Hello Joe,

I ran across your post while researching Joe Boyer the race car driver and Henry Ford. I found out about the Boyers years ago before the internet when my grandmother gave me a suitcase filled with her old photos from the 1910's, 20's, 30's etc. She was getting older and was actually planning on throwing out all the photos as she thought she needed to get rid of stuff. I gladly took them off of her hands and proceded to ask about the various relatives seen in the scrapbooks.
I ran across a picture of two little boys in pedal race cars, and I asked her who they were. She said "They were little millionaires, my Aunt Lou was a kind of governess to them".

She went on to say that they were the Boyer children and that their father had been a wealthy race car driver back in the twenties, but that he'd been killed in a racing accident. She did in fact tell me that the Boyer Estate neighbored the Ford Estate as you suggested in your post. I went through the scrap books and found seven more pictures of the two boys along with a little girl in a couple of the shots.

It wasn't until the internet came out that I was able to Google the name Boyer and race car driver and get some information. I learned that Joe Boyer had been on the Duesenberg racing team in 1924 at Indy 500, and that he was put in as relief driver for another racer who was too skittish to pull ahead in the race. One of the Duesenberg brothers said "Put this ship in front, or burn it up". Joe did and he won. Sadly he was killed a few months later in a race in Altoona.

I found another one of your relatives a few years ago online and sent them scans of the pictures. They sent me scans of newspaper clippings in which I learned that the two boys were named Joseph [[the older one) and Francis [[the younger one) They appear to be about seven and four years old in the pics.

Since my great great Aunt Lou was the governess to his sons, she spent a lot of time taking them on outings, and managed to have some pictures taken. I've got pics of them in their dad's racing car, sitting on the runningboard of a limousine, and at picnic near a stream.

I'd be glad to send you copies of the pictures and share what I know.

If you'd like to call me, I can be reached at 504-849-9009

Gil D'Aquin
New Orleans, La