DAVID FRENCH BOYD

DAVID FRENCH BOYD - born at Wytheville, Virginia, October 5, 1834. He was educated at private schools and at the University of Virginia, from which he received the degree of Master of Arts in 1856. For three years he taught school in Virginia and in North Louisiana. In 1859, when the Louisiana State Seminary was opened at Alexandria, under the presidency of William Tecumseh Sherman (afterwards General), Boyd was elected professor of ancient languages. When the war between the states began, he enlisted as a private, and rose to the rank of major in three arms of the service--infantry, engineers and cavalry--his first service being with the Ninth Louisiana Regiment, under General "Stonewall" Jackson. In 1863 he resigned, to return to Louisiana and reopen the State Seminary; but finding forbidding war conditions, he entered the engineer service under Gen. Richard Taylor, and built Fort De Russey, on the Red river. Early in 1864 he was captured by marauders, and sold to the Federals for a hundred dollars, but through the friendship of Sherman he was exchanged, and then became major and assistant adjutant-general of Brent's cavalry brigade. In 1865 he became superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary (later the Louisiana State University), and for nearly thirty years was closely connected with it as president, 1865-80 and 1884-87, and as professor at intervals. In reorganizing it after the war, he kept it from falling under radical control during the carpet-bag negro domination; in 1877 secured the union of the Agricultural and Mechanical College with the university, and procured from the United States government the donation of the grounds and buildings of the historic military post at Baton Rouge. He was a pioneer of public education in the South, especially of industrial and technical education. At intervals, he was president of the Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College (1883-84); Kentucky Military Institute (1888-93); professor in the Ohio Military Academy (1893-94), and in the Michigan Military Academy (1894-96). In 1885-86 he was Louisiana commissioner of the New Orleans Exposition. The alumni of the Louisiana State University erected a memorial hall to his memory. He died May 27, 1899, at Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Source: Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Volumes I-V. Richmond, VA:
n.p, 1915.

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David French Boyd Jr., naval officer, was born Sept 18, 1876, in Baton Rouge, La. He was educated at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute; attended the Kentucky Military Academy; and graduated from the United States Naval Academy. In 1893-99 he was a midshipman; an ensign in 1899-1902; a lieutenant in the Junior Grade in 1902-03; and since 1903 has held a full rank of Lieutenant. His father, Col. D. F. Boyd, late president of the Louisiana State University of Baton Rouge, was a Major in the Confederate army.

Leroy Stafford Boyd, librarian, was born Dec 21, 1873, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. he was educated at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Tulane University of New Orleans, and at Columbian University. He is now Assistant-Librarian at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. He is a son of Col. David French Boyd, of Wythe County, Virginia, a descendant of John Boyd, of Ayrshire, Scotland, who settled in Maryland about 1684. Mr. Leroy S. Boyd has complete records of the early Boyds of Maryland and Virginia.

Source: Origin and history of the name of Boyd: with biographies of all the most noted persons of the name, and an account of the origin of surnames and forenames, together with over five hundred Christian names of men and women and their significance; Chicago, Illinois: American Publishers' Association, 1905. ISBN: 1417316926 or FHL Fiche 6071495.

Dust cover of the book, David French Boyd, founder of Louisiana State University, published by Louisiana State University Press, 1977

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