The Boyle Family
Sometime in the early 1820’s John Boyle married Mary Holmes probably in County Meath, Ireland. On Feb. 10th, 1825 they had a son John. He was baptized in St. Patrick’s Church in the little crossroads town of Castletown-Kilpatrick about 10 miles north of Slane in County Meath, Ireland. His godparents were James Weldon and Fanny Holmes. He was raised in Castletown-Kilpatrick and had at least one brother, Joseph, who was born on July 26, 1845.
On January 22nd 1850, John married Rose Lynch in St. Patrick’s Church. Rose was the daughter of Edward and Rose Lynch. She had at least four siblings, Patrick, Margaret, Thomas and John. Later that same year John and Rose left Ireland and arrived in Verplanck, N.Y. in July 1850. I assume they were fleeing the great potato famine, which was the cause of most Irish emigration at that time and family tradition has it that the boat that took them to America sank on the way back to Ireland. It must have been a hard trip for Rose because she was pregnant at the time and gave birth to the couple’s first child, Owen, in September of that year.
John and Rose lived in Verplanck for the rest of their lives and had seven more children after Owen, all of whom lived to maturity. They were Thomas, Katherine, Julia, John, Mary Ann (Mamie), Margaret (Mag) and George. John Sr. probably worked in the brickyards when he first arrived in town but eventually bought a house at 147 Sixth St. and ran a tavern. I believe the tavern was at the Sixth street address but it may not have been. In any event; he seems to have been able to raise his family in relative comfort with the profits from this business. As a matter of fact my mother told me his nickname was “Butcher Boyle” which derived from the fact that he bought a lot of meat for his family and people used to say “There’s Boyle going to the Butcher”, hence the nickname. At that time meat was a very costly item and not everyone could afford to buy it regularly.
John died at Verplanck on May 9th, 1902 and Rose died there on April 17th, 1908. They are buried in St. Mary’s Cemetery.
The problem with doing a history of this family is that most of the children married and also had large families. I’ve added pages for each of John and Rose’s children even though I don’t have much information about most of them. The reader will have to consult the accompanying family tree charts to try to figure out who is who.
Thomas never married. He died in Verplanck in 1945.
Julia married Jack Curtis. They had three sons, Donald, Emmett and James. Julia died in 1916. Donald married Mary Ryan who had two daughters, Jane and Joan Daley. In 1951 Donald and Mary bought the Kelly house at 150 Sixth St. in Verplanck. Donald died in the early 1990’s but Mary and the two girls still live there. I don’t believe Emmett or James ever married.
Katherine (Aunt Kate) was born in 1863. She married Patrick (Patsy) McGuire who was born in 1854. They lived on Seventh St. in Verplanck (north of the Broadway intersection) and had three children, Bernard (Bernie), Thomas and Rose. Patsy died in 1901 and Kate died in 1948.
Bernie married Theresa Flaherty on April 26th 1947. They had no children.
Thomas never married. He died in the influenza epidemic of 1918.
Rose was born on Sept. 12th 1900 in Verplanck. Sometime in the 1920’s she met Harry Laug. Harry had been born in Croton on April 12th 1896. They wed on October 16th 1929 and moved into a house at the top of Seventh St. in Verplanck in an area later known to the locals as “Laug’s Hill”. They lived in the same house for the rest of their lives. Harry died on December 6th 1961 and Rose on January 19th 1987.
Harry and Rose had three children, Harriet born on October 9th 1930, Fred, born on Dec. 18th 1932 and Walter, born on Oct 17th 1944.
On Sept 7th 1963, Harriet married Kenny Boyle. Kenny also lived on Seventh St. in Verplanck and had been born there on Oct 17th 1931. After their marriage, they built a house on Seventh St. across from Harriet’s parent’s home. Harriet and Kenny had two children, Rosemary, born on July 13th 1964 and Lorrie, born on Sept 21st 1966. Rosemary married Dennis Lasher on Oct. 13th 2000 and Lorrie married Victor DeCicco on April 29th 1995. Lorrie and Victor have two children, Samantha Rose, born on March 11th 1998 and Isabella Victoria, born on January 19th 2002.
Kenny Boyle died on August 16th 1990. Harriet lives today at the home on Seventh St