John F. Boynton
Born: 20 September 1811
Called to Quorum of the Twelve: 15 February 1835
Excommunicated: 3 September 1837
Died: 20 October 1890
Called to Quorum of the Twelve: 15 February 1835
Excommunicated: 3 September 1837
Died: 20 October 1890
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Biographical Articles
Jenson, Andrew. "Boynton, John Farnham." Biographical Encyclopedia. Volume 1. pg. 91.
BOYNTON, John Farnham, a member of the Council of Twelve Apostles from 1835 to 1837, was born Sept. 20. 1811, in Bradford, Essex county, Mass., baptized in September, 1832, by Joseph Smith, in Kirtland, Ohio, and ordained an Elder by Sidney Rigdon. He performed a mission, together with Zebedee, Coltrin, to Pennsylvania in 1832 and another one to Maine in 1833 and 1831. Feb. 15, 1835, he was ordained an Apostle in Kirtland, Ohio, under the hands of Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Martin Harris, after which he accompanied the Twelve on their mission to the Eastern States and Canada. He was married—to Susan Lowell by Joseph Smith, Jan. 20, 1836. During his last mission he borrowed all the money he could among the brethren, with which he entered into the mercantile business with Lyman E. Johnson, and followed it until he apostatized and was disfellowshipped from the quorum of Apostles Sept. 3, 1837, in Kirtland, Ohio. On the following Sunday he made confessions and was forgiven, but as he did not repent of his evils, he was finally excommunicated from the Church. About Boynton's subsequent life A. H. Hale, of Grantsville, wrote a few years ago: "Since the days of Nauvoo Boynton has resided in Syracuse, N. Y., where he still lives. He has always been considerate to his former friends and co-laborers in the ministry, and never said or done anything against the Church. When he visited Utah in 1872, he called on Pres. Brigham Young twice, in my company. The President was then a prisoner in his own house, guarded by U. S. marshals, and Boynton denounced in strong terms the persecutions then being carried on against the Saints. He also met Erastus Snow, who, when only sixteen years of age, was ordained a Teacher by Bro. Boynton. Elder Snow told him that he had been preaching the same gospel ever since. Bro. Boynton remarked. "Stick to it, for it is good." He also called on Orson Pratt and others, with whom he was very friendly, and they all called him Brother John. Since leaving the Church Mr. Boynton has never joined himself to any other denomination and does not believe in any religion whatever. He says, however, that if anything is right, 'Mormonism' is. For twenty years he traveled throughout the United States lecturing on natural history, geology and other sciences. In 1853 or 1854 he was appointed by the government to make a trip to California on a geological surveying expedition, and during the war of the rebellion he was employed in the invention of torpedoes and other destructive implements of war." Up to 1886 John F. Boynton had his name in the national patent office for 36 patents on different inventions. He spent much of the latter part of his life gathering genealogy of the Boynton family. He was married three times. His first wife died, the second left him, and he was living with his third wife at the time of his death, which occurred at Syracuse N. Y., Oct. 20, 1890. (See also "Millennial Star," Vol. 27, p. 102.)
