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- Lula M. Jones was married first to Willie Switzer on January 28, 1909 and they were divorced in Cynthiana, Harrison County, Kentucky on June 27, 1930. Lula married John Francis Boyle on February 7, 1935; she was 43 years old and John was 73 years of age. My grandfather, Howard Francis Boyle, told me that he and his siblings were not happy about the marriage and it was believed that Lula married John for his pension. There were problems almost immediately that seemed to be, in part, caused by one of Lula's sons by her first marriage. However, John had a history of leaving home at his whim and he would travel all over the East Coast of the United States. I would not be surprised if he had visted every state in the East and he was most definitely in most of them, as records show. In some cases, he traveled because the pension board ordered him to get an examination but on many other occassions he seemed to leave of his own accord. John spent many years, over multiple instances, at the Central Branch National Soldiers' Home near Dayton, Ohio in the late 1890s through about 1917.
Soon after the marriage, Lula began to suffer from what was described as the final stages of Tuberculosis. She and John were already having problems and about the time that Lula's illness became severe, John left. Lula sought, and was successful in obtaining a portion of John's monthly pension, which amounted to about $18. John bitterly contested this action and both sides supplied many affidavits to support the character of each and the reasons for separation. Lula's son was mentioned as a major contributor and John was blamed for leaving Lula on her death bed. Lula even supplied a love letter to the pension board, purportedly written by John before their marriage in which John declares his love for Lula and stating something along the lines that he only remains in Hinton because of her. The letter was signed "Johnny" which makes me a little suspect since there are so many documents with his name and signature and he always signed John F Boyle. Of course, the letter has to be taken in context.
John spent the last years of his life in the care of his daughters, Katherine Boyle-Ingram and Eula Boyle-Cooke. John Francis Boyle, Maude Belle Thompson (2nd Wife) and Lula M. Jones (3rd Wife) are all buried at Raven Creek Cemetery in Harrison County, Kentucky.
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