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

Story of David Boyd

Part 2

DAVID BOYD 1743-1831

Compiled and prepared by Richard G. Boyd, P.O. Box 332, Rogers City, MI 49779.  www.clanboyd.info

John Boyd came from Northern Ireland to Pennsylvania  in the early 1700's. He was born in 1715.  He married Nancy URIE and lived near Shippensburg, Pa. Nancy was killed by the Iroquois Indians 10 Feb 1756.  John  married  for  his 2nd wife, Agnes JONES. John Boyd died ca. 1784. Children:

1. SALLIE (Sarah) BOYD born ca. 1740 in Northumberland, County, Pennsylvania. Captured by the Indians in 1756. Released at Detroit in 1763.

2. RHODA BOYD born ca. 1742, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. Captured by the Indians in 1756. Released at Detroit in 1763. She married Robert SMILEY ca. 1766. She died ca. 1827. Robert born ca. 1732 in Scotland and died about 1811 in Somerset County, PA.

Robert Smiley was a soldier(1) in the American Revolution. He was a Ranger, a Private under Captain Joseph Shippen's Company First Regiment of Foot and Captain Peter Huckles Company, Colonel Chambers Battalion 1781.

3. DAVID BOYD  born  23 March 1743  in Northumberland County, Pa.  Married Elizabeth HENDERSON in 1771.  David died 16 July 1831 in Hopewell Township, Washington County, Pa.  Buried in Upper Buffalo Cemetery.  David was captured  by the Iroquois Indians and held captive from 1756,  when  his  mother and brother were killed, to 1763, when he was returned to his father.

4. JOHN BOYD born ca. 1750.  Captured by the Indians with his brother David in 1756. Never heard from again.

5.  A  boy  (name not known) killed by the Indians along with his mother Nancy, 1756.

Children of John Boyd and his second wife Agnes JONES

6. Agnes Boyd
7. James Boyd
8. Robert Boyd
 

Vol 1 page 59 PA. Archives - Fifth Series. Vol XXIII p. 269 PA. Archives - Fifth Series. Vol III p. 432 PA. Archives - Sixth Series.

(This electronic edition typed and prepared 1988 by Richard G. Boyd,
 P.O Box 332, Rogers City, MI 49779.

(another version of the David Boyd story)

"MY LITTLE OLD BOOK"
 

Frances Elliot Clark
 

In my safety deposit box lies a queer little package tied up in a three-cornered piece of that silk which we once called oil boiled silk. In the package is a small well-worn Bible. The cover was once a brown leather but over it has been carefully adjusted a new cover of handspun, hand-woven, brown wool cloth. An examination of the text reveals the peculiar old type in which ff and ss look much alike. One knows at once that this book is at least two hundred years old, and one senses also, immediately, that there hangs about it a story of living, of children, of love, and family.  Something sinister seems also to hover over its pages.

In the long ago time, when our great country was still a wilderness, a pioneer family of sturdy Scots had pushed out into a small settlement in what is now Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, across the still wilder hills along the
Susquehanna River. The father of the family was one of the well known Boyds. The mother was a sister of Thomas Urey, a famous Indian fighter and settler in that vicinity. They came to where a few hardy souls had started a settlement named Shippensburg. Here was only a trading post and a few scattered brave ones who thought they could mollify the often  angry savages. There were six older children in the family and a new born babe which had arrived just a week before.

On this fine April morning in 1756, the rumors of many attacks by marauding small bands of Indians had been hopefully discounted. True, trouble there was and had been, for some time. Braddock had pushed his little army across the
mountains to the south. Washington and his Virginia forces had hacked out the Forbes road just over the mountain. But surely there were no Indians there now, they thought.