BOYNTON, John Farnham, a member of the Council of Twelve Apostles from 1835 to 1837, was born Sept. 20. 1811, in Bradford, Essex county, Mass., baptized in September, 1832, by Joseph Smith, in Kirtland, Ohio, and ordained an Elder by Sidney Rigdon. He performed a mission, together with Zebedee, Coltrin, to Pennsylvania in 1832 and another one to Maine in 1833 and 1831. Feb. 15, 1835, he was ordained an Apostle in Kirtland, Ohio, under the hands of Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Martin Harris, after which he accompanied the Twelve on their mission to the Eastern States and Canada. He was married—to Susan Lowell by Joseph Smith, Jan. 20, 1836. During his last mission he borrowed all the money he could among the brethren, with which he entered into the mercantile business with Lyman E. Johnson, and followed it until he apostatized and was disfellowshipped from the quorum of Apostles Sept. 3, 1837, in Kirtland, Ohio. On the following Sunday he made confessions and was forgiven, but as he did not repent of his evils, he was finally excommunicated from the Church. About Boynton's subsequent life A. H. Hale, of Grantsville, wrote a few years ago: "Since the days of Nauvoo Boynton has resided in Syracuse, N. Y., where he still lives. He has always been considerate to his former friends and co-laborers in the ministry, and never said or done anything against the Church. When he visited Utah in 1872, he called on Pres. Brigham Young twice, in my company. The President was then a prisoner in his own house, guarded by U. S. marshals, and Boynton denounced in strong terms the persecutions then being carried on against the Saints. He also met Erastus Snow, who, when only sixteen years of age, was ordained a Teacher by Bro. Boynton. Elder Snow told him that he had been preaching the same gospel ever since. Bro. Boynton remarked. "Stick to it, for it is good." He also called on Orson Pratt and others, with whom he was very friendly, and they all called him Brother John. Since leaving the Church Mr. Boynton has never joined himself to any other denomination and does not believe in any religion whatever. He says, however, that if anything is right, 'Mormonism' is. For twenty years he traveled throughout the United States lecturing on natural history, geology and other sciences. In 1853 or 1854 he was appointed by the government to make a trip to California on a geological surveying expedition, and during the war of the rebellion he was employed in the invention of torpedoes and other destructive implements of war." Up to 1886 John F. Boynton had his name in the national patent office for 36 patents on different inventions. He spent much of the latter part of his life gathering genealogy of the Boynton family. He was married three times. His first wife died, the second left him, and he was living with his third wife at the time of his death, which occurred at Syracuse N. Y., Oct. 20, 1890. (See also "Millennial Star," Vol. 27, p. 102.)
John F. Boynton
“For behold, ye do love money, and your substance
… more than ye love the poor and the needy….”
-Mormon 8:37
… more than ye love the poor and the needy….”
-Mormon 8:37
Ordained: 15 February 1835 at age 23 by Joseph Smith
Excommunicated: December 1837 for apostasy
Biography
John Farnham Boynton was born in Bradford, Massachusetts on 20 September 1811 to Samuel Boynton and Ruth Hardy. John entered Columbia University in New York City while still a teenager and subsequently studied medicine at St. Louis Medical School.
Shortly after completing his education, John was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Joseph Smith, Jr. in Kirtland, Ohio, September 1832 and was ordained an elder by Sidney Rigdon shortly thereafter. Following his baptism, he served his first mission to Erie County, Pennsylvania with Zebedee Coltrin. Shortly after his return from this first mission, he was sent on yet another mission to Maine. He and his companions saw much success on these missions and together baptized over 130 people in Maine alone.
Dr. John F. Boynton was called as one of the original Twelve Apostles by Joseph Smith, Jr. and was ordained 15 February 1835 by the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon. After the reorganization of the Quorum by age, Elder Boynton became the eleventh, being only older than Lyman E. Johnson. At the time of his call, Elder Boynton was given a blessing that is recorded in History of the Church:
Thou hast prevailed and thou shalt prevail, and thou shalt declare the Gospel unto many nations. Thou shalt be made mighty before God; and although thou shalt be cast out from the face of men, yet thou shalt have power to prevail. Thou shalt lead the elect triumphantly to the places of refuge; thou shalt be like the brethren who have been blessed before thee. Thou shalt stand in that day of calamity when the wicked shall be consumed, and present unto the Father, spotless, the fruits of thy labor. Thou shalt overcome all the evils that are in the world; thou shalt have wisdom to put to silence all the wisdom of the wise; and thou shalt see the face of thy Redeemer in the flesh. These blessings are pronounced and sealed upon thee. Even so. Amen. (J. Smith 1902, Vol II, 191)
After his call as an apostle, Elder Boynton traveled, along with the rest of the Twelve, on a mission to the churches in the east. While on this mission, he and Lyman E. Johnson borrowed money from the members and the two of them went into the mercantile business together after returning to Kirtland.
In January 1836, John married Susan Lowell. The ceremony was performed by Joseph Smith, Jr.
