{{short description|American politician}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2023}} {{Infobox person | name = Nathan Smith Boynton | image = Nathan Smith Boynton (1837–1911).png | birth_date = {{birth date|1837|06|23}} | birth_place = Port Huron, Michigan | death_date = {{death date and age|1911|05|27|1837|06|23}} | death_place = Port Huron, Michigan | occupation = Politician, businessman, military officer | spouse = Anna Fidelei | political_party = Republican }}
'''Nathan Smith Boynton''' (June 23, 1837 – May 27, 1911)<ref name="boynton">Castello, David J. [http://www.boyntonbeach.com/history/nathan/ Nathan S. Boynton]. boyntonbeach.com. Retrieved September 5, 2013.</ref> was a Michigan politician, inventor, investor, hotel owner, and a Civil War major. He was born in Port Huron, Michigan, the son of Granville Boynton and Frances (Rendt) Boynton. Frances Rendt was the daughter of Captain Ludwig Rendt, a Hessian soldier who fought for the British in the War of 1812; his wife was from Spain. Boynton was educated in Waukegan, Illinois, and briefly attended medical school in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he married Anna Fidelei. Together, they had five children.<ref name="boynton"/>
Boynton was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives to represent the St. Clair County's 1st district on the Republican ticket in 1868. By June 1870, Boyton resigned as state representative to move from Marine City back to Port Huron.<ref>{{Cite news |date=June 22, 1870|title=Vacancies in the Legislature|page=1|work=Grand Rapids Eagle|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/grand-rapids-eagle-vacancies-in-the-legi/183837422/|via=Newspapers.com |access-date=October 27, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://mdoe.state.mi.us/legislators/Legislator/LegislatorDetail/1502|title=Legislator Details - Nathan Smith Boynton|publisher=Library of Michigan |accessdate=October 27, 2025}}</ref> He served in many capacities there, including as postmaster, newspaper publisher, and mayor. He held patents related to firefighting equipment and commemorative badges. <!-- He also founded the Order of the Maccabees, a national social fraternity that served as a form of life insurance. --> His failing health caused him to seek a warmer climate; Boynton visited South Florida in 1895 with Congressman William S. Linton. Boynton purchased land along the beachfront from Linton and built a wooden, two-story hotel, The Boynton, later called the Boynton Beach Hotel.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.boyntonhistory.org/history/the-boynton-hotel/ |title=The Boynton Hotel – Boynton Beach Historical Society |website=www.boyntonhistory.org |access-date=May 12, 2015}}</ref> The associated town west of the hotel was named for Major Boynton on the plat filed by Byrd S. Dewey and her husband Fred S. Dewey on September 26, 1898.<ref>[http://www.boyntonhistory.org/history/boynton-beachs-founding/ Boynton Beach's Founding]. boyntonhistory.org. Retrieved September 5, 2013.</ref> The town incorporated in 1920. Major Boynton died on May 27, 1911, at his home in Port Huron.<ref name="boynton"/><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30459541/boynton-nathanobit/ |title='Father of Maccabees' Answers Last Summons |newspaper=Detroit Free Press |page=9 |date=1911-05-28 |access-date=2023-02-19 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
Boynton was also the chief organizer and leader of the Knights of the Maccabees, a fraternal organization.<ref>{{cite book |title=Maccabeeism : from its origin to the present / compiled from official records by Cuno Michaelis |pages=21–23 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x030126490&view=1up&seq=27 |access-date=26 May 2024 |language=en}}</ref> He became Great Commander of the Knights of the Maccabees in 1881 and served in that position for 27 years.<ref>{{cite book |last=Michigan Historical Commission|date=1924 |title=Michigan Biographies: Including Members of Congress, Elective State Officers, Justices of the Supreme Court, Members of the Michigan Legislature, Board of Regents of the University of Michigan, State Board of Agriculture and State Board of Education, Volume 1 |trans-title= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q2jhAAAAMAAJ|pages=99–100|language=English |location= |isbn=}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{cite book | title=Boynton Beach | publisher=Arcadia Publishing | author=M. Randall Gill, Boynton Beach City Library | year=2005 | isbn=9780738518244|pages=7}} *{{cite book | title=Men of progress: Embracing biographical sketches of representative | publisher=University of Michigan | year=1900}} *{{cite book | title=The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans ''Volume 7 ''| publisher=Biographical Society | author=Rossiter Johnson, John Howard Brown | year=1904}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Boynton, Nathan}} Category:1837 births Category:1911 deaths Category:American hoteliers Category:Founders of populated places in Florida Category:Michigan postmasters Category:Florida pioneers Category:People from Boynton Beach, Florida Category:People from Port Huron, Michigan Category:People of Michigan in the American Civil War Category:Republican Party members of the Michigan House of Representatives Category:Businesspeople from Florida Category:Businesspeople from Michigan Category:Mayors of places in Michigan Category:19th-century American newspaper publishers (people) Category:19th-century mayors of places in Michigan Category:19th-century members of the Michigan Legislature Category:Inventors from Michigan