C. O. Boynton
Charles O. Boynton was born in 1826 in Rockingham, Vermont. He came to Illinois in 1847 and opened a dry goods store in Chicago. Two years later he moved to Sycamore and opened another store, this time a general store. He began lending money in 1852 by obtaining capital from back East at lower interest rates and then lending locally at a higher rate. He did this until the early 1870s and made a significant amount of money.
After lending Boynton moved on to land speculation. Boynton owned farmland in DeKalb County as well as almost 75,000 acres (300 km²) in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, and Arkansas. He held nearly 60,000 acres (240 km²) of walnut forests in Arkansas where he owned a lumber mill.
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