Of this time in the history of the Church and the attitudes of the saints and Apostles, Heber C. Kimball said:
We were very much grieved on our arrival in Kirtland, to see the spirit of speculation that was prevailing in the Church. Trade and traffic seemed to engross the time and attention of the Saints. When we left Kirtland a city lot was worth about $150; but on our return, to our astonishment, the same lot was said to be worth from $500 to $1000, according to location; and some men, who, when I left, could hardly get food to eat, I found on my return to be men of supposed great wealth; in fact everything in the place seemed to be moving in great prosperity, and all seemed determined to become rich; in my feelings they were artificial or imaginary riches. This appearance of prosperity led many Saints to believe that the time had arrived for the Lord to enrich them with the treasures of the earth, and believing so, it stimulated them to great exertions, so much so that two of the Twelve, Lyman E. Johnson and John F. Boynton, went to New York and purchased the amount of $20,000 worth of goods, and entered into the mercantile business, borrowing considerable money from Polly Voce and other Saints in Boston and the regions round about, and which they have never repaid. (Whitney 1888)
Around this time, Joseph Smith felt prompted to found a bank called the Kirtland Safety Society. This was relatively common at the time. If a company or organization had money problems, they were able to found their own bank in an effort to raise money to fund their endeavors. Joseph warned at the time that the bank would only succeed if the institution was conducted on righteous principles. Unfortunately, the greed prevalent among the people caused the Kirtland Safety Society to fail a short time after its founding.
The failure of the bank shook the faith of not only Elder Boynton, but also his fellow Apostles Luke and Lyman Johnson. They claimed that Joseph Smith had declared that the bank was instituted by the will of God, and that they had been told that it should never fail, let men do what they would. They then claimed that Joseph Smith was a fallen prophet and refused to follow his teachings any longer. They quit teaching from the Book of Mormon and gathered followers, quickly becoming a rather large group. One day, a group of them, armed with knives and pistols and led by Elder Boynton and Warren Parrish (former scribe to Joseph Smith), stormed the temple. Several were so afraid that they jumped out the temple windows (which, fortunately, had no glass). The mob was subdued by the police and the members of the group were disfellowshipped for their actions. Those who showed contrition, including Elder Boynton, were reinstated.
It may have simply ended there had the group not already chosen leaders and a cause. While Joseph Smith was away in Missouri, the same group began to meet again in earnest. They were led by Warren Parrish, John Boynton, Luke Johnson, and thirty other prominent citizens. They called themselves the “Old Standard” or “Church of Christ”. They considered themselves reformers, rejecting the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and the priesthood.
In the winter of 1837 some 50 of the leading members of the Church were excommunicated, among them Elder Boynton. Unfortunately, the excommunications didn't solve the problems. The group then began unnecessary lawsuits, threatened to take away property, boycotted Church members' businesses, harassed them in the streets and in their homes, and denied employment to all those who were true to Joseph Smith. According to some reports, the Church lost between 10 and 15 percent of its membership at this time, or between 200 and 300 members. Shortly thereafter the majority of the Saints left Kirtland and made their headquarters in Nauvoo, Illinois.
It is a telling moment in John‘s life that when Apostle Heber C. Kimball expressed his determination to go on a mission, he said to him, “If you are such a fool as to go at the call of the fallen prophet, Joseph Smith, I will not help you a dime, and if you are cast on Van Dieman's land, I will not make an effort to help you.” In contrast, his business partner and fellow “reformer”, Lyman E. Johnson, sincerely wished him luck and gave him his cloak to aid him on his mission. (Whitney 1888)
At this point, historical records seem to have lost sight of John Boynton. However, he does not appear to have been one of the mob members who followed the Church members and continued the harassment. In fact, a distant relative of his, also a member of the Church, said that following his separation from the Church, John Boynton had never been known to speak a word to its disparagement.
After the Saints left Kirtland, Dr. Boynton began to turn his attention and ambition to his scientific pursuits. He practiced medicine for a time and afterwards began a lecturing tour on geology, traveling through every state in the Union. At the outbreak of the gold rush in 1849, Dr. Boynton decided to try his luck in California. He only stayed a few years before returning to the east, his success in gold mining uncertain. He made his home in Syracuse, New York.
During the Civil War, Dr. Boynton exercised his intellect and talent for inventions to aid the war effort, inventing torpedoes and other implements of war.
