David Lindsey Boyd (1841
- 1919)
David Lindsey Boyd’s family
lived in the pamish of Grange of Dundermot, Barony of Kilconway,
County Antrim. The Boyds
were farmers and leased their land from the owners of large estates.
David’s father was James Ellis
Boyd, and his mother's name was Jenny. Based on David’s middle
name, a reasonable guess at
her maiden name would be Lindsey. Further information about the
ancestry of this family is
based on a search commissioned through the Ulster Historical Foundation
in 1980-81, and is mostly
circumstantial in nature. It shows that a Boyd family were recorded
on
rent rolls in the area in
1812 and 1834. This information strongly suggests that James’ father
was a
William Boyd. This family
assuredly descends from Boyds transplanted into Ulster from Ayrshire
in Scotland during the "plantation"
of Scots into northern Ireland in the seventeenth century.
David L. Boyd was born in 1841,
the youngest of James and Jenny’s eight children. They lived in
the townland of Spring Mount
when David was young. Of his life in Ireland we know little except
that he was a school teacher
and a Mason. His parchment Masonic membership “certificate” is still
in the family, along with
the violin he brought with him to the U.S.
As a younger son, farming the
family land was not an option for David. In pursuit of gainful
employment, he became a teacher
in the National School system, where he taught at the
Drumadoon school from 1857
to 1866. Samuel S. McLure, later a successful American magazine
publisher, was a student of
David Boyd’s in Ireland. Writing in his autobiography of his early
days
attending a National School
near his home he recalled that because he was malnourished and tired
easily, he would have crying
spells in the afternoon, and writes the following:
"I distinctly remember how
kind the teacher, Mr. Boyd, was to me when these crying-fits came on,
and how considerate the other
boys were... Every few years each teacher in the public schools
was required to spend six
months in Dublin... I can remember when our teacher Mr. Boyd
went,
and how none of us much cared
for the substitute... When Mr. Boyd explained to us boys that
the
war was between the Northern
and Southern states of North America and not between North and
South America, that was a
great revelation to us... I have so often wondered in the intervening
years what had become of this
good and kindly man that I was very much pleased when Senator
Brackett at the time these
memoirs first appeared, wrote me, "I suspect the school teacher whom
you mention in your autobiography
is my old time friend David L. Boyd, still living in Mt. Vernon,
Iowa." I availed myself
of the hint and was rewarded by the following communication from the
younger Boyd...." (a
letter from David’s son William W. Boyd follows in the autobiography).
An brief account of David L.
Boyd’s life is found in a book entitled "Biographical Record (Linn
County)", published in Iowa
ca. 1901. It reports that he was the youngest of eight children and
that
his parents James and Jenny
Boyd never left County Antrim. Here is the balance of that biography:
"During his boyhood our subject
attended a model school in his native land, and was later a student
in the training school in
Dublin. On leaving that institution he successfully engaged in teaching
in
Ireland for seven years.
But the new world had attractions for him, and he determined to come to
that country where every man
was equal in the eyes of the law, and where all had an equal chance
for advancement. In
1868 he bade good-bye to home and friends and went from Belfast to
Liverpool, England from which
port he sailed to the United States. Landing in New York, he
proceeded at once to Marengo,
Iowa, where he remained three weeks and then came to Mt.
Vernon, which has since been
his home. He began life here as a farm hand in the employ of James
Smyth, with whom he remained
three months, and for three weeks he was similarly employed by
Colonel [Robert] Smyth.
At the end of that time he accepted a position in the lumber yard of Col.
R. Smyth & Co., at Mt.
Vernon, and a year later purchased an interest in the business. This
partnership lasted for some
time and then he purchased his partner’s interests, and has since
continued to be identified
with the lumber business of his adopted city. In May, 1900, he took
into
partnership with him his son,
Jay [James] C., and under the firm name of D.L. Boyd & Son is
continued with marked success.
On the advent of his son into the firm, he became connected with
the banking business as cashier
of the Mt. Vernon Bank, and is now holding that position. His
intimate knowledge and extensive
acqaintance with the people who do business in Mt. Vernon make
him a valuable acquisition
to the bank. On the 8th of December, 1870, Mr. Boyd was united in
marriage with Miss Margaret
Craig... Mr. Boyd is a faithful and consistent member of the
Presyterian church, and in
politics is an ardent Republican. For two years he efficiently served
as
mayor of Mt. Vernon [1877
- 1878], and has been a member of the school board for many years,
while he is now serving as
one of the trustees of Cornell College. He is a very pleasant and
courteous gentleman, who takes
a deep interest in every enterprise which he believes will be of
public benefit, and he stands
deservedly high in both business and social circles."
In 1875 he was granted American
citizenship. His business interests also included grain and
livestock. He died in
Mt. Vernon in 1919. His three children were William W., Florence,
and
James Craig. Living
descendants today are all from James C. (Jay) Boyd (1872 - 1943) whose
four
sons Robert, William, James,
and Donald each had families with children.
Donald
Lindsey Boyd
New Carlisle, Ohio