A neighbor, a mile and a half away, had set up a loom to weave cloth for the small needs of these pioneers. The father, with the eldest boy, William, set out to the neighbors to secure the needed material to make jackets and dresses for the boys and girls.  David, aged twelve, was manfully splitting up wood and kindling for an outdoor fire where the girls, Sally. about ten, and Rhoda, seven, were trying to do the family washing. John, aged five, was picking up chips and helping with the fire. Two- year-old Thomas was playing near by. As David lifted his ax for another blow, he was startled to find at his shoulder a tall savage. The Indian snatched the ax from David's hand and warned him in unmistakable guttural tones, to make no sound or his scalp would pay the forfeit.

 
Another two or three of the small band of eight or ten Indians had entered the Cabin. A look at the wee baby and at the little Thomas made it clear that they could not travel. The mother was seized and made to start at once on a path to the glade. The four older children were seized and started running with an Indian pushing them along. The mother was able to go but a short way. The children missed her, but no time to stop. Miles and miles were put behind them by nightfall. Then, around the fire, the scalps of the morning raid were hung to dry. The children recognized the lovely, long red hair of their mother, but were threatened with instant death if they cried. After a two hours' rest, the children were again prodded upon the long journey, by hidden paths and trails, to near Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburgh). Shortly after that they moved into the country which later became Ohio.

The big chief who had taken the boy David, adopted him into his family as his son, in place of one of his own children whom he had lost. Sarah, or Sally, as she was called, was large enough to be of considerable help to the squaws in
their daily work, especially in the fields of corn. Rhoda took special care of little John, taught him daily to say his name, that of his father and mother, and the town in which they had lived.
 
When the father had returned with his precious bolts of cloth, he found the kettle still boiling, but his family gone. He roused the neighbors, and a posse was formed. The body of his wife was soon found, the tracks of the others had been well covered, and the followers too few to venture, without soldier aid, more than a few miles into that trackless wilderness. General Armstrong was forming an army of provincials to meet Washington farther over the mountains. Life for John Boyd had but one meaning-- to try to find his children. So he joined and went with the army to Kitaning. 

Several long and bloody years followed. The French abandoned Fort Duquesne, the war finally ended, and Colonel Bouquet undertook to compel the Indians to return their prisoners. A hundred or more were brought into Fort Pitt, still there were others left behind. Colonel Bouquet demanded hostage, and twenty-one Indian braves were kept by him until the other whites should be brought from the Ohio villages. Denials on the part of the Indians were of no effect. Colonel Bouquet was adamant.
 

David had been returned by the old chief some two years before, but the girls were still held. Little John was never heard from again. Colonel Bouquet finally moved his soldiers into the Ohio country, built a lodge of boughs and received the chiefs and a few more prisoners. A group was still missing and it was finally confessed by the Indians that these prisoners had been sent to another tribe in or near Detroit.  "Bring them!" said Colonel Bouquet, and he waited at Fort Pitt. Months passed.
 

Of the long journey which may have taken place we have no account, but on a day in 1764 the little group of young people who had been captured seven years before, were brought to Carlisle, for recognition, and restoration to their parents. In this group were Sarah and Rhoda Boyd. It was a great day in Carlisle. Mothers bereft years before came, some hopefully, others doubting whether their children would be among the wanderers. Heart- breaking scenes were enacted. Some who had been small children when captured had forgotten their names and seemed unable to recall a single incident about their early home life. One mother looked in vain up and down the line for a girl who might be her own. But she was unable to recognize her. Weeping and in despair, she turned to Colonel Bouquet, who asked her if there were not some verse or hymn the child might recall and recognize. The mother, with tearful, faltering voice, began a familiar hymn, when a little girl darted out of the line calling, "Mother, Mother!" The Boyd girls were recognized. In fact, it is believed that the father was in the rescue party.
 

