William Henry Boland, born 19 June 1876, Meridian Township, Ingham County, Michigan, was the only surviving son of Patrick (1820-1903) and Bridget (Kanalley) (1845-1917) Boland. According to the 1900 US Federal Census, Bridget stated she was the mother of 9 children but only 6 were living at the time of census. The 1870 US Federal Census revealed there was a son named George, age 7, but he is not enumerated with the family in 1880 and it is assumed he died between 1870 and 1880.

William was schooled in the Okemos School and was on the 1888 Okemos Union School pupil listing along with three of his sisters, Anna, Lizzie and Katie. William, or Willie as he was called in his youth, never married. By 1908 he was employed by the Lansing Fire Department and lived on North Larch Street, Lansing when he became ill with typhoid fever and succumbed, 22 September 1908, to the malady. William was interred in Mt. Hope Cemetery, Lansing.

Lansing State Journal, 22 September 1908

The State Republican, 22 September 1908, obituary for William Boland