BOYETTE

NAME: Boyette COUNTY: Hillsborough ROADS: 2WD GRID: 3 CLIMATE: Good anytime. BEST TIME TO VISIT: Best in Fall or Winter

COMMENTS: Take the Gibsonton/Riverview exit of South I-75 and go East on Boyette Road. You will come to an intersection where Boyette meets Bell Shoals Road. Take Boyette to the right. (Notice the "Cracker" Simpson homestead immediately to the left after you turn. It sits just a few feet off Boyette Road behind a fence. This homestead was "squatted" around 1885. It won't be there much longer.) Boyette Road will zig-zag out into the country. You will come to another intersection where Boyette turns to the left and the road continues straight ahead toward Balm. Make sure you turn left to continue on Boyette Road. You will come to a Stop Sign and you are there. Notice the RR track has been removed where it used to cross the road. REMAINS: Nothing there anymore. Supposedly the cemetary is still there but has not been found in years. Exists somewhere in the pasture.

Boyette P.O. was established in 1902 by Sarah Boyette and named the town for her Father, Thomas Boyette. This farming community once was a thriving little town that boasted a general store with a gas pump(to the south of the road), a sawmill (also to the south), A Railroad Depot with loading ramp for crops to be loaded, a church & cemetary (turn left at the Stop sign and around the bend on the right), dance hall (directly across the road from the stop sign), Turpentine still (across the road to the left), and a Railroad Section Foreman with a crew to keep the tracks fixed. Mr. Wilson (home used to be on the left or North side of road. Notice the ornamental plants that was once a front yard) was an early stationmaster and telegraph operator. A.T. Bennett was the section foreman for the area of track and he and his crew of workers kept the RR track in good working order. The area where they lived was called the "section houses" straight south of the stop sign. This was a rough area and there were shootings and stabbings nearly every weekend. Occasionally moonshine stills would be brought out of the swamp and were busted by the authorities. Founding families included the Simmons, Hobsons, Sumners, Wilsons, and of course Boyette. The town died when the RR was removed and all the residents either died or moved away. Submitted by: Mike and Aaron Woodfin

Boyette Courtesy Mike Woodfin

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