CHIEF:  Alastair Ivor Gilbert Boyd 7th Baron Kilmarnock

Richard G. and Jerri Lynn Boyd

568 W. Friedrich Street

Rogers City, Mich. 49779

David Lindsey Boyd (1841 - 1919)
Kilconway, County Antrim

David Lindsey Boyd’s family lived in the parish of Grange of Dundermot, Barony of Kilconway, County Antrim.  The Boyds were farmers and leased their land from the owners of large estates.

David’s father was James Ellis Boyd, and his mother's name was Jenny.  Based on David’s middle name, a reasonable guess at her maiden name would be Lindsey.  Further information about the ancestry of this family is based on a search commissioned through the Ulster Historical Foundation in 1980-81, and is mostly circumstantial in nature.  It shows that a Boyd family were recorded on rent rolls in the area in 1812 and 1834.  This information strongly suggests that James’ father was a William Boyd.  This family assuredly descends from Boyds transplanted into Ulster from Ayrshire in Scotland during the "plantation" of Scots into northern Ireland in the seventeenth century.

David L. Boyd was born in 1841, the youngest of James and Jenny’s eight children.  They lived in the townland of Spring Mount when David was young.  Of his life in Ireland we know little except that he was a school teacher and a Mason.  His parchment Masonic membership “certificate” is still in the family, along with the violin he brought with him to the U.S.

As a younger son, farming the family land was not an option for David.  In pursuit of gainful employment, he became a teacher in the National School system, where he taught at the Drumadoon school from 1857 to 1866.  Samuel S.McLure, later a successful American magazine publisher, was a student of David Boyd’s in Ireland.  Writing in his autobiography of his early days attending a National School near his home he recalled that because he was malnourished and tired easily, he would have crying spells in the afternoon, and writes the following:

"I distinctly remember how kind the teacher, Mr. Boyd, was to me when these crying-fits came on, and how considerate the other boys were...   Every few years each teacher in the public schools was required to spend six months in Dublin ...   I can remember when our teacher Mr. Boyd went, and how none of us much cared for the substitute...   When Mr. Boyd explained to us boys that the war was between the Northern and Southern states of North America and not between North and South America, that was a great revelation to us...   I have so often wondered in the intervening years what had become of this good and kindly man that I was very much pleased when Senator Brackett at the time these memoirs first appeared, wrote me, "I suspect the school teacher whom you mention in your autobiography is my old time friend David L. Boyd, still living in Mt. Vernon, Iowa."  I availed myself of the hint and was rewarded by the following communication from the younger Boyd...."  (a letter from David’s son William W. Boyd follows in the autobiography).

An brief account of David L. Boyd’s life is found in a book entitled "Biographical Record (Linn County)", published in Iowa ca. 1901.  It reports that he was the youngest of eight children and that his parents James and Jenny Boyd never left County Antrim.  Here is the balance of that biography:

"During his boyhood our subject attended a model school in his native land, and was later a student in the training school in Dublin.  On leaving that institution he successfully engaged in teaching in Ireland for seven years.  But the new world had attractions for him, and he determined to come to that country where every man was equal in the eyes of the law, and where all had an equal chance for advancement.  In 1868 he bade good-bye to home and friends and went from Belfast to Liverpool, England from which port he sailed to the United States.  Landing in New York, he proceeded at once to Marengo, Iowa, where he remained three weeks and then came to Mt. Vernon, which has since been his home.  He began life here as a farm hand in the employ of James Smyth, with whom he remained three months, and for three weeks he was similarly employed by Colonel [Robert] Smyth.  At the end of that time he accepted a position in the lumber yard of Col. R. Smyth & Co., at Mt. Vernon, and a year later purchased an interest in the business.  This partnership lasted for some time and then he purchased his partner’s interests, and has since continued to be identified with the lumber business of his adopted city.  In May, 1900, he took into partnership with him his son, Jay [James] C., and under the firm name of D.L. Boyd & Son is continued with marked success. On the advent of his son into the firm, he became connected with the banking business as cashier of the Mt. Vernon Bank, and is now holding that position.  His intimate knowledge and extensive acqaintance with the people who do business in Mt. Vernon make him a valuable acquisition to the bank.  On the 8th of December, 1870, Mr. Boyd was united in marriage with Miss Margaret Craig...  Mr. Boyd is a faithful and consistent member of the Presyterian church, and in politics is an ardent Republican.  For two years he efficiently served as mayor of Mt. Vernon [1877 - 1878], and has been a member of the school board for many years, while he is now serving as one of the trustees of Cornell College.  He is a very pleasant and courteous gentleman, who takes a deep interest in every enterprise which he believes will be of public benefit, and he stands deservedly high in both business and social circles."

In 1875 he was granted American citizenship.  His business interests also included grain and livestock.  He died in Mt. Vernon in 1919.  His three children were William W., Florence, and James Craig.  Living descendants today are all from James C. (Jay) Boyd (1872 - 1943) whose four sons Robert, William, James, and Donald each had families with children.

Donald Lindsey Boyd
New Carlisle, Ohio

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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