Sgt. Benjamin Franklin Boyts, Co. C

Benjamin Franklin Boyts was born in 1840 in Somerset, PA to Jonathan and Elizabeth Boyts. He was a brother to Capt. John H. Boyts.

His early life was spent farming and he then worked as a clerk in Frostburg, MD.

Sgt. Boyts enlisted in Co. C 142nd PVI on August 25, 1862. On May 5, 1864, he was wounded at the Wilderness. This wound kept him hospitalized for the remainder of the war, and he was in the hospital when his company was mustered out a year later.

He was married to Ceclia M. Reid sometime between 1870 and 1880.

After the war, B.F. Boyts lived in Pittsburgh before he moved to Connellsville, Fayette County, PA where he spent the remainder of his life. He was a partner in a pump manufacturing plant in Connellsville and was very involved in the financial, civic, and spiritual life of that city. He was one of the founders of the Trinity English Lutheran Church and made sure the bills were paid during its early days.

The above picture is taken from the Nov. 27, 1911 evening edition of The Daily Courier (Connellsville, PA).

On Nov. 27, 1911, after years of failing health, B.F. Boyts passed away in Connellsville, and is buried there in Hill Grove Cemetery. His pastor, Rev. Ellis B. Burgess ended his eulogy with these words:

"Farewell my brother and my friend. You and I have been very close together in the Kingdom here below; we will not be separated very widely in the kingdom above."