WILLIAM BOYD - It is very interesting
to note in the case of such men
as Mr. Boyd, the labors performed
and the trying questions met the
Colville for the ingress of
civilization. As an instance of what is
required of the pioneer farmer,
when Mr. Boyd first came here, he
threshed seven hundred bushels
of grain with a flail. Such marked labor
as that indicates beyond doubt
the energy and stamina of the man of whom
we speak. But such was
only one of many trying things to be
accomplished, and suffice
it to say that in everything which presented
itself to be done or solved,
Mr. Boyd never failed to find a way. Then
again we notice that the pioneers
who stand so badly in need of the
various appliances for farming
are obliged to pay a double price for
everything, and Mr. Boyd well
remembers that the first farm wagon cost
him about one hundred and
fifty dollars. Provisions were also very high.
Sugar cost him twenty-five
cents a pound,and other things in proportion.
All these things but brought
forth in our subject the corresponding
increase of energy to overcome
and accomplished as he had planned. Dame
Fortune could not resist such
wooing as that and the result is as it
should be, that Mr. Boyd is
to-day, one of the leading and prosperous men
of northern Washington.
Reverting more particularly
to detailed account of his career we note first
that Mr. Boyd was born in
Granville county, Canada, on March 16, 1846, the
son of JOSEPH and MARY
(MALONEY) BOYD, natives of Ireland. The fact
that his parents came from
the Emerald Isle, opens to us the secret of Mr. Boyd's
energy and capability. They
came to America when young and located in Canada
where they remained for fifty-five
years; they went into the wild forest and
with their own hands built
a home, cleared a farm and became wealthy. The
paternal grandfather of our
subject was a great sportsman and owned many
fine horses and dogs in Ireland.
The humble little frontier home in Canada that
afterwards became the headquarters
of a prosperous farmer, was the birthplace
of seven children, including
our subject; MARY, ELLEN, SARAH, THOMAS, TAMER,
JOSEPH and WILLIAM.
Our subject was reared and educated in his native place
and continued faithfully and
industriously assisting his parents until he reached the
age of twenty-eight; then
he came west to Colorado and afterwards mined
in Nevada, Idaho, Arizona,
New Mexico and California. He returned again
to Arizona and in 1887 came
to Stevens county, Wa. He first selected a farm
near Spokane but sold that
and came to his residence four miles south of
Chewelah where he has remained
ever since. Like his father in Canada, he
took hold with his hands,
staked out the wild farm, fenced it, built a
cabin and began bringing it
under tribute to crops. He now has two
hundred acres, nearly all
under cultivation, and about seventy-five
cattle. In November,
1885, Mr. Boyd married MISS ELIZABETH WADE, whose
parents were natives of Illinois,
she herself, being born in Cass county
of that state in 1853.
Four children have been born to this union: JOHN,
WILLIAM J., THOMAS, THEODORE,
all with their parents. Mr. Boyd is a good,
active Republican and a man
of substantial quality and worth; he and his
wife are members of the Congregational
church.
Source: THE HISTORY OF NORTH
WASHINGTON, 1903