Alexander, or “Scotty” Boyter, was a second prominent stonemason in Beaver. He was born in Dundee, Scotland in 1849 and originally came to Beaver with the United States Army to Fort Cameron. After his discharge in 1875, he returned to Scotland. Within four years, he came back to Beaver, accompanied by his mother and youngest brother, James, and all three spent the remainder of their lives in Beaver County.

“Scotty” Boyter worked most frequently with the pink tuff, though he built numerous houses of locally burned brick. There was apparently not enough employment for both Frazer and Boyter, and it was Boyter who worked part time as a mason. Boyter did a fine job of cutting and smoothing the pink rock
blocks and laid them up with perfection. While he was an excellent craftsman, his homes do not always display the same quality of design that Frazer’s do.

The following is a list of buildings attributed to Alexander:

  • 495 North 400 West (pink rock, Jerkin heads)
  • 415 North 400 West (pink rock with Jerkin heads, 2 room hall and parlor, cross hatching on stonework)
  • 390 West 200 North (black rock center, brick on east side, frame on west; Boyter built the rock and brick sections)
  • 290 West 200 South (pink rock, hipped roof, 1 story tall, brick section on west)
  • 290 North 300 West (1-1/2 story, black rock with Queen Anne gables)
  • 270 West 300 North (Irregular plan and massing, brick, Queen Anne gables)
  • 590 North 200 West (Alexander Boyter House, 1-1/2 story pink rock)
  • 50 West 100 North (Dr. Shepherd Home, bungalow style, Boyter Brothers did the masonry work but not the designing)
  • 90 West 200 North (James Boyter House, original hall and parlor plan with a rear extension, l-1/2 stories)
  • 265 North 100 West (Boyter Brothers, pink rock, Queen Anne gables, broken, coursed ashlar)
  • 590 North 100 West (brick, 2 rooms, 11-11/2 stories, cresting on south bay window)
  • 110 West 600 North (Irregular plan and massing, Queen Anne gables)
  • 95 North Main Street (Low Hotel, Boyter was one of the masons who worked on the original portion of the hotel)
  • 495 North 100 East (pink rock, several additions and a bay window of pink rock)
  • 495 North 200 East (2 room hall and parlor plan, pink rock with bay window, 1-1/2 stories)
  • 15 South 200 East (pink rock, Mansard roof, Blackner House, excellent masonry)
  • 275 East 300 North (pink rock granary, full basement with Jerkin heads)
  • 295 North 400 East (pink rock granary with Jerkin heads, full basement)

James Boyter, Alexander’s brother, was also active in the construction industry. The two brothers frequently worked together, both with the pink rock and the brick. James preferred his work as a monument carver and his sculpture is some of the best in southern Utah and can be seen today in
Beaver’s cemetery.

David Muir was yet another Scotsman who worked with stone in Beaver. Muir usually worked as Thomas Frazer’s ablest assistant, for his name is frequently recorded in Frazer’s workbooks. Muir also constructed his own home at 295 North 300 West and his masonry techniques and design are quite different from Frazer’s. Unfortunately, David Muir’s home is the only extant example of his own work, for it is one of the finest stone houses in all of Beaver.

Louis A. Harris was a second generation stonemason in Beaver. His father and grandfather were born in Essex, England and were actively involved in the construction industry there before they immigrated to Beaver. Louis learned how to build with the pink tuff and constructed several industrial structures as well as residences in and around Beaver. He was an exacting craftsman and his rusticated treatment of the pink tuff is unexcelled in beauty.

The few senior citizens in Beaver who remember Robert Thimblebee recall that he was a plasterer. He undoubtedly did much plaster work, but his name is consistently noted as a stonemason in Thomas Frazer’s work books for the decade of the 1880s.

There were several other men who did some work with stone, both the pink rock and the black rock. Henry Gale, Henry Boyter, Philo Boyter, Jim Frazer, D. I. Frazer and Tom Frazer, Jr. are the names that this writer most frequently uncovered. Most of these men were born in Beaver and learned what stonemasonry skills they had from the men who had immigrated from Great Britain. It was also during this generation’s time that the demand for stone gave way to a demand for frame and brick and consequently the art and craft of stonemasonry in Beaver truly died out about 1901.