Montgomery County PA Archives Biographies.....Boyer, J. Frank March 2, 1867 - 
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Joe Patterson jpatter@epix.net November 24, 2025, 5:50 pm

Source: Biographical Annals of Montgomery County Pennsylvania, T. S. Benham & Company and the Lewis Publishing Company, 1904
Author: Ellwood Roberts, Editor

  J. FRANK BOYER, head of the J. Frank Boyer Plumbing and 
Heating Company and
the leading spirit in several other 
Norristown enterprises, is one of the
youngest of 
Norristown's business men. He was born March 2, 1867. He is 
the
son of Michael C. and Mary A. (Ziegler) Boyer, the 
former deceased, both of
them belonging to old Montgomery 
county families of German origin.

  Mr. Boyer
attended the public schools of Norristown, but 
did not continue longer at
school after having reached the 
age of sixteen years, preferring to engage in
active 
business. Immediately on leaving school he took a position 
with Frank
W. Wilson, long since deceased, but then located 
on West Main street,
Norristown, to learn the tin, stove and 
hardware business. Mr. Boyer began
business on his own 
account at the age of eighteen years. He made a success
of 
his venture from the start.

  In 1889 he located at the corner of Main and
Green 
streets, Norristown, where he remained until his business 
had increased
so much that it had entirely outgrown the 
accommodations, when he purchased a
suitable site for an 
establishment of the kind he had projected for his
growing 
needs, erected a substantial and well appointed building, 
and now
occupies it fully in connection with the operations 
of the J. Frank Boyer
Plumbing and Heating Company, the 
patrons of which are not confined to
Norristown or even to 
Montgomery county. 

  The new building is located on the
west side of Main 
street, about midway between Green and DeKalb, and it 

contains samples of everything in the line of the company, 
which can be
furnished at the shortest possible notice and 
at figures which will compare
favorably with those of any 
Philadelphia establishment, however extensive. It
is a 
favorite theory of Mr. Boyer that the customers of the firm 
should not be
allowed to go to Philadelphia for any article 
in his line, and they very seldom
do so. In every enterprise 
with which Mr. Boyer has been connected in his
comparatively 
short but very successful career he has been an earnest and 

indefatigable worker. Among these may be included the 
Plumbing and Heating
Company, the Hamilton Terrace Company, 
the Norristown Brick Company, and the
Hamilton Apartment 
Company, in all of which he has filled the position of 

president. He is also a director of the Peoples National 
Bank of Norristown, of
the Norristown Trust Company, and of 
the Norristown Steam Heating Company.
 

 The Hamilton Terrace Company, which has recently gone out 
of business as a
corporation, the assets in land and money 
having been divided among the
individual members, was formed 
to develop the tract known as Hamilton Terrace,
on which it 
laid out streets, graded by them at enormous expense, 
erected
fifty or more elegant and desirable residences, and 
made the entire transaction
a paying investment, selling the 
houses to the best class of buyers- those who
occupy them 
with their families. It requires genius to formulate and 
execute
practical plans for enterprises of so extensive a 
character, and to carry them
to a successful conclusion as 
in this instance, and the results attained may be
regarded 
as highly creditable to the president of the company and to 
his
coadjutors. Another instance of Mr. Boyer's ability for 
organization was
displayed in the formation of the Hamilton 
Apartment Company, which was
planned, erected, and filled 
with the families who are among the best in
Norristown, and 
all in the short space of six months. The mere task of 

equipping the establishment, after it had been erected, was 
no light matter,
and most of it, as well as the arrangements 
to secure the occupants of the
Apartment House, devolved 
upon Mr. Boyer. Without the highest kind of
executive 
ability exercised in its management, the idea might have 
been a
comparative failure, but, on the contrary, it became 
from the start a complete
and overwhelming success.

  In politics Mr. Boyer is a Democrat, but he is not
a 
partison. During his term as councilman, he being the 
youngest member of
that body ever elected to the position, 
his action on matters coming before
council for action was 
dictated solely by a desire to promote the public
welfare, 
and not by mere partisan reasons. He is interested in all 
that
relates to the well being of the Norristown public, 
with whose progress he has
from his earliest youth been so 
closely identified.

  Mr. Boyer married,
November 14, 1888, Miss Annie G., 
daughter of Patrick Curran, a well known and
prominent 
citizen of Norristown.

  Michael Boyer (father) was a native of
Upper Salford 
township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, being the son of 

Philip Boyer, also of that township. He attended Washington 
Hall Collegiate
Institute, at Trappe, and engaged for a time 
in the occupation of teaching. 


 He was a Democrat in politics, and having secured his 
party's nomination for
sheriff of Montgomery county in 1852, 
he was elected to that office, and served
very acceptably 
for three years. After the expiration of his term as 
sheriff,
Mr. Boyer remained in Norristown, and was for many 
years one of its most active
business men and manufacturers. 
He formed a partnership with William Schall for
making 
nails, and afterwards became interested in the Norris Iron 
Works, a
flourishing. establishment that employed more than 
a hundred. and fifty
hands. 

  Mr. Boyer was the inventor of many patentable articles, 
for more
than fifty of which he secured patents, among them 
being Boyer's Hoof Liniment,
a company being organized to 
make and sell it. Mr. Boyer was born May 28, 1821,
and died 
October 10, 1891, in his seventy-second year. Mr. Boyer gave 

considerable attention to building. For some years he 
resided with his family
in a mansion on West Main street, 
which was afterwards occupied and owned by
President John 
Slingluff, of the Montgomery National Bank, and after his 
death
by his widow and daughter, and was recently purchased 
by Mr. Hervey C. Gresh. 

  The children of Mr. and Mrs. Michael C. Boyer; Jesse, 
Katie, Wallace, Horace
G., Wilson, Michael A., Howard C., 
Harry Z. Mary L., T. Frank, subject of this
sketch, and 
Charles, several of whom are now deceased. Mr. Boyer's 
mother,
Mrs. Mary Boyer, is a resident of Norristown, and is 
highly respected by all
who know her.

  J. Frank Boyer is the president and organizer of the 

Norristown Brick Company, which is the successor of the 
Morgan Brick Company,
as that was of the establishment of 
Shaffer Brothers. It may be said of this
company that it 
very much improved the equipment of the plant at Forest and 

Sterigere streets, and produced a fine product which is 
rapidly replacing all
other bricks heretofore used in 
Norristown and vicinity. The company are doing
business 
strictly on business principles, and are operating very 
successfully.
This enterprise may be said to be the first 
really successful brickmaking
establishment in Norristown, 
and the most unbounded success may be predicted
for it in 
the future, in view of what it has already accomplished.
 
  Mr.
Boyer is a member of the leading Norristown social 
club, the lodge of the
Benevolent and Protective Order of 
Elks. He is a contributing member of the
Hancock Fire 
Company of the West End, and is always ready to extend 

substantial aid to all deserving organizations that have 
been established in
the community. He has traveled 
extensively from the Atlantic to the Pacific
Coast of the 
United States, and is well informed as to the business 
situation
throughout the country at all times. He is always 
interested in whatever
promises to benefit Norristown from a 
business or other standpoint, and is
generally recognized as 
one of the most enterprising as well as progressive
citizens 
of the county-seat of Montgomery. His genius for 
organization has
been well displayed in the different 
corporations of which he is or has been
the effective head, 
and their uniform success is the best possible testimony
to 
the good sense and practical business views which guide him 
in every
undertaking in life.

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