/span><\/p>\n The trustees of the church at first fired him effective April 15th, he countered with June 1st, then they compromised with paying him through May 1st, but with the understanding that he was done preaching effective April 15th.<\/span> They wanted him out of the pulpit <\/span>that badly<\/span><\/i>. Boyes refused.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a>