BOYER, DENNIS AND SARAH E. FIELDER
Dennis Boyer came to Mullen by train in 1899 with his wife, Sarah and son Hugh Bee. They established a homestead seven miles northeast of Mullen in Cherry County and built a 3-room frame house. Dennis' sister, Virginia and husband, Steve James were on a homestead in the next valley north. A brother, “Big Hugh'' lived nearby with his wife, Margaret James Boyer (sister of Steve) and their nine sons. Another sister, Missouri, also lived nearby with her husband, John Riley Pool and their two youngest children, Delia and Rose. Hugh Bee (“Little Hugh'') located a homestead two miles west of Dennis and returned to Texas to bring his family.
Dennis was born 5 August 1842 in Grayson County, Virginia, to John & Jane Fielder Boyer. On June 24, 1861 , he and his three older brothers, Hugh, Leander and Daniel, enlisted in the 51st Virginia Infantry of the Confederate Army at Independence, VA. In 1863 he returned home on leave and on the 24th of August he married his cousin, Sarah E. Fielder, daughter of Dennis Fielder and Polly Cornett. After returning to the war, the following month Dennis and Daniel were wounded and taken prisoner at Winchester, VA 19 September 1863.
Following the war, he took up farming in Grayson County, where William K. was born in 1866 and Malon D. in 1869. After moving to a farm in Mercer County, West Virginia, Hugh Bee was born in 1871 . Shortly after, they emigrated by team and wagon to Sevier County, Tennessee, where Mary Jane (Molly) was born in 1873 and John Pender in 1878. After about six years there, they moved on to Anderson County, Texas, near Elkhart, where their last two children were born, Charles Claudia in 1880 and James Ewing in 1884. Three of their children died there-Malon in 1887 at the age of 18, C.C. in 1888 at age 8, and John Pender in 1889 at age 11 .
William K. remained in Texas and, in 1892 he married Sarah Alice Starr, daughter of Daniel Parker Starr and Martha Elizabeth Self. She died shortly after the birth of their only son, Ernest, in December of that same year. In 1900 he was remarried to Avor Fincher and they had two children, Lala in 1901 and Charles Russell in 1907. Wm K. died at Elkhart in 1926.
Mary Jane (Molly) married Benjamin Franklin Douthit in Anderson County in 1894. After his death in 1912, she moved to Nebraska and lived in the Mullen area until her death at Alliance in 1955.
James Ewing Boyer moved to Beaver Crossing, Nebraska where he was a barber. He was married in a buggy on Main Street in Mullen 26 Jan 1906 to Myrtle Edith Willis. She died in 1921 and is buried at Beaver Crossing. They had one daughter, Felma, who married Lou Franzen in 1924. Jim, Lou & Felma moved to Laurel, Montana, where he lived until 1939 when he was killed near Red Lodge in an auto accident. He is buried at Beaver Crossing. Felma died in 1958 and Lou in 1980. Both are buried at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Billings, Montana.
Dennis' youngest sister, America, fondly called “Aunt Mec'' never married. She lived with her sister, Virginia and Steve James until her death in 1917 at the age of 64. She is buried in Cedarview Cemetery in Mullen. Dennis Boyer died 27 February 1919 and his wife, Sarah, died 8 January 1924. Both are buried in the Virginia community cemetery near their old homestead.