From Northern Alabama, Historical and Biographical by Smith & Deland
Chicago: Donohue & Henneberry, Printers and Binders, 1888
p. 218

REV. JERMIAH M. BOLAND, A. M., is a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He is a son of David and Mary (Jones) Boland, natives of South Carolina, and of German and English descent, respectively.

Mr. Boland’s grandfather came from Germany to South Carolina prior to the Revolutionary War, and participated in that struggle for liberty. His father, David Boland, came to Georgia in 1827, and was a successful farmer in Muscogee County. He reared a family of four daughters and six sons to maturity. Three of his sons became ministers in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Rev. Elijah Boland was for years a member of the Georgia Conference, and died at Rome, Ga., in 1863, while acting as a chaplain of a hospital. Rev. Josiah A. Boland is now a member of the Northwest Texas Conference. His brother William was in the Mexican War under General Scott, and James F. belonged to a Georgia Regiment during the late civil war and was killed at Gettysburg, while John Boland, an uncle, was a captain in the famous Seminole War in Florida.

Rev. Jeremiah M. Boland was born July 12, 1835, and was brought up at Columbus, Ga. He came to Alabama while in his "teens," and was educated at Summerfield in the male department of Centenary College. He received the degree of A. M. from Hiwassee College in Tennessee.

In 1859, he joined the Alabama Conference. The first ten years of his itinerant life was spent in South Alabama; the next decade was spent in North Alabama, during which time he was Presiding Elder on the Huntsville District, and station preacher at Talladega and Tuscaloosa. He was a delegate to the General Conference in 1874 and 1878, from the North Alabama Conference. During his stay in North Alabama, he made a deep impression as an able preacher, a strong writer, and a fine organizer. He was in the Bishop’s Cabinet which organized the North Alabama Conference in 1870, and stood the peer of any man in it.

He was one of the leading actors in establishing the "Alabama Christian Advocate," the official organ of the two Alabama Conferences.

Mr. Boland returned to South Alabama at the close of 1878, and as served as presiding elder of the Pensacola, the Union Springs, and Selma Districts. He now has charge of Livingston and Eutaw Stations—his home being at Livingston.

For years Mr. Boland has been a regular correspondent of several periodical of his church, and his articles have been copied in other periodicals, and read by a large number of admiring readers. Some of his articles have been copied into European periodicals. In addition to several good sized pamphlets, he is the author of a 12 mo. volume of 331 pages, bearing the title, "The Problem of Methodism," which has just been published by the "Southern Methodist Publishing House," at Nashville, Tenn., and of which the Book Editor, Rev. W. P. Harrison, D. D., speaks in very complimentary terms.

The "Irish Correspondent " of the Nashville Advocate says:

"Mr. Boland is a find and vigorous writer. He thinks. He is possessed of strong mental grasp and with intellectual girth. He writes like a Christian philosopher, or rather like an able metaphysician, who is faithful to the Cross. I always read his articles with more than ordinary interest, and shall always be right glad to meet him with pen in hand in any walk of literature in which he may please to travel."

Mr. Boland has been married twice. He was married, in 1860, to Miss Sallie E. Pennington, and by her had four daughters and one son. After her death, in January, 1881, he was married in May, 1882, to Miss Hattie John, daughter of Chancellor John of Selma, Ala.

Mr. Boland is a Royal Arch-Mason.