This tall ornate white bronze tombstone towers over surrounding graves in section F1, plot 61 near the cemetery office at Glenwood Cemetery.
There are inscriptions all over this tombstone: on the obelisk, around the pediment, and around the base. This tombstone was erected in 1885, presumably to commemorate all the various members of the Boyce family who were then and are now buried n this plot.
[Obelisk, S side]
R. P. & M. F. BOYCE
and their children
MARY R. RINALDO P.
MOLLIE R. R. PEARL.
RANDAL P. ROBERT CECILIA.
ROBERT H.
[Pediment]
[S side]
Randal Percy Boyce.
Born June 18, 1866, died November 16, 1866
[W side]
Rinaldo Prettyman Boyce,
born July 28, 1859
died Oct. 27, 1879
Roderick Pearl Boyce,
born Dec. 5, 1863
died Dec. 23, 1880
[N side]
Mary Rossellie Boyce,
born May 28, 1856
died Sept. 5, 1857
Molly Robinson Boyce
born Dec. 30, 1861
died June 5, 1867
[E side]
Maria De Genlas Boyce
born June 18, 1831
died June 10, 1850
Robert page Boyce
born Jan. 10, 1846
died Sept. 22, 1867
Base:
[NSW sides]
BOYCE
[E side]
1885"
From Find-A-Grave we Found the obituary for R. P. Boyce: (
visit link)
"GALVESTON DAILY NEWS, Mon, 17 Feb 1890, p. 2, c. 4&5:
DEATH OF CAPTAIN R. P. BOYCE.
Houston, Tex., Feb. 16 – The death of Captain Robert P. Boyce, a Texas veteran, and one of the esteemed citizens of Houston and Texas, occurred this morning at 3.25 o'clock at his home in the Third ward.
While it was not a surprise, as it had been generally made known that he was hopelessly ill, it filled the great hearts of this community with a sorrow worthy of the good name he had earned and the manly bearing that was always his. For two or three days past the doctors knew that any moment might be his last; in fact, it was somewhat surprising that he held out as long as he did. Night before last at 12 o'clock it was thought that he could not last an hour longer, but the wonderful powers of this rare specimen of physical strength, robustness and vigor seemed to stand up against death when even in its grasp.
Captain Boyce was a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, where he first saw the light of day June 16, 1816, and hence was in the 76th [sic] year of his age at the time of his death. At the early age of fifteen years he left home and went to Natchez, Miss., making the trip under difficulties that would now be considered almost unsurmountable by reason of the wild country, the primitive, crude and slow methods of getting along. In the fall of 1833, and not a great while subsequent to his arrival in Natchez, he left for New Orleans on the strength of reports concerning an expedition then being made up to come to the rescue of Texas in her struggle for independence against the tyranny of Mexican rulers. Upon his arrival there he with a companion named Bordeaux gave their names and joined the expedition under General Mexia. Their baggage or rather clothes were placed upon the steamer, but while the two were absent temporarily she pulled out and they were left. That expedition reached Texas and were betrayed and nearly all massacred. Later, on April 14,1836, he left there with Major Thomas W. Ward on the steamer Flora and landed on Galveston Island April 19, when there were only about 850 people in the place and they with scant houseroom. There they got reports of the approaching battle of San Jacinto, and at once the party started across Galveston bay to come up the bayou on the steamer Laura, but when within twenty miles of the battlefield, she got aground, and they did not succeed in getting her off till the battle was won, though they arrived there in time to be of great service to the wounded and even to the weary soldiers who had fought so desperately, but were unhurt by ball or blade. It was on the morning of the 22d that they got off the bar. On that trip he first met Tom Lubbock, who was afterward known well to Texas history. After remaining some time with the Texan army he, with others, was sent as an escort of prisoners to the mouth of the Brazos. This was in May. There his command, by order of the provisional president, David G. Burnett, was attached to the command of General Thos. J. Green. The command was sent from there in pursuit of Indians who had gone toward Washington county, but on account of their inferior stock they were unable to overtake them and hence pitched tents at what they called camp Independence, near which spot now stands the town of Independence.
He first put foot on Houston soil the 2nd of February 1837, and after that time Houston he always considered his home. At the time of his death he owned the piece of ground upon which be first slept after arriving here, and though almost in the heart of the city, had he lived a hundred years he would always have owned it on account of that fact. As will be readily recollected by many here, ho with many of them as his guests just three years ago celebrated the semi-centennial of his first placing foot on Houston soil. The ground fronts on Milam street, and is near the crossing of Franklin, between it and Congress.
He was known to be a man of remarkable valor and bravery, and had a great partiality for military life. He had held a captain's commission in three armies—that of the Texas republic, of the union in the Mexican war, and of the confederacy in the late war between the states. He possessed that nobility of character that is most always known to belong to a man of his courage. His integrity and exalted honor, through a life of extraordinary vicissitudes, were always preserved untarnished even by the slightest breath of calumny. His life was thoroughly identified with the history of Houston, and that too at times when it was no enviable position to be considered a leader. His powerful physique was backed by strong will and unfaltering determination, and hence his entire life was one of the greatest activity.
In the year 1855, April 28, he married in this city Miss Mary Francis Hogan, a sister of the late lamented Zack Hogan, and they lived happily together up to the moment of his death, he being a loving, devoted, and tender husband, and she worthy of all the devotion and attention he could bestow. From this union were born three boys and three girls, but of these four have passed away, two, Mrs. Robert Cecelia Howard, wife of Mr. Wm. Howard, and Robert P. Boyce, named after his father. In his death the community loses a valuable citizen and the bereaved family all that a husband and father could be. His devotion to his family was a remarkable feature of his life. Those who now grieve for the departed have the warmest sympathy of many Texans.
The funeral will take place to-morrow afternoon at 3 o'clock from the residence of Mr. Wm. Howard, corner of Pease and La Branch streets."