John F. Boynton
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
February 15, 1835 (1835-02-15) – September 3, 1837 (1837-09-03)
End reason	Disfellowshipped for apostasy[1]
Latter Day SaintApostle
February 15, 1835 (1835-02-15) – December 3, 1837 (1837-12-03)
Reason	Initial organization of Quorum of the Twelve
End reason	Excommunicated for apostasy[1]
Reorganization at end of term	No apostles immediately ordained[2]
Personal details
Born	John Farnham Boynton (1811-09-20)September 20, 1811 Bradford,Massachusetts
Died	October 20, 1890(1890-10-20) (aged 79) Syracuse,New York
Resting place	Woodlawn Cemetery 43°04′23″N76°07′39″W / 43.0731°N 76.1276°W /43.0731; -76.1276 (Woodlawn Cemetery)

John Farnham Boynton (September 20, 1811 – October 20, 1890) was an early leader in theLatter Day Saint movement and an Americangeologist and inventor. He was one of the original members of the Latter Day Saint movement'sQuorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Boynton was born inBradford, Massachusetts, to Eliphalet Boynton and Susan Nichols. He was married to Susan Lowell. In his teenage years, Boynton attendedColumbia University and at age 20 began medical school inSt. Louis, Missouri.

Boynton was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints byJoseph Smith in September 1832 inKirtland, Ohio. He was ordained to the office of anelder bySidney Rigdon.

Boynton proved to be an effectivemissionary for the church. He initially served inErie County, Pennsylvania, withZebedee Coltrin, in 1832. The following December, Smith sent him on a mission toMaine. In an 1834 letter written fromSaco, Maine, Boynton states: "I have baptized about forty in this section; Elder Even M. Greene travelled with me from 16 Jan., 1833, till October following; while together we baptized about 130." While in Maine and Massachusetts, Boynton also served with Horace Cowen.

Boynton was chosen as one of the church'sapostles at the organization of the initialQuorum of Twelve Apostles on February 14, 1835. He was the only one of the original apostles who had attended university. Soon after, he accompanied the Twelve on their 1835 mission through the church branches in the eastern United States. He attended a conference in Laboro',Upper Canada, with six other members of the Quorum on June 29, 1835. Boynton returned to Ohio in the fall, and preached to a gathering of church members on October 18. After this mission, he began a mercantile business in Kirtland with church associateLyman E. Johnson.

Despite his dedication to the church's religious message, Boynton broke with Smith and Rigdon during theKirtland Safety Society banking controversy. In May 1837,U.S. PresidentAndrew Jackson ordered theU.S. Treasury to accept only gold for public land, rejecting privately printed paper money such as the Safety Society and other unchartered community institutions produced. This ultimately caused the Kirtland bank to fail. The failure of the financial institution, founded with the support of church leaders, led to widespread dissent in 1837. Two distinct factions developed in the community, with members of the church's leadership aligned on both sides. Boynton explained that his difficulties with the church resulted from "the failure of the bank" which he had understood "was instituted by the will & revelations of God, & he had been told that it would never fail."^[3]

Ahigh council trial disfellowshipped and removedLuke Johnson,Lyman E. Johnson, and Boynton from the Quorum of the Twelve on September 3, 1837. However, the dissenters, led by Boynton,Warren Parrish,Martin Harris, and Luke Johnson, had a strong local following and took physical control of theKirtland Temple, the major financial asset of the church. They also sought to control the church organization and led a competing high council whichexcommunicated Smith and Rigdon, who left the city and fled toFar West, Missouri.

In 1838, after Smith had relocated to Missouri, Boynton and other dissident church leaders, includingOliver Cowdery,David Whitmer, and the Johnsons, were excommunicated. Boynton believed Smith to have become a "fallen prophet" and said toHeber C. Kimball, "if you are such a fool as to go at the call of the fallen prophet, Joseph Smith, I will not help you a dime, and if you are cast on Van Diemen's Land, I will not make an effort to help you."

Boynton later became a member ofWarren Parrish's reformed "Church of Christ", which took possession of theKirtland Temple.

Although he never rejoined the faith, Boynton is reported to have later become less antagonistic toward his former associates. His nephew (son of his sister, Olive Boynton Hale), Alma Helaman Hale, ofGrantsville,Utah Territory, reported that Boynton visitedBrigham Young (also one of the original members of the Quorum of the Twelve) during a visit to Utah Territory and counseledErastus Snow to continue his efforts and involvement with the church.^[4]

After parting ways with the church, Boynton traveled throughout the United States lecturing onnatural history,geology, and other sciences. Between 1853 and 1854, he joined a U.S. government geological surveying expedition to California. During theAmerican Civil War, Boynton was employed by the U.S. to designtorpedoes and other weapons. He holds 36 patents in the U.S. National Patent Office. Boynton patented:

• A process to generate carbonic acid gas
• A soda fountain
• A portable fire extinguisher
• A vacuum process for extracting gold from ore
• Several small electrical appliances
• A process for converting cast iron to malleable steel

In 1869, Boynton was the first geologist to examine theCardiff Giant after it was unearthed nearCardiff, New York. Boynton declared that the giant could not be a fossilized man, but hypothesized that it was astatue that was carved by a FrenchJesuit in the 16th or 17th century in order to impress the local Native Americans.^[5] The giant was later determined to be a hoax.

Boynton died inSyracuse, New York.

• Boynton, John F. (1884).A Treatise on Maiz, Clover, Silos and Ensilage. Columbia Press. ISBN B00089EPEK.

• Fred C. Collier (ed.),The Kirtland Council Minute Book, Collier's Publishing Co., 2002.

• Susan Easton Black,John Farnham Boynton
• John F. Boynton atFind a Grave

• 1811 births
• 1890 deaths
• 19th-century American inventors
• American Latter Day Saint leaders
• American Latter Day Saint missionaries
• American geologists
• Apostles of the Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints)
• Columbia University alumni
• Converts to Mormonism
• Doctrine and Covenants people
• Former Latter Day Saints
• Latter Day Saint missionaries in the United States
• People excommunicated by the Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints)
• People from Bradford, Massachusetts
• Religious leaders from Massachusetts

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