Fayette County PA Archives Biographies.....Boyle, Charles Edmund February 4, 1836 - December 15, 1888
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Source: Gresham and Wiley, 1889: Biographical & Portrait Cyclopedia, Fayette Co, PA, pg 127
Author: John H. Gresham & Samuel T. Wiley

    Charles Edmund Boyle.  By the apace allowed by the plan 
of this work, it is impossible to do justice to the memory 
of this remarkable man; yet we deem it most appropriate that 
a record of the salient points of his life should be given 
in the Biographical Cyclopedia of Fayette county.
    As calm and unbiased judgment of a man's life is most 
likely to be rendered when its labors are ended and its 
ambitions and rivalries can no longer affect the award; and 
as the time is now here the historian should render such 
judgment in making record of the life of the Hon Charles E 
Boyle, a distinguished lawyer, statesman, and jurist.  The 
rightful measure of distinction to which he is entitled is 
both local and national: as it was honorably and justly won, 
it should be freely accorded space on the Biographical page.
    Charles E Boyle was born at Uniontown, Fayette county, 
Penna, February 4, 1836, and was the youngest of a family of 
four children.  His father was Bernard Boyle, who came from 
Ireland and died near New Market, Virginia, 1839.  
    Charles E Boyle received his education in the common 
schools (which at this tme were merely ushered into 
existence in Pennsylvania), and afterwards pursued his 
studies at Madison College, and ended his school life with a 
course at Waynesburg College.
    While yet at school he spent his spare moments in a 
printing office, and at the age of nine years he had picked 
up the art of setting type. Leaving college he engaged as 
printer in the office of the GENIUS OF LIBERTY.  He soon 
passed from the type-setter's case to the editorial chair 
and the proprietorship of the paper; and the unceasing toil 
of the boy gave unerring promised of high position to be won 
through the earnest labors of the man.
    In 1861 he sold the paper to Col E G Roddy in order to 
engaged in his chosen life pursuit, that of the law.  While 
proprietor of the GENIUS his leisure hours were devoted to 
reading law with the late Hon Daniel Kaine, and was admitted 
to the bar December 2, 1861.  He at once entered upon the 
practice, in partnership with his preceptor, which lasted 
until 1865.  Mr Boyle in 1862 was elected and served for 
three years as District Attorney of Fayette county.  At the 
bar he developed and matured professional attainments and 
intellectual powers that won him respect as a lawyer and 
member of Congress, and subsequently as Chief Justice of 
Washington Territory.
    As a lawyer his comprehensive mind was peculiarly fitted 
to grapple with the difficult questions arising out of a 
complicated case at law.  His clear statement of the facts 
and relevant points of his case, his strong and convincing 
arguments, his logical conclusions, his comprehensive 
summary of evidence and his masterly exposition of the law, 
made him one of the foremost lawyers of Pennsylvania.
    After a most careful and exhaustive study of his cases, 
when called in court for trial, he was generally successful 
in winning them.  His political career began in 1865 when he 
was elected by his party, the democrats, as Representative 
to the Assembly, and re-elected in 1866, and was placed on 
several important committees.  In the last session of which 
he was a member, he at once assumed leadership of his party 
in the House, and his course of action was so acceptable to 
his democratic fellow members that they presented him at the 
close of the session with a costly service of silver.  He 
was elected president of the Democratic State Convention in 
1867 over Judge Jere Black, and in the following year was 
the democratic candidate for Auditor General of the State.  
    Intellectual attainments, mature mind, and nearly twenty 
years of useful public life amply qualified him to enter a 
wider field of activity and usefulness, and accordingly his 
name was presented by his friends in 1872, 1874, 1876, 1878, 
and 1880 as a candidate for Congress from the twenty first 
district before the democratic convention.  In each of these 
years his native county increased her majority for him, but 
he failed each time in teh monination, it going to men in on 
or the other counties of the district.  
    After an acrimonious contest in 1882, he was nominated 
and elected to Congress by a handsome majority over the late 
popular Charles S Seaton, and was re-elected in 1884 by a 
very flattering vote over the Hon J W Ray.  While serving 
his second term, he was chairman of the Panelectric 
Committee, and made one of the ablest reports ever sent out 
from a committee room.  
    He was a candidate for President Judge in 1887 of the 
Fourteenth Judicial District, composed of the counties of 
Fayette and Greene; receiving the nomination of his party 
for that office in Fayette, but as there was in the county 
an independent democratic candidate for the same office, 
divided the democratic vote so that the republican candidate 
was elected.  He was well qualified for the office and would 
have made an able, learned and most excellent Judge.
    He held various offices of trust and responsibility: 
Director of First National Bank and Vestryman of St Peter's 
Protestant Episcopal church. From 1871 to 1880, he operated 
largely in coke.  He was solicitor of the B & O R R Co, and 
retained counself of nearly all the large coke and furnace 
companies of southwestern Pennsylvania.  
    In the Democratic conventions of 1876 and 1880 as a 
delegate, he strongly advocated the nomination of General 
Hancock for President.  From his speeches and reports in 
Congress, he acquired national reputation and without 
solicitation upon his part, the President appointed him 1888 
Chief Justice of Washington Territory.  Just before leaving 
to assume the duties of this important office, however, he 
was given a banquet at his home and every member of the 
Fayette county bar was present.  Soon after receiving this 
flattering testimony of good will and esteem from his legal 
associates, he left for Washington Territory, where he 
arrived November 18th, publicly installed on the 22nd of the 
same month and immediately entered upon the important duties 
of his office as Chief Justice of the territory.  
    Only a few short days and Charles E Boyle, who so well 
graced the Bench and so ably discharged the duties of his 
high office, was stricken down by the hand of death, in the 
midst of what promised to be a long life of honor and 
usefulness.  He died on the evening of December 15th 1888, 
Occidental Hotel, Seattle, Washington Territory, of 
pneumonia, contracted while in the discharge of his judicial 
duties.  Of Washington Territory and of Pennsylvania, his 
friends alike were surprised and grieved at his sudden and 
unexpected death.  Many of the leading citizens of 
Washington Territory mingled with their aspirations of 
Statehood the hope of sending Judge Boyle, when the star of 
Washington as a State should be placed on the flag of the 
Nation, to represent her interests and protect her rights on 
the floor of the United States Senate...
    He was married to Miss Mary Hendrickson of Uniontown, 
February 7, 1858. They had seven children: Lucy Boyle 
(dead), John Boyle, Edgar Boyle, George Boyle, Charles E 
Boyle, Frances Boyle, and Florence Boyle...
    He died in the land of sunset skies where oceanward 
rolls the mighty Columbia.  He sleeps in the beautiful and 
historic valley of the Monongahela where riverward flows the 
gentle Redstone.  But his fame is not in keeping of either 
the East or the West but has passed into the possession of a 
nation.  Requiescat en pace.

Additional Comments:
Originally submitted 2000.

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