Boyce was the sixth of eight children born to Ernest Marion Field (1866-1902) and his wife Mary Rhetta Bell (1862-1947) of Cabarrus County, NC. I am not exactly sure if he was born in 1897 or 1898.
Boyce spent his childhood on the family farm on Coddle Creek in Cabarrus County. He attended the Coddle Creek Academy and was a member of the Coddle Creek ARP Church. After his father died, his mother moved into the town of Mooresville, where the kept the telephone exchange in her front parlor. They then moved to Greenville, SC, where Rhetta Bell Field operated a boarding house so she could send her sons to Erskine College.
Boyce, along with his brothers, Charlie Neal, Fred, and Lamont, served in the US Army in World War One. (His brother John Field was too young to serve, but served as a courrier.) One of the stories that have been passed down through the family is that Boyce lied about his age so that he could join the army when he was not yet old enough. If this is true, he must have enlisted before America entered the War. (The War in Europe began in August of 1914, but America didn't enter the war until April of 1917.)
Boyce was gassed by the Germans sometime before March 1918, when he is listed on medical records. He never really recovered from that, and was in and out of various hospitals for the rest of his short life. He spent some time here in Asheville at the Kenilworth Inn, which had been turned into a VA Medical Hosptial. Between bouts of illness, he worked as a clerk in his brother Lamont's pharmacy in Greenville, SC. He died when he was only 27.
"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."
Boyce spent his childhood on the family farm on Coddle Creek in Cabarrus County. He attended the Coddle Creek Academy and was a member of the Coddle Creek ARP Church. After his father died, his mother moved into the town of Mooresville, where the kept the telephone exchange in her front parlor. They then moved to Greenville, SC, where Rhetta Bell Field operated a boarding house so she could send her sons to Erskine College.
Boyce, along with his brothers, Charlie Neal, Fred, and Lamont, served in the US Army in World War One. (His brother John Field was too young to serve, but served as a courrier.) One of the stories that have been passed down through the family is that Boyce lied about his age so that he could join the army when he was not yet old enough. If this is true, he must have enlisted before America entered the War. (The War in Europe began in August of 1914, but America didn't enter the war until April of 1917.)
Boyce was gassed by the Germans sometime before March 1918, when he is listed on medical records. He never really recovered from that, and was in and out of various hospitals for the rest of his short life. He spent some time here in Asheville at the Kenilworth Inn, which had been turned into a VA Medical Hosptial. Between bouts of illness, he worked as a clerk in his brother Lamont's pharmacy in Greenville, SC. He died when he was only 27.
"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."
Boyce was the sixth of eight children born to Ernest Marion Field (1866-1902) and his wife Mary Rhetta Bell (1862-1947) of Cabarrus County, NC. I am not exactly sure if he was born in 1897 or 1898.
Boyce spent his childhood on the family farm on Coddle Creek in Cabarrus County. He attended the Coddle Creek Academy and was a member of the Coddle Creek ARP Church. After his father died, his mother moved into the town of Mooresville, where the kept the telephone exchange in her front parlor. They then moved to Greenville, SC, where Rhetta Bell Field operated a boarding house so she could send her sons to Erskine College.
Boyce, along with his brothers, Charlie Neal, Fred, and Lamont, served in the US Army in World War One. (His brother John Field was too young to serve, but served as a courrier.) One of the stories that have been passed down through the family is that Boyce lied about his age so that he could join the army when he was not yet old enough. If this is true, he must have enlisted before America entered the War. (The War in Europe began in August of 1914, but America didn't enter the war until April of 1917.)
Boyce was gassed by the Germans sometime before March 1918, when he is listed on medical records. He never really recovered from that, and was in and out of various hospitals for the rest of his short life. He spent some time here in Asheville at the Kenilworth Inn, which had been turned into a VA Medical Hosptial. Between bouts of illness, he worked as a clerk in his brother Lamont's pharmacy in Greenville, SC. He died when he was only 27.
"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."
Boyce spent his childhood on the family farm on Coddle Creek in Cabarrus County. He attended the Coddle Creek Academy and was a member of the Coddle Creek ARP Church. After his father died, his mother moved into the town of Mooresville, where the kept the telephone exchange in her front parlor. They then moved to Greenville, SC, where Rhetta Bell Field operated a boarding house so she could send her sons to Erskine College.
Boyce, along with his brothers, Charlie Neal, Fred, and Lamont, served in the US Army in World War One. (His brother John Field was too young to serve, but served as a courrier.) One of the stories that have been passed down through the family is that Boyce lied about his age so that he could join the army when he was not yet old enough. If this is true, he must have enlisted before America entered the War. (The War in Europe began in August of 1914, but America didn't enter the war until April of 1917.)
Boyce was gassed by the Germans sometime before March 1918, when he is listed on medical records. He never really recovered from that, and was in and out of various hospitals for the rest of his short life. He spent some time here in Asheville at the Kenilworth Inn, which had been turned into a VA Medical Hosptial. Between bouts of illness, he worked as a clerk in his brother Lamont's pharmacy in Greenville, SC. He died when he was only 27.
"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."
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