Boynton, Charles Albert (1867–1956)

Charles Albert Boynton, Republican party leader and judge, the son of Alpheus S. and Jane Grannis (Cook) Boynton, was born on November 26, 1867, in East Hatley, Quebec, Canada. He received a B.S. degree from Glasgow (Kentucky) Normal University in 1888 and an LL.B. degree from the University of Michigan in 1891, the year he was admitted to the State Bar of Texas and began practice in Waco. He married Laura Bassett Young on November 1, 1897; they had three sons. Boynton was a delegate to the Republican national convention of 1900 and in 1904 was chairman of the Texas delegation to the national convention in Chicago. He was appointed a United States district attorney by Theodore Roosevelt in June 1906 to succeed Edwin H. Terrell, of San Antonio, and was reappointed by William H. Taft in 1910. Boynton had supported Taft at the 1908 Republican national convention. He was the Texas Republican gubernatorial candidate against William P. Hobby in 1918. In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge appointed Boynton to the federal bench at El Paso, where he served until he retired in 1947. He lived in Dallas from 1947 until his death in 1956. Judge Boynton was an Episcopalian and had been active in Waco civic affairs until his elevation to the bench.