From his home base in Syracuse, he began a string of chemistry and geology-related inventions. He invented a forerunner to the fire extinguisher, a soda fountain, a vacuum process for extracting gold from ore, the first process for converting cast iron into malleable steel, a method for coloring buttons and glassware, various electrical appliances, and was working on perfecting wall plaster at the time of his death. He took out over 30 patents, none of which turned out to be a failure. He also invested extensively in coarse salt manufacture and tar roofing.
In 1872, Dr. Boynton took a trip to Salt Lake City and visited many of his former associates there. He was welcomed by Brigham Young and enjoyed at least two personal interviews with him. He also met with Apostle Erastus Snow, who he had ordained a teacher when Erastus was 16. Elder Snow told Dr. Boynton that he had been preaching the gospel ever since. Dr. Boynton told him to “Stick to it, for it is good.” Although he claimed no religion for himself, he always said that “if anything is right, ‘Mormonism’ is.” (C. N. Smith 1989)
It seemed his expertise was called upon to verify the “Cardiff Giant”, an alleged prehistoric man “discovered” in Cardiff, New York. After examining it, Dr. Boynton showed conclusively that it was a fake, which later turned out to be correct.
Dr. Boynton's interests were apparently not limited to scientific matters. He became involved in several incidents of note in New York City. A certain Dr. Henry S. Tanner began a well-known 40-day fast in 1880, endeavoring to prove that starvation was a cure for disease. Dr. Boynton provided the press with daily updates on his condition and also fasted for 20 days himself. He exposed the Tewsbury almshouse to the public for inhumane depravities. He was also president of the Father Columbia newspaper, published in New York City from 1882 to 1885.
His varied interests did not end there. He was also deeply interested in his own family history. He spent years gathering and compiling the records of that family and completed them to the extent to prepare them for publication, although the publication process was not yet finished at the time of his death.
Dr. Boynton was married a total of three times. The first time was to Susan Lowell of Maine, having been married by Joseph Smith. From her, he had two children who survived him, Randolph and Susan. Several years after the death of his first wife, he married a second wife of unrecorded name from whom he obtained a divorce a few short years after the marriage. He then married Caroline Harriman of Georgetown, Massachusetts, who was, ironically, the niece of Henry Harriman of Utah, one of the Presidents of the Seventies of the Church.
Dr. John F. Boynton died following a sudden illness at his home in Syracuse on 20 October 1890 at the age of 79. His wife was away on a trip to visit family in Pennsylvania at the time. Dr. Boynton had suffered what he recognized as a burst blood vessel in his chest and died of the subsequent internal bleeding within a matter of hours.
Conclusion
With such a lack of spoken or written word by Elder Boynton himself, it is difficult to determine exactly what motivated him in his decisions in his life. A few things are clear, however, from his actions. His falling away seemed to have had its roots in materialism. Elder Boynton took advantage of the visit of the Twelve to the eastern churches to raise money for his own business speculations. Around the same time, all of Kirtland was affected by this spirit, and the seeds of apostasy had been sown. The reason Elder Boynton gave for losing his testimony was also related to money. His faith was shaken by the failure of the Kirtland Safety Society. Then, when Heber C. Kimball left on his mission, Elder Boynton again spoke of money, saying that he would never give Elder Kimball a dime for his support on his mission. This, along with his bout of gold mining during the gold rush, seem to indicate a preoccupation with wealth and the accumulation of material goods. John Boynton wanted to have a lot of material things which caused him to lose sight of his spiritual well-being.
Dr. Boynton was obviously a very intelligent man. That cannot be denied. However, he chose to use his intelligence to make money and gain the acclaim of his peers. Very many of his inventions and business investments were extremely lucrative. Also, he involved himself in the newspaper business in New York City, ensuring that he received a maximum of exposure himself.
It is easy to judge the actions of such a man. However, this kind of mentality is reminiscent of the alms-giver in the parables of the New Testament who gave to be seen of men. Jesus did not condemn these people, but he did say that they had their reward. John Boynton got out of life exactly what he wanted to receive. He got wealth and fame. That was his goal. He was blessed of God to be very intelligent and to have many talents in life. It is bittersweet to think of all the good he might have done with his extensive intelligence and myriad of talents. But it does provide a measure of comfort to know that he got everything out of life that he wanted. His reward might have been eternal, but he chose a temporal reward.