Some of the church people in Carlisle arranged a special welcome for the captive children. Each returning exile was given a Testament, then the ony school book in this back country of Pennsylvania. Not long after this, Rhoda Boyd was married to one of the young soldiers, Robert Smiley. They moved westward into the beautiful hills in what is now Somerset and there reared a family of eight children. Robert Junior, my grandfather, later went over into Ohio to the old Indian camp, took his mother, Rhoda, back to the scene of her captivity, where his older brother, George, had settled some years before. There she lived to tell the story of her capture many times, to my mother, a wondering little girl. She handed on to me this little Testament, which on that long ago day, was given at Carlisle to Rhoda Boyd.
 

        MORE ON DAVID BOYD INDIAN CAPTIVE

Descendants of David Boyd
 Generation No. 1

1.  DAVID1 BOYD was born 1743 in Cumberland County, PA, and died
1831 in Hopewell Township, PA.  He married ELIZABETH HENDERSON 1771.

Notes for DAVID BOYD:

Crumrine's History of Washington County, PA says that David Boyd, when a boy was taken prisoner by a band of Indians; in captivity, he was daily subjected to all kinds of torment by a certain young brave in the tribe.  At last, David Boyd had enough of this treatment and the next time the young Indian began his tormenting, David knocked him to the ground, which so impressed the tribe that they made him a member of the tribe.  He was molested no longer. Before the chief died, he took David back to his family. David rejoined his family and fought in the Revolutionary Army before coming to Washington County, PA.  David Boyd was one of the best known and earliest pioneers of Hopewell Township.  He moved to Hopewell Township from Cumberland County in 1787.  He brought with him his wife, two sons and two daughters.  Later they had two more sons, David Jr. and William.

Beer's Biographical Record on the Boyds, has David Boyd with a different attitude towards the Indians who captured him.  In this history, David Boyd had little love for the Redskins who so wantonly destroyed his boyhood home.
 

More About DAVID BOYD:
Event 1: 1747, captured by Indians
Residence: Hopewell Township, PA
Comment 1: Captured by Indians
Comment 2: Raised by Indians

 Children of DAVID BOYD and ELIZABETH HENDERSON are:
 2. i. JAMES2 BOYD, b. 1782, West Middletown, PA; d. 1880,
 Independence Township, PA.
 ii. JOHN BOYD, b. WFT Est. 1762-1772; d. WFT Est. 1767-1860.
 iii. DAVID JR. BOYD, b. WFT Est. 1762-1772; d. WFT Est. 1767-1860.
 iv. WILLIAM BOYD, b. WFT Est. 1762-1772; d. WFT Est. 1767-1860.
 

Generation No. 2

2.  JAMES2 BOYD (DAVID1) was born 1782 in West Middletown, PA, and
died 1880 in Independence Township, PA.  He married MARY BUCHANAN
WFT Est. 1813-1846.

More About JAMES BOYD:
Event 1: 1880, he was 99 years old

 Child of JAMES BOYD and MARY BUCHANAN is:
3. i. ELIZA3 BOYD, b. 1805; d. April 08, 1902.
 

Page 2

Generation No. 3

3.  ELIZA3 BOYD (JAMES2, DAVID1) was born 1805, and died April 08, 1902.  She married WILLIAM "BIG BILL" STEVENSON WFT Est. 1833- 1859, son of WILLIAM STEVENSON and MARGARET CRAWFORD.

More About ELIZA BOYD:
Comment 1: 1865, at age 60, made family quilt
Comment 2: 1870 presented quilt to son at his wedding

 Children of ELIZA BOYD and WILLIAM STEPHENSON are:                         

4. i. REV JAMES BOYD4 STEVENSON, b. January 20, 1829, Cross Creek,
PA; d. March 15, 1892, Cross Creek, PA.                                                    

ii. SARAH AGNES STEVENSON, b. December 22, 1838; d. Jan 05, 1911.    

iii. ALFRED CREIGH STEVENSON, b. WFT Est. 1823-1849; d. WFT Est. 1829-1929.

Notes for ALFRED C. STEVENSON:
Alfred C. Stevenson had or has a son who lives in Florida in the 1980's. This son still owns and pays the taxes on a farm in PA. The farm is grown up in a wilderness condition. 

