Boice, John P.

Born: 1803-11-10 Blandford, Massachusetts

Died: 1873-05-12 Henry, Illinois

Flourished: Illinois

Alternate name: Boies

John P. Boice, attorney, magistrate, and judge, graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New York in 1824. He relocated to Ohio where he studied and practiced law for several years, then lived in Saint Louis, Missouri, for a year before settling in Lewistown, Illinois in 1833. Boice continued the practice of law there, partnering with John David in 1841. Around this same time, Boice appeared in court with Abraham Lincoln in Menard County as both co-counsel and as opposing attorney. While residing in Fulton County, he served as a probate judge for nine years and a magistrate for twenty-one years. Politically, Boice was a Whig, and he ran unsuccessfully for the Illinois Senate in 1836. In 1855, Boice and his family moved to Henry, Illinois, where he continued to practice law and served as a justice of the peace and magistrate. Boice married Vesta Bagley in 1833 and the couple had three children.

Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2011); A General Catalogue of the Officers, Graduates and Students of Union College (Schenectady, NY: S. S. Riggs, 1854), 35; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Fulton County, 13 November 1833, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Theodore C. Pease, ed., Illinois Election Returns, 1818-1848, vol. 18 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1923), 287; U.S. Census Office, Sixth Census of the United States (1840), Lewistown, Fulton County, IL, 351; John M. Palmer, ed., The Bench and Bar of Illinois: Historical and Reminiscent (Chicago: Lewis, 1899), 2:1038; For legal cases involving Lincoln, search Participant, “Boice, John P.,” Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Lewistown, Fulton County, IL, 187; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Henry, Marshall County, IL, 40; Henry Republican (IL), 15 May 1873, 1:4.