Colonel James Alexander Boyd

Colonel James Alexander Boyd ("Colonel" being an honorary title) was born in
Kilwinning, Ayrshire, Scotland, on December 22, 1823. When young he was an
apprentice stonecutter in Kingston, Jamaica. He made his way to Philadelphia
when he was 25, as shown by documents in the Montgomery County Historical Society library.

He met Thomas Scott, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Impressed with
Boyd's masonry skills, Scott made him a supervisor in charge of laying track as the railroad stormed westward. He was put in charge of building the B&O Metropolitan Line as it radiated out from Washington. He bought 130 acres in what is now Boyds, Maryland as a camp for men working on the line, many of whom were former slaves.

Letters tell that Boyd so liked the area that he bought an additional 1100 acres for himself. When the Presbyterian Church was built in 1876, the community of Boyds was established.

He gave his black workers much of the land as payment for their labor on the
railroad. Their community became known as Turnertown.

Boyd transformed the wild, bramble-thick area into one of the county's most
prolific dairy farms. The land had been terribly depleted by the growing of
tobacco for too many years. The Colonel had lived in Brazil for a time before
the war, and knew well the fertilizing qualities of South American Guano. He
turned the land into a garden and added more land. He called his dairy farm
"Bonny Brae."

Boyd married Sarah Rinehart, daughter of Jonathan and Zilpah (Allen) Rinehart.

He died in Boyds 21 Dec 1896, a day short of his 73rd birthday. The Rockville
Advocate in 1890 wrote: "Nothing could better illustrate the influence of one
intelligent, enterprising and public-spirited man in a community than the
complete revolution in the entire order of things wrought by Col. Boyd"

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Boyds, Maryland was named for Colonel James Alexander Boyd (1823-1896), a Scottish immigrant who was a construction engineer for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O). He built a temporary village to house construction workers as the B&O built the Metropolitan Branch line after the Civil War. The railroad line began service in 1873. A mill, stores and other businesses were established in the area after the railroad station opened. The B&O opened a brick railroad station in 1887, and demolished it in 1927 to make way for installation of a second track. A wooden station was built as a replacement, but was later taken down. Passenger train service is still provided at Boyds by the MARC system.

James Boyd established dairy farms in the area and lived in the town until his death.

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