STEPHEN GILL BOYD - PENNSYLVANIA
 

STEPHEN GILL BOYD, the subject of this sketch, is the oldest child of
JOHN C. and MARTHA (FARMER) BOYD, and was born in Peach Bottom Township, this county, on the 6th day of December,1830. On his paternal side he is descended from an old Scotch-Irish family that emigrated from the County Antrim. Ireland, in the year 1736, and his maternal grandparents
emigrated from Shropshire, England, in the early part of the present century, and settled near Darlington, Hartford Co., Md.  During the minority of Mr. Boyd, his summers were devoted to working on his father's farm, and his winters to attending the district school. Upon reaching his majority he repaired to York, and entered, as a student, the grammar school of the late Dr. Andrew Dinsmore, and spent his time, until he was twenty-seven years of age mainly in teaching, obtaining academic instruction at various educational institutions, principally at White Hall Academy in Cumberland County, Penn., and at Bryansville Academy in his native township, and in managing his farm, for several years farming in summer and teaching a district school in winter. In his twenty-seventh year, Mr. Boyd, in order to obtain a more thorough education, removed with his family to Lancaster, Penn., and for a term became a student at the Millersville State Normal School, then under the management of Dr. Wickersham. From this time until
1866, he devoted his time exclusively to teaching and study, teaching in
Lancaster County, Lancaster City, and in Wrightsville, in this county.
In the spring of the year last referred to, at the request of Prof. S. B. Heiges, who was then county superintendent of schools of this county, he came to York and joined him in the management of a normal school, organized for the benefit of the young teachers of the county, with which school he was connected as one of its principal teachers for four years. In the fall of this year (1866) he was elected to a seat in the house of representatives, and was re-clected the ensuing year. In the spring of 1869, he was elected county superintendent of schools to succeed Mr. Heiges, and in 1871 he was clected to the presidency of the Peach Bottom Railway Company, which latter position he filled for the term of six years, and until the road was completed and put into operation from York to Delta. In the spring of 1877 Mr. Boyd, in conjunction with some of the more enterprising citizens of Hartford and Baltimore Counties, undertook the organization of a company to construct a railroad from Delta to Baltimore, and on the 21st day of January, 1884, this road was completed and opened to traffic. Mr. Boyd's conduct as a representative was characterized by a deep interest in all
legislation calculated to promote the educational interests of the State
and the material interests of his own county. During his first term he
finally prepared and secured the passage of the bill to incorporate the York and Chanceford Turnpike Company, in which company, after its organization, he served as a director until his removal to Baltimore, in
1878. During his second term he prepared and secured the passage of the
bill to incorporate the Peach Bottom Railway Company, and during this
term also he took an active part in the passage of the bill giving to the nonaccepting school districts of the State, their forfeited appropriations from the State treasury, for the last ten years prior to its passage, and had the pleasure of seeing Manheim Township, in this county, accept the system during his first year as county superintendent. In his second year in the office of county superintendent he co-operated with the board of school control of
the borough of York in the reorganization of the schools of the borough,
favoring a comprehensive and thorough course of study, and the borough
superintendency. Mr. Boyd, since his withdrawal from the management of
the Maryland Central Railroad, in the autumn of 1884, has been engaged
in educational work, having adopted the educational platform as a profession. In addition to his labors on the platform, he frequently appears in print as an essayist, and is the author of a work on the signification of Indian local or place names. Much of his life has been given to the study of literary and scientific subjects, and no small part of it to the promotion of the material interests of his county.  

Source: A Biographical History of York County, Pa. pges 23-24 published
1886. 

                              Thanks to Karen from Ohio, USA

                                  Return To Main Boyd Site