(After the publication of a
recent article on this Boyd family, new
information came in from descendants
and the author did more research.
(This is the updated Boyd version)
Alexander Boyd settled
about four miles south of Ooltewah before the
Indian removal, purchasing
his land near White Oak Mountain for as
little as a quarter an acre.
Several of his grandchildren fought for the
Confederacy.
The Boyds apparently went from
Scotland to Pennsylvania and to frontier
Tennessee just after the Revolution.
Alexander Boyd was born about 1784.
Hugh Boyd, who was
born about 1788 and accompanied him to Ooltewah,
was apparently his brother.
William and Elliott Hodge Boyd may have been
brothers also. The Boyds made
their way to Jackson and Hall counties in
Georgia - probably attracted
by the land lotteries. Alexander Boyd was
married in Jackson County
to Margaret McCarroll in 1808. One Georgia
deed that same year is from
William Boyd Sr. to Hugh Boyd
for land
adjoining the lines of William
and Alexander Boyd. Some of these Boyds
made their way to Bledsoe
County about 1818. William and Elliott Hodge
Boyd stayed there, while Alexander
and Hugh moved to Hamilton County
about 1836. Hugh had lived
for a time in Atlanta.
Hugh Boyd's wife was Mary.
Their children included Cynthia, W.L., John
William, James Harrison, Hugh
A. and Elizabeth. Another daughter, Sarah,
married Jonathan Acuff.
John William, who was born
in 1826, married Mary Ann Acuff in 1848. He
enlisted Jan. 6, 1863, with
Co. F. of the 35th Tennessee Infantry. John
William Acuff died at Tullahoma,
apparently from pneumonia, April 18,
1863. He was buried at Tullahoma
with other Civil War soldiers. His
children were Margaret Caroline,
William Perry, Serepta A., Richard
Worth, Selecta Adaline, Samuel
Green, Jonathan, John Hugh and Robert
Franklin. William Perry Boyd
married Sally Burke and John Hugh Boyd
married Cora Dantzler. Robert
Franklin Boyd, a house painter in East
Chattanooga, married Mattie
Paul. Their children included Charles Hugh
who married Melba Smith, Chester
Worth who married Ruby
Hall, Robbie Adaline who married
Jay Hall, Minnie Ella who married
Clifford Gault, and Joseph
William who married Roberta Woodall.
In 1860, the brothers James
Harrison and Hugh A. were living side by
side at Harrison. Hugh A.,
who was born in Atlanta Aug. 24, 1830, was a
constable. He married Sarah
McKinney. Hugh A. enlisted with Bird’s
Rangers, then he transferred
on Oct. 18, 1862, at Varnell Station, Ga.,
to the 35th Tennessee Infantry.
He was reported sick at a hospital in
Ringgold in April 1863 and
was still sick when the unit was in camp near
Tyner Station in July. His
children included Viola Alverta, John W.,
Daniel K., Joseph and Walter.
Viola married Thomas R. Standifer,
youngest of the 16 children
of Leroy and Mary Moore Standifer. They
acquired the log Standifer
homestead and farmed the place with the help
of their nine children. Hugh
A. was living with the Thomas Standifers
when he died Aug. 7, 1909.
Joseph was living in Highland Park and Walter
in Ridgedale.
James Harrison Alexander, son
of Hugh and Mary, married Elizabeth
Angelina Blair Their children
included Hannah, Columbus, Alice, Samuel
and Nancy Tennessee. Another
son, James Alexander, was born in 1861.
Nancy Tennessee married John
Theodore McSpadden in Catoosa County. James
Alexander Boyd became a minister,
pastoring at Dalton, Ga., and
elsewhere. He was married
four times. His first wife was Elizabeth
Bayless.
Alexander Boyd's youngest daughter,
Matilda, was born in Georgia in
1809. She married William
Phelps and they lived in Sequatchie County.
The other children included
Mary who married John S. Rains, John Hodge
who married Mahala Bush, Clarinda
who married Winston
Pollard, Elliott Green who
married Nicey A. Nowlin, Nehemiah Wade who
married Susan McCombs, Taylor,
William and Margaret who married John B.
Acuff.
Alexander Boyd had grants of
80, 160 and 80 acres on the road known
later as Ooltewah-Ringgold
Road. He paid $2 per acre for the 160 acres
and 50 cents per acre for
the last 80-acre grant.
Some of the Boyd family ventured
west by wagon train in the 1850s,
including the Rains and Acuff
families and Elliott, Taylor and Nehemiah
Boyd. Most went to Denton
County, Texas, while the Acuffs settled at
Logan County, Ark. Nehemiah
Boyd died soon after the arrival in Texas,
but Susan McCombs Boyd lived
to be
the county's oldest resident.
John Hodge Boyd volunteered
at Ross's Landing in November 1837 to assist
in the war in Florida against
the Seminoles and he was a second
lieutenant when he was mustered
out at Baton Rouge the following May. He
also served as a constable.
