John H. Boyd ~ Elizabeth Curtis Boyd

John H. Boyd, ex-Sheriff of Johnson county, Texas, was born in Laurens district, South Carolina, in March, 1846. His parents were also South Carolinians by birth, his father, David Boyd, having been born in Laurens district, and the mother, Tabitha Waldrop, in Newberry. The ancestry on both sides is traced back to the early settlers of the State, and they were, for the most part, people of agricultural interests and pursuits.

On his father's farm and in his mill on Reeder river, in old Laurens district, the boyhood of John H. Boyd was passed until the opening of the Civil war, at which time he entered the Confederate service, becoming a member of the Third South Carolina Regiment, although he had not attained his fifteenth year. From the Third he was shortly afterwards transferred to Company C, of the Fourteenth South Carolina, which formed part of "Stonewall" Jackson's old corps, afterward commanded by A. P. Hill, and with this command he served throughout the remainder of his military career. Young Boyd was one of three volunteers from his company to form a squad of sharpshooters, and in this capacity he saw all his subsequent service. He was in all the engagements in which his regiment took part up to the battle of Spottsylvania in May, 1864, where he was slightly wounded and disabled from further service for thirty days. A month later he was captured at Petersburg, being taken along with his Captain, Andrew J. Dunlap, and transported to Hart's Island, New York, where he was held during the term of his imprisonment, being released August 22, 1865.

At the close of the war he returned to South Carolina, and accepting the results of the conflict in good faith, began to repair the ravages wrought by the struggle in respect to his personal affairs; but tiring of the unequal contest, carried on as it had to be under the changed condition of affairs, Mr. Boyd decided to change his location, and the West being the, as now, the place toward which the young and ambitious looked for fortune and fame, his eyes naturally turned toward Texas. He had not yet attained his majority, but married, and putting all his effects in a two horse wagon, drawn by two mules, and accompanied by his young bride and two faithful old servants, husband and wife, he stated for the Lone Star State. He traveled overland in this way as far as Atlanta, Georgia. There he dismissed his old servants, giving to each $25, and, selling his mules and wagon, took the train for New Orleans.

From this city he came by way of Galveston and Houston to this State, making his first permanent stop in Washington county, where he fell in with friends from his old home in South Carolina. Mr. Boyd soon found employment as a contractor and builder, and although he had never had an previous experience or training in this line he succeeded well from the start. He resided in Washington county until October, 1869, when he moved t Johnson county, settling on a farm in the vicinity of Grand View, where he embarked in agricultural pursuits and remained until the fall of 1876, when he moved to the village of Grad View, having been elected Justice of the Peace of that precinct, the duties of which position he discharged in connection with farming until November, 1882. At that date he was elected Sheriff of Johnson county, and in consequence of this moved to Cleburne, where he has since made his home. He held the office of Sheriff from November, 1882 to November, 1890, having been elected four times to that position, each time by good majorities. At the last election he refused to become a candidate and retired for the purpose of more fully devoting himself to his private interests and to his family. Comment on the efficiency of his administration is unnecessary in the light of the long term of his service and his repeated re-elections. Mr. Boyd retired from office bearing with him an enviable reputation as a public official, and the people of Johnson count speak with gratitude of his services.

He owns farm of 500 acres in the south part of the county, which is considered very fertile, and to this and other interests he has given his time since quitting office. He has a beautiful home in Cleburne, at the head of Auglin street, and although both he and his wife prefer country to town life, they reside in Cleburne in order to give their children the advantages of the schools. His marriage took place August 16, 1866, to Miss Elizabeth Curtis Boyd, a native of Greenville, South Carolina. Whatever of success Mr. Boyd has achieved during the past twenty-five years he owes in no small measure to the efficient aid received from his wife, and he is just enough to make his graceful acknowledgment to her wifely devotion. It probably required no great sacrifice for him to come to Texas; it was rather a relief than otherwise, considering the unpleasant condition of affairs in South Carolina just after the close of the war; but the case was different with Mrs. Boyd. She left a pleasant home, the friends of her youth, peace, plenty and comfort for what she knew was to be a life of privation and, as compared with what she had been accustomed, great hardships. But sustained by her faith in herself and her husband she cheerfully gave up home and friends and took up the trying duties of her new life without a murmur.

Mr. and Mrs. Boyd have a family of seven children, some of whom are verging on to manhood and womanhood. Mr. Boyd's father is still living, being now in his seventy-seventh year. He makes his home with the subject of this sketch. The mother died at her son's home in October 1888. Mr. Boyd's eldest brother, Nathan F. Boyd, was killed in the late war at the battle of Chancellorsville, being a member of the Fourteenth South Carolina Regiment. The second brother, Bradford Boyd, was a member of the same regiment, survived the struggle and is now a resident of Clifton, Bosque county, this State. A third brother, David O. Boyd, died at his home near Grand View, this county, in 1888, leaving a family which still resides in that vicinity. Mr. Boyd has four sisters, all of whom became grown and married in Laurens district, South Carolina. The eldest, Minerva Boyd, became the wife of John H. Pyle, came to Texas in 1867 and settled near Chapel Hill, in Washington county, where she died a year later; the second sister is Mrs. J. L. Bramlett and resides near Grand View; Elizabeth Boyd is the wife of Willis Washington, and resides in Laurens district, South Carolina; and Isabella Boyd, the youngest, came with her husband, A. Y. Godfrey, to Texas in 1867, but died at Brenham in Washington county, a year later. Mrs. Boyd's parents came to Texas and died here, the mother soon after the family's arrival and the father in 1890.

Mr. Boyd has been a life long Democrat, and, where the question of Politics has entered into an election where he has been an aspirant for public favors, he ahs always submitted his claims to the action of his party and stood by the decision so rendered. He is known as a strong party man, and his counsel and aid are never sought for in vain when the party's interests are at stake. For fifteen years he has been a Mason, having been made a Master Mason in the mother lodge of Johnson county in 1876, rose to the degree of Royal Arch in 187_, and to that of Knight Templar in 1883. He is also a member of the K. of P. and the K. of H., in all of which fraternities he takes much interest and gives to their broad and benevolent teachings a practical meaning in his daily life.

Source: A Memorial and biographical history of Johnson and Hill Counties, Texas : containing the early history of this important section of the great state of Texas, together with glimpses of its future prospects : also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens of the present time and full page portraits of some of the most eminent men of this section; Micro-reproduction of original published: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co., 1892. - FHL Film 1000604

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