2003. Church History in the Fulness of Times, Student Manual. Salt Lake City: Church Educational System Curriculum.
Jenson, Andrew. 1901. Latter-Day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. Salt Lake City: The Andrew Jenson History Company.
Smith, Calvin N. 1989. "Among first apostles, 3 'forgotten'." Church News, February 25. Accessed January 13, 2015. http://www.ldschurchnewsarchive.com/articles/19053/Among-first-apostles-3-forgotten.html.
Smith, Joseph. 1902. History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 7 vols. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret News. Accessed January 13, 2015. https://archive.org/details/historyofchurcho01robe.
The Deseret News. 1890. "Death of John F. Boynton." November 29: 2.
The Deseret News. 1858. "History of John F. Boynton." June 16: 69.
Whitney, Orson F. 1888. Life of Heber C. Kimball. Kindle Edition. Zion's Camp Books.
Excommunicated: December 1837 for apostasy
Biography
John Farnham Boynton was born in Bradford, Massachusetts on 20 September 1811 to Samuel Boynton and Ruth Hardy. John entered Columbia University in New York City while still a teenager and subsequently studied medicine at St. Louis Medical School.
Shortly after completing his education, John was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Joseph Smith, Jr. in Kirtland, Ohio, September 1832 and was ordained an elder by Sidney Rigdon shortly thereafter. Following his baptism, he served his first mission to Erie County, Pennsylvania with Zebedee Coltrin. Shortly after his return from this first mission, he was sent on yet another mission to Maine. He and his companions saw much success on these missions and together baptized over 130 people in Maine alone.
Dr. John F. Boynton was called as one of the original Twelve Apostles by Joseph Smith, Jr. and was ordained 15 February 1835 by the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon. After the reorganization of the Quorum by age, Elder Boynton became the eleventh, being only older than Lyman E. Johnson. At the time of his call, Elder Boynton was given a blessing that is recorded in History of the Church:
Thou hast prevailed and thou shalt prevail, and thou shalt declare the Gospel unto many nations. Thou shalt be made mighty before God; and although thou shalt be cast out from the face of men, yet thou shalt have power to prevail. Thou shalt lead the elect triumphantly to the places of refuge; thou shalt be like the brethren who have been blessed before thee. Thou shalt stand in that day of calamity when the wicked shall be consumed, and present unto the Father, spotless, the fruits of thy labor. Thou shalt overcome all the evils that are in the world; thou shalt have wisdom to put to silence all the wisdom of the wise; and thou shalt see the face of thy Redeemer in the flesh. These blessings are pronounced and sealed upon thee. Even so. Amen. (J. Smith 1902, Vol II, 191)
After his call as an apostle, Elder Boynton traveled, along with the rest of the Twelve, on a mission to the churches in the east. While on this mission, he and Lyman E. Johnson borrowed money from the members and the two of them went into the mercantile business together after returning to Kirtland.
In January 1836, John married Susan Lowell. The ceremony was performed by Joseph Smith, Jr.
Of this time in the history of the Church and the attitudes of the saints and Apostles, Heber C. Kimball said:
We were very much grieved on our arrival in Kirtland, to see the spirit of speculation that was prevailing in the Church. Trade and traffic seemed to engross the time and attention of the Saints. When we left Kirtland a city lot was worth about $150; but on our return, to our astonishment, the same lot was said to be worth from $500 to $1000, according to location; and some men, who, when I left, could hardly get food to eat, I found on my return to be men of supposed great wealth; in fact everything in the place seemed to be moving in great prosperity, and all seemed determined to become rich; in my feelings they were artificial or imaginary riches. This appearance of prosperity led many Saints to believe that the time had arrived for the Lord to enrich them with the treasures of the earth, and believing so, it stimulated them to great exertions, so much so that two of the Twelve, Lyman E. Johnson and John F. Boynton, went to New York and purchased the amount of $20,000 worth of goods, and entered into the mercantile business, borrowing considerable money from Polly Voce and other Saints in Boston and the regions round about, and which they have never repaid. (Whitney 1888)
Around this time, Joseph Smith felt prompted to found a bank called the Kirtland Safety Society. This was relatively common at the time. If a company or organization had money problems, they were able to found their own bank in an effort to raise money to fund their endeavors. Joseph warned at the time that the bank would only succeed if the institution was conducted on righteous principles. Unfortunately, the greed prevalent among the people caused the Kirtland Safety Society to fail a short time after its founding.
