Lifelong residents share ‘Memories of Boyers’
A few lifelong residents of the Boyers area compiled a book of memories provided by other residents of the area dating back to the early-1900s. Money raised through sales of the book, “Memories of Boyers, Pennsylvania,” are now being donated to organizations that serve the unincorporated community.
After publishing the book last summer, its writers managed to sell enough copies to make donations to the Marion Township Volunteer Fire Company and Moniteau Meals on Wheels. The organizations each received $1,400, according to the women who compiled the book.
But Antonetta Bell, Millie Weeter and Kathy Tinker are hesitant to call themselves the book’s authors — they each contend the people they interviewed are the ones who deserve the credit. They added they never expected to even make any money off its publishing, which is why they donated proceeds from its sale.
“We just started piling it up about four years ago, and we wrote the book probably the first part of last year in the spring and published around June,” said Tinker, who now lives in Emlenton. “I think we just want to preserve some of the memories and people were excited when we started talking about it.”
Bell added the book is not necessarily meant to provide a history of Boyers. It’s meant to document what it was like to live in the small community by sharing their stories. However, in the retelling of memories, the book still manages to include many historical facts and dates.
“It's not history — there's a little bit of history in it — but it's mostly memories,” said Bell, who now lives in Butler.
The chapters of “Memories of Boyers, Pennsylvania” are organized by locales and places of interest that existed in the area in the minds of its residents. Chapters are based on things like Boyers Baseball, Boyers Physicians, Boyers Theatre and Boyers Cemeteries, with each made up of different stories from people the authors interviewed.
In total, the book contains memories from more than 54 people, including a 94-year-old woman who now lives in California.
According to Tinker, the writers of the book started working on it after meeting one another at Boyers reunions, where people from the area would get together to reminisce on an occasional basis.
“We used to have Boyers reunions once a year for several years. We had it down at the Epiphany church hall then at the fire hall,” Tinker said. “Everybody was excited to come back and talk about the old days.”
Included in the book are photographs provided by people who the authors interviewed, some of which were taken as early as the late-1800s. There are also plenty of news articles, which document significant events and sometimes the opening and closing of area businesses.
The Annandale Mine was the basis for many people’s residency in Boyers while it was open and operating from 1907 to 1958. Tinker and Bell each maintain some memory of the mine, because its work bells could not be ignored by the people who lived close enough to hear it throughout each working day.
“It was the old limestone mine and that's probably what started the town,” Tinker said of Annandale Mine. “I remember the noon bell would go off for the mine people, the 3 o'clock bell, the whistle they would blow.
“It was big at the time and it closed (around) ‘59 I believe. And after that, people just started leaving.”
Tinker also said there were worries during World War II the area would be a target of bombing because limestone created by the Pittsburgh Limestone Corporation was valuable in creating supplies for the military.
“Some people talked about and I didn't realize how important steel was at the time for planes and all that,” Tinker said. “So people were kind of concerned that maybe we'd get bombed.”
It wasn’t too difficult to find people to interview for the book, even though many of the ones whose words appear in it have since left the area. Bell noted she has kept in touch with many neighbors she knew from growing up in Boyers. A majority of them were happy to share their memories for the book.
“We knew everybody who lived in Boyers,” Bell said. “There's people we knew from when we were kids. We knew all the families that lived in Boyers. We used to have a festival at our church. You just knew everybody.”
Bell said word of the book traveled fast. More people bought a copy after learning about some of the people interviewed for it.
“Everyone who bought a book just loves it. They go on and on about how much they enjoy reading this book,” Bell said.
The book is available at the Marion Township municipal building. People interested in buying it can also contact Tinker, Bell or Weeter over Facebook to request a copy. They cost $20 each. Bell said the three still plan to donate proceeds from its sale to local agencies like the volunteer fire department and Meals on Wheels.
Despite the challenges in getting the book together — the interviewing, writing, editing and laying out of the pages took years — Tinker said it was worth it to have captured memories of the area directly from the people who experienced them. It was fulfilling on a personal level, Bell and Tinker agreed.
“I think we just want to preserve some of the memories and people were excited when we started talking about it,” Tinker said. “We collected a lot of pictures. We went into the library and got a little bit of history on the start of Boyers.”
“We did it out of love, love for our town,” Tinker added.
