DAVID LINDSEY BOYD - COUNTY ANTRIM, IRELAND (1841-1919)
David Lindsey Boyd's family lived in the parish
of Grange of Dundermot,
Barony of Kilconway, County Antrim, N. Ireland. 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's father was a William Boyd.
This family assuredly descends from Boyds transplanted into Ulster from
Ayr
during the "plantation" of Scots into northern Ireland in the 17th
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 after-
noon, 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
schoolteacher 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 & was rewarded by the following communication
from the younger Boyd" (a
letter from David's son William W. Boyd follows in the autobiography).
A brief account of David Lindsay 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 his 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 re-
mained three months, and for three weeks he was similarly employed
by Col.
[Robert] Smyth. At the end of that time he accepted
a position in the
lumber yard of Col. R. Smyth & Company
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 married Miss Margaret Craig.
Mr. Boyd is a faithful and consistent member of the
Presbyterian 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 pub-
lic benefit, and he stands 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. Boyd, Florence Boyd, and James Craig Boyd.
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.