The failure of the bank shook the faith of not only Elder Boynton, but also his fellow Apostles Luke and Lyman Johnson. They claimed that Joseph Smith had declared that the bank was instituted by the will of God, and that they had been told that it should never fail, let men do what they would. They then claimed that Joseph Smith was a fallen prophet and refused to follow his teachings any longer. They quit teaching from the Book of Mormon and gathered followers, quickly becoming a rather large group. One day, a group of them, armed with knives and pistols and led by Elder Boynton and Warren Parrish (former scribe to Joseph Smith), stormed the temple. Several were so afraid that they jumped out the temple windows (which, fortunately, had no glass). The mob was subdued by the police and the members of the group were disfellowshipped for their actions. Those who showed contrition, including Elder Boynton, were reinstated.
It may have simply ended there had the group not already chosen leaders and a cause. While Joseph Smith was away in Missouri, the same group began to meet again in earnest. They were led by Warren Parrish, John Boynton, Luke Johnson, and thirty other prominent citizens. They called themselves the “Old Standard” or “Church of Christ”. They considered themselves reformers, rejecting the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and the priesthood.
In the winter of 1837 some 50 of the leading members of the Church were excommunicated, among them Elder Boynton. Unfortunately, the excommunications didn't solve the problems. The group then began unnecessary lawsuits, threatened to take away property, boycotted Church members' businesses, harassed them in the streets and in their homes, and denied employment to all those who were true to Joseph Smith. According to some reports, the Church lost between 10 and 15 percent of its membership at this time, or between 200 and 300 members. Shortly thereafter the majority of the Saints left Kirtland and made their headquarters in Nauvoo, Illinois.
It is a telling moment in John‘s life that when Apostle Heber C. Kimball expressed his determination to go on a mission, he said to him, “If you are such a fool as to go at the call of the fallen prophet, Joseph Smith, I will not help you a dime, and if you are cast on Van Dieman's land, I will not make an effort to help you.” In contrast, his business partner and fellow “reformer”, Lyman E. Johnson, sincerely wished him luck and gave him his cloak to aid him on his mission. (Whitney 1888)
At this point, historical records seem to have lost sight of John Boynton. However, he does not appear to have been one of the mob members who followed the Church members and continued the harassment. In fact, a distant relative of his, also a member of the Church, said that following his separation from the Church, John Boynton had never been known to speak a word to its disparagement.
After the Saints left Kirtland, Dr. Boynton began to turn his attention and ambition to his scientific pursuits. He practiced medicine for a time and afterwards began a lecturing tour on geology, traveling through every state in the Union. At the outbreak of the gold rush in 1849, Dr. Boynton decided to try his luck in California. He only stayed a few years before returning to the east, his success in gold mining uncertain. He made his home in Syracuse, New York.
During the Civil War, Dr. Boynton exercised his intellect and talent for inventions to aid the war effort, inventing torpedoes and other implements of war.
From his home base in Syracuse, he began a string of chemistry and geology-related inventions. He invented a forerunner to the fire extinguisher, a soda fountain, a vacuum process for extracting gold from ore, the first process for converting cast iron into malleable steel, a method for coloring buttons and glassware, various electrical appliances, and was working on perfecting wall plaster at the time of his death. He took out over 30 patents, none of which turned out to be a failure. He also invested extensively in coarse salt manufacture and tar roofing.
In 1872, Dr. Boynton took a trip to Salt Lake City and visited many of his former associates there. He was welcomed by Brigham Young and enjoyed at least two personal interviews with him. He also met with Apostle Erastus Snow, who he had ordained a teacher when Erastus was 16. Elder Snow told Dr. Boynton that he had been preaching the gospel ever since. Dr. Boynton told him to “Stick to it, for it is good.” Although he claimed no religion for himself, he always said that “if anything is right, ‘Mormonism’ is.” (C. N. Smith 1989)
It seemed his expertise was called upon to verify the “Cardiff Giant”, an alleged prehistoric man “discovered” in Cardiff, New York. After examining it, Dr. Boynton showed conclusively that it was a fake, which later turned out to be correct.
