Frank Lemuel BOYCE

BOYCE, FRANK L., was a native of Dane County, Wisconsin, and was born March 7, 1854. He worked on a farm and attended district school until fourteen years of age, when he entered the University of Madison, Wisconsin, where he took a complete collegiate course and was graduated in 1873. Immediately thereafter he entered the law department of this university, from which he graduated in 1874, and on the 20th day of June of that year was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Wisconsin. He then entered the law office of Baker, Buell & Wait of Chicago, where he remained until September, 1875, when he was admitted upon examination by the Supreme Court of Illinois to practice law in that state, which practice he pursued in Chicago until May, 1878. At that time he went to Sioux Falls on a visit, remaining there about a month, and was so well pleased with Dakota and its future prospects that he concluded to make Sioux Falls his future home. He returned to Chicago, finished up his business there and removed to Sioux Falls and opened a law office the October following. In March, 1879, he formed a co-partnership with John Bippus for the practice of law under the firm name of Bippus & Boyce, which partnership continued until August, 1881. He then practiced by himself until late in the year of 1883, when he took his brother Jesse W Boyce in with him under the firm name of Boyce & Boyce. In the spring of 1884 the firm of Boyce, Noyes & Boyce was established, which continued until January, 1886, when T.W Noyes removed to Washington, DC. In 1879, Mr. Boyce was elected secretary of the Board of Education, and in 1883 was elected alderman from the third ward. In 1894 he was elected senator from Minnehaha County upon the Republican ticket.

He is known as a most studious, painstaking, conservative lawyer, and has been connected in his professional capacity with some of the most important cases that have occupied the attention of the courts of the state. His firm has had in charge the legal business of the B.C.R.& N. railroad at this place from the time it was built into Sioux Falls, and also that of the Northwestern Packing Company. As an official no one in the city has a more enviable reputation. In the performance of his Senatorial duties in the legislature of 1895, he was noted as being the most industrious member of that body, and no member brought to the discharge of his duties a more careful, conscientious regard for the welfare of the state been Frank L. Boyce of Sioux Falls. A man of this character is always a good neighbor and a respected citizen, and nothing good could be said of him in the respect that would not receive the unanimous endorsement of his wide circle of acquaintances.

The foregoing sketch was written in 1895. During the summer of 1896, Mr. Boyce, being in feeble health, went to his old home in Wisconsin to visit his friends and take a much needed rest for a few weeks. Instead of recuperating, he became more enfeebled and on the 19th day of December, 1896, he died at the home of his parents. His remains were brought to Sioux Falls and interred in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery. Not only the legal fraternity with home he had so long been associated, but all who knew him, sincerely mourned his death.

History of Minnehaha County South Dakota
D.R. Bailey 1899 Page 462

Contributed on 6/9/12 by jackpotcook2
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Record #: 163459

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