NOTE:                                                                                                      This was my father, Alfred Bayard Swope Stevenson, that was being referred to in this Note. My father died on 5 Dec 1983, in Granbury, TX, (a second marriage). My brother, Robert Swope (Steve), Stevenson, was willed this piece of property.                                                                            

Mary Catherine Weyant and my Dad were married in Pittsburgh in 1941, and had three children; Robert Swope(Steve), b. 25 Feb 1944, in Memphis, TN; Margaret (Pegy), b. 3 Jun 1947, in Pittsburgh, PA; and Mary Catherine, b.21 Jun 1948, in Oakdale, PA. The Stevenson line ends here; my brother's wife couldnt have children.                                                                             

Both my grandfather and father were Doctors. Alfred C. had my dad with his third wife, Marion Louise Schellinger, b. 14 Aug 1882 (Truxton, NY). The name "Swope" was given to my father to honor the gentleman who staked my grandfather to medical school at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, class of 1870. Alfred C. was married to the Lindsay sisters before my grandmother. He married 1st Mary Rebecca Lindsay and had Mary Rebecca Stevenson, b. 3 Jun 1873. He then married 2nd her sister, Irene Lindsay, b. 1 Jun 1851, at the Lindsay Homestead in Washington, PA; she gave my grandfather three children: Ellerslie W., b. 8 Jan 1877, ( a Dr. In Pittsburgh), Lydia Irene , b. 21 Aug 1878, and William Boyd, b. 6 Aug 1880( a Judge in the Tucson territory.)                                                                                  

Alfred Creigh Stevenson died 23 Feb 1940, in Oakdale, PA. He is buried inOakdale Presbyterian Cemetery. His obit says he was "a grandson of David Boyd..".

Pegy Stevenson: pegys "at" charter.net

 iv. WILLIAM STEVENSON, b. WFT Est. 1823-1849; d. WFT Est. 1828-1932.

Generation No. 4

4.  REV JAMES BOYD4 STEVENSON (ELIZA3 BOYD, JAMES2, DAVID1) was born January 20, 1829 in Cross Creek, PA, and died March 15, 1892 in Cross Creek, PA.  He married SARAH "SADIE" ELIZABETH BEALL October 12, 1870 in West Layfayette, OH.

Notes for REV JAMES BOYD STEVENSON:
Died at age 64.  When a young man he taught school whereby he might acquire a higher education.  After a long struggle of self toil, he so advanced in academic and college curriculum as to be admitted as a student in the Western Theological Seminary at Pittsburgh, although he was a pupil for some time under the instruction of the venerable Dr. John Stockton.  When the required three years in the Seminary were ended, he was licensed to preach the gospel by Washington Presbytery on April 29, 1863.  The ministry of the Rev. Mr. Stephenson was more of a missionary character than otherwise. For a number of years, he was pastor of a church in Eastern Washington County.  When he resigned the pastorate there, he officiated as a supply whenever called upon until disabled by disease to discharge the duties required of him.  Ten years of suffering from rheumatism and pulmonary disease brought him down to death.  At times his distress of mind and soul and body was almost unbearable.  But the close of his life was calm and peaceful, and he went out into the better life without a sign or regret.
 

Page 3
Mr. Stephenson was a good scholar and especially proficient in Greek.  He would have made a worthy teacher in some institution of learning.  By a yearly donation from the Presbytery, with what he could do for himself, he managed to provide for his family.  A wife and seven children mourn his loss.