However, he died at a young age in 1844,
leaving his wife with three
sons and a daughter, Mary Elizabeth, who
married Thomas
J. Seagle. John Hodge Boyd
was buried at the Boyd Cemetery that also was
a burial ground for Indians
and other early settlers.
At the outbreak of the war,
the John H. Boyd sons - Francis Marion,
Alexander H. and John H. Jr.
- all volunteered for the Southern cause.
Alexander, who was in Co.
B of Carter's 1st Tenn. Cavalry, died Dec. 27,
1861, from a wound he received
at Mill Springs, Ky. F.M. and John H. Jr.
enlisted Nov. 10, 1862, with
Co. K of the 43rd Tennessee Infantry at
Ooltewah. They were captured
at Vicksburg July 4, 1863. John H. Jr. took
the oath of allegiance at
Ooltewah in 1864. He married Rebecca Rogers in
1866. Their children included
Martha H., Mary, Sarah, Alexander and
John. Mahala Bush Boyd lived
her latter days with the John Hodge Boyd
Jr. family. John H. Jr. was
a widower still living near Ooltewah at the
time of the 1910 census. Francis
M. Boyd was a justice of the peace
after the war. His wife was
Luthena, and their children included Martha
M. and James M.
The pioneer Alexander Boyd
died at the close of the war. Margaret
McCarroll Boyd had died in
the 1850s. Elliott G. Boyd died in 1855 at
age 34, leaving a large family.
Nicey Nowlin Boyd passed away three years
later at age 40. The orphaned
children included the twins Samuel Houston
and Mary Jane, John Harmon,
Martha Matilda, Monroe Catlett, Anderson
LaFayette and Jesse Wade.
Another son, Columbus Nowlin, had died as a
baby. John Harmon died in
1859 when he was 15. Samuel H. Boyd married
Rebecca Jane Poe just prior
to the war, and Martha Matilda married John
Mattson Poe. Mary Jane Boyd
married James Taylor.
At the start of the war, she
was left to oversee the younger children.
At one time she hid a side
of meat in a crib in the barn -
covered with cotton seeds
- so the soldiers could not find it. On
another occasion, she struggled
with a soldier over a bedspread that had
been woven by her mother.
The cherished sheet was torn in two pieces.
Samuel H. Boyd also was a
Confederate adherent. On one of his infrequent
visits home, he was seen by
a Union soldier, who followed him into the
Boyd house. Samuel climbed
into the loft to hide and the Union soldier
was going after him when Jane
Poe Boyd hit the pursuing soldier across
his shoulders with a heavy
shovel, causing him to retreat. Several of
the younger brothers of Samuel
H. Boyd went to Denton County, Tex.
Monroe Boyd married there,
but he returned to Hamilton
County with his children,
William and Jeptha, when his wife died.
Samuel H. Boyd, who was a
carpenter and contractor, moved his family
into Chattanooga on Gilmer
(Eighth) Street in the 1880s. He died of a
stomach ailment in 1887 at
age 45. Rebecca Jane Poe Boyd lived until
1919. The Samuel H. Boyd children
included Martha Eleanor "Ellen'' who
married James Montgomery,
Joseph Sherman who married Nettie Crabtree
and moved to Missouri, James
Benjamin who married Nannie Hixson, Larkin,
Jesse Wade, Charles Houston
who married Delia Johnson, Jenny May who
married James Melrose Millen,
and Cora Belle who married Leo John Duffy.
Samuel Green died as a small
child during the Civil War and George Anderson
died as a child just after
the war. Larkin died when he was 18 and Jesse Wade
when he was 23. Larkin and
Jesse Wade are buried with their parents at Forest
Hills Cemetery.
James Benjamin Boyd was a master
marble worker and was one of the few
men who could build a winding
marble staircase. His projects included the
Elmira, N.Y., post office,
buildings at Cornell University, the First National
Bank at Fort Payne, the Pink
Palace in Memphis and the Vanderbilt mansion at
Asheville. His Chattanooga
work included the Post Office Building, the
Auditorium, the Hamilton and
American banks, the Read House and the
steps of the Jewish Synagogue.
He received $5 per letter for his work on
the Illinois monument at Chickamauga
Park. His younger brother, Charles
Houston Boyd, was another
master marble worker. His first big job was
the Hogshead Apartments on
Georgia Avenue. He later operated the
Chattanooga Stone and Marble
Co. He also worked on the Biltmore House,
and he remembered Mrs. Vanderbilt
coming outside and chatting with him.
There was another Alexander
Boyd here, who earlier resided at Knoxville.
He died in 1867. His daughter,
Eliza Ann, married Robert L. McNabb.
Many of these Boyds were apparently
buried at the Pollard Cemetery at
Ooltewah, which was at the
old Alexander Boyd place.
Joyce Duffy Graves wrote a
book on the Boyd and Poe families.
http://www.chattanoogan.com/sections/focus/memories/index.asp