Dr. Boynton's interests were apparently not limited to scientific matters. He became involved in several incidents of note in New York City. A certain Dr. Henry S. Tanner began a well-known 40-day fast in 1880, endeavoring to prove that starvation was a cure for disease. Dr. Boynton provided the press with daily updates on his condition and also fasted for 20 days himself. He exposed the Tewsbury almshouse to the public for inhumane depravities. He was also president of the Father Columbia newspaper, published in New York City from 1882 to 1885.
His varied interests did not end there. He was also deeply interested in his own family history. He spent years gathering and compiling the records of that family and completed them to the extent to prepare them for publication, although the publication process was not yet finished at the time of his death.
Dr. Boynton was married a total of three times. The first time was to Susan Lowell of Maine, having been married by Joseph Smith. From her, he had two children who survived him, Randolph and Susan. Several years after the death of his first wife, he married a second wife of unrecorded name from whom he obtained a divorce a few short years after the marriage. He then married Caroline Harriman of Georgetown, Massachusetts, who was, ironically, the niece of Henry Harriman of Utah, one of the Presidents of the Seventies of the Church.
Dr. John F. Boynton died following a sudden illness at his home in Syracuse on 20 October 1890 at the age of 79. His wife was away on a trip to visit family in Pennsylvania at the time. Dr. Boynton had suffered what he recognized as a burst blood vessel in his chest and died of the subsequent internal bleeding within a matter of hours.
Conclusion
With such a lack of spoken or written word by Elder Boynton himself, it is difficult to determine exactly what motivated him in his decisions in his life. A few things are clear, however, from his actions. His falling away seemed to have had its roots in materialism. Elder Boynton took advantage of the visit of the Twelve to the eastern churches to raise money for his own business speculations. Around the same time, all of Kirtland was affected by this spirit, and the seeds of apostasy had been sown. The reason Elder Boynton gave for losing his testimony was also related to money. His faith was shaken by the failure of the Kirtland Safety Society. Then, when Heber C. Kimball left on his mission, Elder Boynton again spoke of money, saying that he would never give Elder Kimball a dime for his support on his mission. This, along with his bout of gold mining during the gold rush, seem to indicate a preoccupation with wealth and the accumulation of material goods. John Boynton wanted to have a lot of material things which caused him to lose sight of his spiritual well-being.
Dr. Boynton was obviously a very intelligent man. That cannot be denied. However, he chose to use his intelligence to make money and gain the acclaim of his peers. Very many of his inventions and business investments were extremely lucrative. Also, he involved himself in the newspaper business in New York City, ensuring that he received a maximum of exposure himself.
It is easy to judge the actions of such a man. However, this kind of mentality is reminiscent of the alms-giver in the parables of the New Testament who gave to be seen of men. Jesus did not condemn these people, but he did say that they had their reward. John Boynton got out of life exactly what he wanted to receive. He got wealth and fame. That was his goal. He was blessed of God to be very intelligent and to have many talents in life. It is bittersweet to think of all the good he might have done with his extensive intelligence and myriad of talents. But it does provide a measure of comfort to know that he got everything out of life that he wanted. His reward might have been eternal, but he chose a temporal reward.
2003. Church History in the Fulness of Times, Student Manual. Salt Lake City: Church Educational System Curriculum.
Jenson, Andrew. 1901. Latter-Day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. Salt Lake City: The Andrew Jenson History Company.
Smith, Calvin N. 1989. "Among first apostles, 3 'forgotten'." Church News, February 25. Accessed January 13, 2015. http://www.ldschurchnewsarchive.com/articles/19053/Among-first-apostles-3-forgotten.html.
Smith, Joseph. 1902. History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 7 vols. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret News. Accessed January 13, 2015. https://archive.org/details/historyofchurcho01robe.
The Deseret News. 1890. "Death of John F. Boynton." November 29: 2.
The Deseret News. 1858. "History of John F. Boynton." June 16: 69.
Whitney, Orson F. 1888. Life of Heber C. Kimball. Kindle Edition. Zion's Camp Books.