More About REV JAMES BOYD STEVENSON:
Event 1: 1858, Graduated Washington College, PA
Event 2: 1861, Grad W Theological Seminary, Pitts. PA
Event 3: April 29, 1863, Ordained
Occupation: Presbyterian Minister
Personality/Intrst: books
Ethnicity/Relig.: Presbyterian
Comment 1: 1909 gave quilt to son at his wedding

 Children of REV STEVENSON and SARAH BEALL are:
5. i. REV JAMES BOYD5 STEVENSON, b. June 18, 1878, Burgettstown, PA; d.  February 26, 1960, Sioux City, IA.
 ii. REV OLIVER STEVENSON, b. WFT Est. 1865-1890; d. WFT Est. 1869-1971.
 iii. GRACE STEVENSON, b. WFT Est. 1865-1890; d. April 09, 1937.
 iv. ROBERT BEALL STEVENSON, b. WFT Est. 1865-1890; d. December 05, 1929.
 v. ALFRED C. STEVENSON, b. 1875; d. WFT Est. 1876-1965.
 vi. <UNNAMED>, b. WFT Est. 1865-1890; d. WFT Est. 1869-1974.

Generation No. 5

5.  REV JAMES BOYD5 STEVENSON (REV JAMES BOYD4, ELIZA3 BOYD,
JAMES2, DAVID1) was born June 18, 1878 in Burgettstown, PA, and died February 26, 1960 in Sioux City, IA.  He married (1) EVA MAE WHIESSIEL May 05, 1909 in Alta Vista, KA, daughter of GEORGE WHIESSIEL and JENNIE MAC ARTHUR.  He met (2) NELLIE LOVEJOY Private.

Notes for REV JAMES BOYD STEVENSON:
He used to say - "May you LIVE everyday of your life"

More About REV JAMES BOYD STEVENSON:
Event 1: 1906, Park College, MO
Event 2: 1909, Pres Theology Seminary, Chicago, IL
Event 3: 1909, Ordained
Occupation: Presbyterian Minister in country churches
Personality/Intrst: Loved to fish and hunt
Residence: Iowa
Ethnicity/Relig.: Presbyterian
Comment 1: 1906 BA Park College, MO
Comment 2: 1909 Pres. Seminary, Chicago, IL
Cause of Death: stroke
Medical Information: Stroke 

Page 4
Notes for EVA MAE WHIESSIEL:
Slightly over 2 1/2 pounds at birth.  A feather on lips proved she was alive.  Placed in shoebox.  Her mother died young.  Eva went to live at age 7 with her Aunt, Dr. Victoria Mac Arthur.  Her Aunt had been a medical missionery to India.  She once used a wood saw to amputate an Indian man's leg.  Her Aunt "Ennie" Mac Arther was married to Bruce Ross.  They sent her to college.  Eva became a U.S. citizen when she married Rev. James Boyd Stevenson

More About EVA MAE WHIESSIEL:
Occupation: teacher, taught in Mexico before marriage
Personality/Intrst: wonderful cook
Ethnicity/Relig.: Methodist - Presbyterain
Comment 1: Park College, Parkville, MO
Comment 2: raised by Aunt, Dr. Victoria MacArthur
Cause of Death: pneumonia

 Children of REV STEVENSON and EVA WHIESSIEL are:
 i. JAMES BOYD6 STEVENSON, b. Private; m. JEANETTE ILENE COPENHAVER, Private.

 ii. DOROTHY ELIZABETH STEVENSON, b. Private.

 iii. FLORENCE CHRISTINE STEVENSON, b. Private; m. GEORGE W. SHRINER,

 iv. DONALD ROSS STEVENSON, b. Private. 

Donna Endicott (Email address not current)    
 

I am looking for information to solve the missing link back to Scotland/Ireland
on John Boyd. He was born about 1715 and migrated to the USA in the early 1700s in Northumberland County, PA area. He married Nancy Urie of whom we  have no data on and who was killed in an Indian raid in 1756. He then married Agnes Jones of whom we have no data. John survived the raid and died in 1789 around the Shippensburg, PA area, Cumberland County. He was a Presbyterian. Thanks for any help.

Bob Fisher, Covington, GA

Part 3 Story of David Boyd

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