Boyle, Michael J., 1856-1941.

Michael J. Boyle, the son of Charles M. and Margaret Boyle, was born on April 19, 1856 in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, but moved to St. Paul as a young child. After graduating from St. Mary's College, Cleveland, Ohio in the early 1870s, he worked for his father's St. Paul surveying business and taught (1876-1877) at the rural public school in Credit River Township, Scott County, Minnesota. In 1877 he began a 50-year affiliation with the St. Paul wholesale dry goods firm of Auerbach, Finch, Culbertson and Company, and its successors: Auerbach, Finch, Van Slyck and Company; Finch, Van Slyck and Company; and Finch, Young and McConville.

Boyle advanced to managing the flannel and print departments, and made several buying trips to New York City annually. For a short time he was also in charge of the firm's traveling salesmen (1882-1885). Boyle left the firm on two occasions to become St. Paul manager of the Germania Life Insurance Company of New York (1895), the superintendent of agencies for the Life Insurance Clearing House (1896-1897), and traveling agent for E. A. Young Mercantile Company (1911-1916). From 1930 through 1940 he held a number of jobs in St. Paul and Ramsey County government offices, mostly clerical positions in the county assessor's office.

Boyle was a member of the Minnesota Boat Club, Nushka (toboggan) Club, St. Paul Dramatic Club, and St. Paul Athletic Club, and held offices in the first two. He was also a director and executive committee member of the St. Paul Newsboy Home, second lieutenant in the Emmet Light Artillery (1885), and a Democrat. Boyle was a parishioner of the Cathedral of St. Paul and a member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

He died on February 5, 1941.

Biographical data was taken from the collection, the St. Paul city directories (1890-1941), and the 1875 Minnesota state census.

From the guide to the Michael J. Boyle papers., 1876-1890, 1918-1941., (Minnesota Historical Society)