THE SHOOTING OF C.M. BOYD
February 1, 1868---Charles
M. Boyd was killed by Joseph Boyd (not
related). The
two occupied the same house
on main Street, opposite the court-house, in Platte
City, Missouri. Joseph Boyd's
store was below, and Charles M. Boyd, with his
family, occupied the upper
rooms. An outside stairway led to the street. Joseph
Boyd, having missed some of
his goods, secreted himself in his store, by night,
to shoot the robber, if he
should again visit the house. About ten o'clock two
shots were heard, the window
lights in the front door were blown out, and C.M.
Boyd was found dead, on the
stairway leading to his rooms. Joseph Boyd test-
ified that he had shot him
when in the act of entering the store. Nothing was
done, but much scandal was
freely spoken.
Charles M. Boyd was the son
of Judge John R. Boyd and Harriet
Henderson of
Tennessee. He was born September
29, 1838; married August 13, 1865; Edmonia
Cannon,
of Platte City. He was a young lawyer of ability and untiring enter-
prise, and a trusted leader
of the Radical party. His mother was a Henderson,
and her family embraces some
of the best citizens of Platte. Her father was
John
Henderson of Charlottesville, Virginia, a lawyer, who married Anna
B.
Hudson.
The family went to Kentucky and thence on to Platte City.
Charles had one brother, Dr.
John R. Boyd, a dentist of Leavenworth. He had two
sisters: Georgia A. Boyd who
married Stephen Johnston; and S. Emma Boyd who
married first a man by the
name of Mulhurn and 2nd Perry Keith. Charles'wife
Edmonia Cannon was the daughter
of Eliza (Beckum) Hodge and William M. Cannon.
Charles M. Boyd was enrolled
as an attorney, August 5th, 1862. He lost an
election for Treasurer in
November, 1864. He lost again in November 1866 to
G.W. Belt, 798 votes to Boyd's
630 votes. The elections were contested: "The
cases of C.M. Boyd vs
G.W. Belt (treasurer), of M. Miles vs Isaac Dean (super-
visor of registration), of
D.W. Moore vs D.P. Lewis (county clerk), and F.
Luthy vs J.A. Stone (assessor),
were heard by the circuit court and dismissed."
In 1866, the [Candidate] Registration
gives displeasure to both parties. Durbin
is condemned more by the Radicals
than by the Conservatives. Durbin is a
candidate for the Legislature,
and charges that his party are conspiring to
drop him and take up A.G.
Brown. He charges Brown and C.M. Boyd with duplicity.
[Annals of Platte County, Missouri, W.M. Paxton, 1897]
[Now I don't know about anybody
else but I think by reading the above that
Charles M. Boyd may have been
set up and gotten out of the way for political
reasons. Charles seems
to be an honest, upstanding man and it would have been
out of character for him to
be stealing from Joseph Boyd.] -ed.
ANOTHER BOYD FAMILY OF PLATTE CITY, MISSOURI
Joshua
Boyd died July 30, 1882, three miles west of Platte City, Missouri.
He
was born in Pennsylvania in
1798 and removed to Shelby County, Kentucky and
married Nancy
Perry. She died October 15, 1876 aged 81 years. They came to
Platte City in 1849. They
were exemplary Baptists and worthy people. They had
four children: 1. Mary born
8 June 1820, married Nicholas H. Hope 16 December
1852. 2. William married Mary
C. Wells. 3. John Boyd married Nancy J. Tate,
daughter of William O. Tate
and Lydia Sloan. 4. Minerva born in 1833, married
Thomas Stewart in 1848, son
of Archibald Stewart and Elizabeth Tribble.
[Annals of Platte County, Missouri, W.M. Paxton, 1897.]