Son of Henry Harts Boley and Elizabeth Arsena Davis

Husband of Melissa Chipman, 3 Nov 1872 in American Fork, Utah, Utah

History. Henry Davis Boley was born on 15th May 1850 in Potawattomie Territory, Iowa; and emigrated to Salt Lake City, Utah soon after with his parents. They lived in Salt Lake City for about four years and were sent by Brigham Young to help settle American Fork. They settled in the southern part of town and fortunately next to the Chipman Estate; where Henry wooed and won Melissa, the oldest daughter of Henry Chipman. He always said she was the prettiest girl in town, and his ideas of her have never changed.

They were married in the Salt Lake City Endowment House on March 31, 1873, and Grandmother Boley had a wedding dinner for them.

Henry built a log house in the eastern part of town, and they lived happily there for ten years and had four children born there. They also had three of Mother's brothers and one sister come to live with them. The four men went into the sheep business together and did very well, and each one had a good start in a very few years. Later he bought cattle and the very best livestock and horses that could be purchased. He built two other houses as his family grew and more room became necessary. The second house he built was a five-room adobe. Some years later he purchased a bathtub, which was placed along one side of the kitchen and was quite a treat at that time. It was one of the first in town. A large wooden cover was made to go over the top, which was used as a work table. The water had to be heated on the stove in the boiler and kettles for the Saturday night bath having no tank at that time.

In his early fifties, he decided with his two sons to sell the livestock and go into the Mercantile Business, but they weren't as good Merchants as livestock growers and they lost a great deal in the Mining and Mercantile Business.

He loved fishing and hunting and did considerable of it, especially after he was forty-five. He was a very ambitious and industrious man and always saw to it that before winter set in the cellar, granaries, storehouses, and barn were filled to their capacity. He was indeed a splendid provider and always wanted his families to have the best available.

Although he seldom attended church he promptly responded to every assessment, because he always said he wanted his children to have a place there and he encouraged them to take part and be there. Upon one occasion in his early married life, he took his team across the frozen Utah Lake to get cedars for post and fuel, and upon the return trip the ice broke and he lost his load and almost his team and his own life. He always cherished his garments and felt they had protected him upon this and other occasions. He bought one of the first automobiles in American Fork. The speed was fifteen miles per hour and had a chain drive and no doors at the front seat. He had a slight accident one day by knocking down a little boy and he never did recover from the shock of it.

The morning he passed away he walked outside as if to take one last look at his belongings and the things he had loved and struggled so hard to obtain. He suffered very little actual pain at the last. His passing was more like he had been called for hurriedly. This happened on April 12, 1910; he would have been sixty years in one more month, had he lived.