CHIEF:  Dr Robin Boyd, MA (Oxon); MB BS; LRCP, MRCS; DCH; AFOM, 8th Baron Kilmarnock

Richard G. Boyd

NEW EMAIL ADDRESS

RichBoyd (at sign) Charter.net

Robert A. Boyd ~ Agnes M. White

Greeley, Weld County, Colorado

Robert Boyd, who is not only one of the oldest pioneers of Colorado, but also enjoys the distinction of being the first farmer in the Poudre Valley, resides on sections 34, 35 and 36, township 6, range 66, Weld County.  He was born in Pittsfield, Mass., in 1838, and was a son of Andrew Boyd who emigrated from Scotland to the United States and died in Pittsfield in 1845.  At that time our subject was only seven years of age.  Afterward the family removed to a tract of land in New York state, which had been previously bought by the father, and here the boy grew to man's estate, meantime attending common schools and an academy.

Leaving the farm in 1857, Mr. Boyd went to Leavenworth, Kan., and for two years worked for Reed & Lawrence, land agents.  In the winter of 1858-59 he returned home and resumed his studies.  In 1859, at the time of the Pike's Peak excitement, he started with a party for Colorado, taking the Smoky Hill route, and arriving in Denver May 22.  During the summer he prospected and mined at Blackhawk.  In the fall he went back to Kansas on account of sickness, but in February of the next year he again came to Colorado, accompanying Joseph Howe.  After reaching Mountain City he and Lewis A. Rice opened a butcher shop there and for two years carried on that business, also had a milk route.  In 1860, he took out a squatter's claim on the Platte River and put in a crop; but in May of the following year a band of Indians camped on the land and destroyed the crops.  Abandoning the claim, he took up a squatter's claim of one hundred and sixty acres in the Cache la Poudre Valley, associated with Graham Scott, Lewis Rice and George Hunt, each of whom had a quarter-section of land.  After he had remained with them for a few years, in 1865 he bought out the interests of Rice and Scott.  In 1860 he built a sod house, and twenty-five years later he rebuilt.

From an early day Mr. Boyd has been interested in irrigation.  In 1861 he assisted in building the Boyd and Freeman ditch, which was the first one in the entire country and was a private ditch.  In 1865 he engaged in freighting for the government from the Missouri River to Denver, and afterward he had the contract for hauling ties for the Union Pacific Railroad, also the contact for grading four miles of the Cheyenne & Denver road, from LaSalle to Platteville.  From 1863 to 1870, in addition to running his farm, he engaged in freighting across the plains.  In 1866 he had a road ranch on Meadow Creek, along the Wells, Fargo & Co. route to Salt Lake, and another at Barrel Springs in Wyoming.  He is the owner of eight hundred and twenty acres of fine land, all under irrigation; also has four sections at Big Springs as pasture of stock, of which he has tow hundred head of cattle and one hundred of horses.  From 1878 to 1885 he carried on a lumber business, owning a sawmill at the foothills.  While he engages in farming and stock raising on a large scale, being one of the largest agriculturists in his section of the county, he nevertheless finds time for raising vegetables, and in 1897 shipped fifty carloads of cabbages, besides large quantities of onions and potatoes.  In politics he is a Republican.

The marriage of Mr. Boyd, in 1870, united him with Miss Agnes M. White, of York state, a daughter of Andrew P. White, who was for eleven years a government official in Washington, D. C., and for a number of years was superintendent of schools of Ellington, N. Y.  Mr. and Mrs. Boyd have five children: Robert Boyd, Jr., Aurelia Boyd, Charles Boyd, Jennie Boyd and Elizabeth Boyd.  The family attend the Congregational Church, of which Mrs. Boyd is an active member.

The large success Mr. Boyd has obtained is due to his determination of will and force of character.  He started with no capital, left New York, in fact, with only $1 in his possession, yet he has been able, in spite of many hardships and obstacles to achieve a success not always gained by men who start under advantageous circumstances.  In the early years of his residence here he had man thrilling experiences, and the student of history gleaning material for future work, might with profit converse with him for hours.  It seems strange, when we review his long life on the plains, that during all that time he never saw a living hostile Indian.  Once, in 1864, when crossing the plains with a gristmill, he saw some dead Indians and white men, who had fallen in a skirmish, but the living Indians whom he has seen have always showed themselves to be friendly and anxious to preserve peace.  During the Indian troubles at the time of the Civil war he was in his saddle night and day, and rode alone and unprotected, through unsettled parts of the country, yet he was always permitted to go unmolested on his way.  His life has been an eventful one, and he deserves the comforts that surround him now as he approaches the twilight of his useful existence. 

Source: Portrait and biographical record of Denver and vicinity, Colorado: containing portraits and biographies of many well known citizens of the past and present, together with biographies and portraits of all the presidents of the United States. Chicago: Chapman Pub. Co., 1898. - FHL Film 1000144 Item 3 

Robert Andrew Boyd  b.   21 September 1837 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts m. Agnes Maria White 14 February 1871 in Ellington, NY d.  1915  Greeley CO.

Homesteaded near Greeley,  Colorado, Weld County, in 1859. His wife joined him in 1871.

Children of Robert and Agnes:

1,  Andrew White Boyd    diet at age 23.

2.  Robert Wood Boyd   b. 31 December 1873.  d. 4 May 1955   Greeley, CO.

3.  Aurelia Lathrop Boyd

4.  Charles A. Boyd

5.  Jennie A. Boyd   b. 9 December 1885   d. 12 April 1869

6.   Margaret Elizabeth Boyd   b. 3 March 1889   d. 16 December 1974
 

Robert's parents:

Andrew Boyd  b. Scotland   d. 19 June 1845 Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Rachel Stafford   b. 1812   d. 31 March 1882
 

Robert's siblings:

Daughter Boyd  b. 1 October 1831      d. 7 October 1831

Son Boyd   b, 15 July 1832     d.   15 July 1832

Allison Lee Boyd  b. 22 September 1833

Jane Waverly Boyd   b. 20 August 1835

Andrew Boyd  b. 22 February 1841  d. 1885  Virginia Dale, CO
 Spouse Francis A. Gardner

George Boyd    b. 7 September 1844

1868 to 1899 Index of Obituaries, Albany County, Wyoming

Index of accounts of deaths compiled from notices in the Laramie newspapers for the years of 1868 to 1899. The date (year-month-day) of the newspaper issue is given as reference.

BOYD, Kate Waverly, age 14, daughter of Andrew Boyd of Virginia Dale, CO.   Laramie (Wyoming) Semi-Weekly Boomerang 1897-06-18

Betty Jo King  (Email address not current)

NOTE: Use this data as a finding tool, just as you would any other secondary source. When you find the name of an ancestor listed, confirm the facts in original sources.

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