Capt. Charles R. Boyd ~ Sallie Stafford

Wytheville, Virginia

The subject of this paper, Capt. Charles R. Boyd, geologist and civil engineer, was born at Wytheville, Virginia, October 31st 1841. He is the son of Thomas J. and M. A. Boyd. His mother was the daughter of Col. David French, of Giles, Virginia. The father and mother of Captain Boyd are of Scotch and English descent. The father has been for many years prominent as an attorney and is a man of fine and marked ability. For a number of years he represented Wythe county in the Legislature of the State, and for six years was a member of the Board of Public Works. He was also the original and a powerful factor in the building of the Norfolk and Western Railroad through this section of Virginia. Captain Boyd received the rudiments of his education under the instruction of Col. C. Crozet, who was Colonel of Engineers under the first Napoleon. When the was of the States began, Charles entered the service in the "Stonewall" brigade, and was soon appointed Second Lieutenant of Engineers, and rose to the rank of brevet Captain. He was later appointed First Lieutenant of Ordnance. In the Engineers he served with marked ability during the latter half of the war. After the close of the war he entered the University of Virginia and completed a scientific course, graduating in the class of 1874. He then engaged in civil engineering and the various branches of science, devoting much attention to geology, and in the year 1881 he published a book on the resources of South-west Virginia, which met with great favor, and had an extensive circulation and proved a powerful and important factor in calling the attention of capitalists to the rare and numerous opportunities for financial investments in the state.

He also compiled and published several maps of South-west Virginia, which were very handsomely and elaborately executed, and have been largely employed by the railroad companies and other development companies in inducing and direction capital to his portion of the State. The twenty-first edition of these valuable maps was executed in the year 1891. During the course of Captain Boyd's business career, he received the appointment of Commissioner of Virginia to visit the Paris Exposition in 1878. Previously, he had also been commissioner from the State to the Philadelphia Exposition in 1876, at which time he was elected a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. He was also appointed by the State as commissioner to the New Orleans Exposition in 1884, during which time he was authorized by the State to write a paper on the resources of South-west Virginia. In the year 1880, he was elected a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and was invited to attend a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, which convened at Liverpool, England, in 1888. He was also on the general committee for the reception and entertainment of the British Iron and Steel Institute in the fall of 1890. He was also invited, among other delegates, to attend the Inter-National Congress of Geologists, to be held at Washington, D. C., in the fall of 1891. In April of the same year, he was elected Vice-President of the Association of Engineers of Virginia. The Captain is a stockholder and director of the Boyd Land Company of Wytheville, and, aside from scientific and literary attainments, is a man of a fine, practical business ability. He is a forcible and vigorous writer, and has acquired by the publication and circulation of his pamphlets and maps a more than national reputation as a civil engineer, geologist and scientist. The chapter in this work on South-west Virginia, prepared by Captain Boyd, will give a more adequate idea of his style and method of writing than it would be possible to obtain from the most elaborate criticism or resume of his writings. It should, however, be remembered, in due justice to Captain Boyd, that the limited space allowed him will necessitate the condensing of the material of his article in a measure, which may tend to detract form its literary merit and beauty. He was married in April, 1868, to Miss Sallie Stafford, daughter of Gen. Leroy Stafford, of Louisiana. General Stafford was a man of marked prominence in his State, and at one time was candidate for Governor, and during the late war took and active and prominent part.

Captain Boyd has three children, namely, Katie Boyd, Charles R. Boyd and Cornelia Boyd. In matters of church faith he is an Episcopalian.

Source: South-west Virginia and the valley : historical and biographical; Reprint. Originally published: Roanoke, Va. : A.D. Smith, 1892. FHL Book 975.5 H2sv

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