JAMES M. BOLAND, general insurance agent, Wilkes-Barre, was born in County Sligo, Ireland, May 9, 1864, a son of James and Ann (Biglin) Boland, who with their family came to America in 1865, locating at Scranton, Pa., where the father died March 10 , same year, three days after their arrival. The family consisted of four children: Christopher G., John T., William P. and James M. The subject of this memoir was reared in Scranton, and educated in the public schools of that city. At ten years of age he began to work in the Iron Works there, where he was employed until the strike of 1877, at which time he took a clerkship in his uncle's grocery, three years. In 1882 he was appointed assistant mercantile appraiser of Scranton, under F. A. Beamish, which incumbency he filled one year. Later he was a traveling salesman, six months, after which he entered the fire insurance business, continuing same for one year. In 1884 Mr. Boland located in Wilkes-Barre, and embarked in the general insurance business, in which he has since successfully continued, representing several of the leading insurance companies of the world. On September 28, 1887, he married Mary, daughter of Daniel and Dora (McGourty) Shovlin, of Wilkes-Barre, and has three children: Loretta, Annie, and Ruth. Mr. Boland is progressive and enterprising, and is a well-known and popular business man. He is a member of the Catholic Church, and in politics is a Democrat. [Copied to "B"]
WILLIAM JOHN BUTLER, M.D., physician and surgeon, Wilkes-Barre, was born at Branchdale, Schuylkill Co., Pa., January 17, 1863, and is a son of Michael Pierce and Mary A. (O'Sullivan) Butler, both natives of Ireland. The father was a distinguished scholar, and about 1850 came to America, where he was an instructor in many of the public schools of Pennsylvania upward of thirty-five years, and died in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on December 25, 1891. The subject of this sketch was reared in Pennsylvania, received his education under the tuition of his father, and when fourteen years of age entered the drug business as an apprentice, in which he served five years. He studied medicine with Dr. W. G. Weaver, of Wilkes-Barre, and was graduated from the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, in his twenty-first year (1885); the same year he began the practice of his profession in Pittston, where he remained one year, and then located in Wilkes-Barre. Prior to that he was Resident Physician of the Wilkes-Barre City Hospital (1884) for six months. Since 1886 the Doctor has been permanently located in Wilkes-Barre, where he has succeeded in building up a lucrative practice. [Copied to "B"]
JOHN W. LECKIE, M.D., Hazleton, was born in Baltimore county, Md., December 12, 1835, and is the eldest in the family of four children of Robert and Maria (Mason) Leckie, the former a native of Raleigh, N.C., the latter of Baltimore, Md. The subject of our sketch was educated in his native county, receiving a very thorough classical training under private tutors. In 1863 he was admitted on probation in East Baltimore Conference of the M.E. Church, and was ordained deacon in 1865 and elder in 1867. He was soon after ordained at Lock Haven, and followed the calling of a minister of the Gospel until 1881, when he became interested in medicine, and began a course of study at Hahnemann Medical College, Philadelphia where, after taking the regular course, he graduated in 1883. He immediately afterward located at Hazleton, where he has built a large and lucrative practice. Dr. Leckie was united in marriage, March 14, 1863, with Miss Ellen S., daughter of Ludwig and Catharine (Rahn) Study, natives of Littlestown, Pa., and to this union has been born five children, namely: Ida M., now wife of Ira J. Mandeville, of Newark, N.J.; Carrie L.; John W., a student at Hahnemann University, Philadelphia; Mary B.; and Edwin R. S., (deceased). In politics the Doctor votes the Republican ticket; he is a member of the Homeopathic State Medical Society; the family attends the M.E. Church. [Copied to "L"]