William Norwood Boyd ~ Lizzie Burwell

William Norwood Boyd, a tobacconist of the firm of W. B. Boyd & Company of Warrenton and also connected with the Boyd-Boyce Motor Company, was born July 19, 1882, in the city which is now his home and is a representative of one of the old southern families. His great-grandfather, Richard Boyd, was a planter and slave owner who had extensive land holdings in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, and Warren County, North Carolina. Among his ancestors in the collateral line was Alexander Boyd, Colonial magistrate of Boydton, which town was named in his honor. John E. Boyd, grandfather of William Norwood Boyd, became a planter of Warren County and made his home near Macon. He was a leading member of the Methodist Episcopal church and helped establish the Hebron Methodist Episcopal Church and the Warrenton Church. He had a family of five sons, all of whom were educated at Randolph-Macon College. One of these, Henry Armistead Boyd, was born in July, 1855, and acquired his early education in neighborhood schools. In 1878, he gained his Master of Arts degree at Randolph-Macon College. He read law in Richmond, Virginia, and in January, 1880, began law practice at Warrenton. In this he was associated with Judge Charles A. Cook, Ben Green and afterward with Senator B. B. Williams. He was also editor of the Warren County News in association with the late Tasker Polk, and he was very active in molding public thought and opinion in Warren County, where he took a keen interest in civic affairs. He served as mayor of Warrenton and as a member of the school board and for forty-six years he was Sunday school superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Church and also served on its board of stewards. In 1902, because of physical conditions, he put aside his activities to a considerable degree and he died September 18, 1929. He was married on the 28th of September, 1881, to Bettie Norwood, and they had three children: William Norwood Boyd, Mrs. W. A. Graham, and Marian Boyd. The mother's people were connected with the Norwood and Massenburg families of old Granville County.

William N. Boyd attended the Graham school of Warrenton and at seventeen years of age made his initial step in the business world as bookkeeper for M. P. Burwell, a tobacconist with warehouses in Warrenton and Darlington, South Carolina. In 1903 he engaged in the tobacco business with his uncle, the late Walter B. Boyd, and in the same year was admitted to a partnership. This firm had been established in 1885 and has been in existence for fifty-three years, owning the Boyd warehouse known as " Old Reliable." William Norwood Boyd has made a lifelong study of the tobacco business, its operation and auction sales, and the firm with which he is connected has the oldest tobacco warehouse in the north central section of the state. It is also among the oldest in North Carolina in continuous operation under the management of one family. Mr. Boyd is also president of the Boyd-Boyd Motor Company of Warrenton, dealers in Ford cars, and he has farming interests in this section of the state.

Mr. Boyd was married to Lizzie Burwell, a daughter of William Henry Burwell, a planter of what is now Vance County but which was formerly a part of Warren and Mecklenburg counties, Virginia. They have four children: Lucy Burwell Boyd, who is the wife of Robert Meade, professor of history at Randolph-Macon Woman's College of Lynchburg, Virginia; Henry Armistead Boyd, who was educated at the University of North Carolina and at Duke University and is now engaged in law practice at Richmond, Virginia, in association with Aubrey L. Bowles Jr.; Elizabeth Norwood Boyd, a graduate of Duke University, who is the wife of Sam T. Thorne Jr., of the State Banking Department, Raleigh; and Miriam Boyd, who attended Peace Junior College at Raleigh and is now at Salem College, Winston Salem, North Carolina. Mrs. Boyd was educated in the Blackstone Female Academy and she takes a helpful interest in the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Methodist church. Mr. Boyd is also a leading member of the Methodist church of Warrenton and one of its earnest workers in both church and Sunday school. He is likewise a member of the board of trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Orphanage at Raleigh, having served continuously since 1922. He is likewise interested in civic affairs, was formerly president of the Kiwanis Club and also has membership in the Lions Club.

Source: North Carolina, the Old North State and the new; by Archibald Henderson, published: Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co. - FHL Film 6052206

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