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Erasmas James Boyd ~ Sarah Clark

Monroe County, Michigan

Erasmas J. Boyd, brother of the Hon. William H. Boyd, was born in central New York.  He was graduated from Hamilton College, and from the New York Theological Seminary.  From the latter he immediately accepted a pastorate in Brooklyn, Michigan, where he won the hearts of his people, and is still remembered by the friends he drew about him.  The citizens of Monroe, Michigan, offered Mr. Boyd great inducements to come to Monroe and found a young ladies' seminary.  The buildings and grounds were purchased from Stolbarn Wing, and Mr. Boyd became principal.  The seminary proved a great success under his management, and in a few years he was enabled to purchase the property and make additions required by the increasing number of scholars.  He employed a fine corps of teachers in all branches, and the departments of music and art developed unusual talent.  The annual concerts of instrumental and vocal music, as well as those given at intervals during the year, were a rare treat to the people of Monroe.  A course of lectures during the winter months was an interesting feature of the institution.  And the citizens as well as the pupils listened to such men as President Tappan, Professors Heavens, Winchell and Upham and President White, of Cornell, together with many others too numerous to mention.  Mr. Boyd was unusually quick in detection talent as well as the particular bent of minds under his instruction, and many a timid girl has been encouraged in the line when her success eventually showed the rare decernment he possessed.  He was also an excellent and discriminating judge of literature, poetry and the fine arts, and those under his care ever remember the pleasure and enthusiasm he displayed with their best, but immature efforts.  Thus he endeared himself to every member of the school by his sympathy, charity and kindness.  To the struggling student he was unfailing in patience and attention, and generous to many in a substantial degree.  With all his duties as principal of a flourishing seminary, and as a public spirited man in the church and city, he ever sough out the neglected and needy.  Mr. Boyd established a mission school on the third ward; a brick building suitable for the undertaking was erected, and many of foreign descent were gathered into the Sunday School and evening meetings.  Some of the young boys were incited to a better education, and a number of them grown to manhood are promising business men in this and other cities.  Some entered the army during the rebellion and fought a good fight, from time to time writing to their benefactor, and amid the dangers of the camp and battlefield, were sought out by kind and encouraging letters from Mr. Boyd, whose care for their welfare never ceased.  Those who knew Mr. Boyd's kind and beautiful spirit can not wonder he is so devotedly embalmed in the hearts of his pupils, who ever speak of him in words of love and glistening eyes.  After the war the country passed through a financial crisis, which effected the seminary as well as most institutions of the kind throughout the West.  Other schools of like nature were opened in neighboring cities and towns, and our Monroe Young Ladies' Seminary received a blow from which it never entirely recovered.  Rev. E. J. Boyd accepted a call to Laramie City, Wyoming Territory, where he preached a year, and died suddenly, November 23, 1881, regretted by the people to whom he had endeared himself in an unusual degree.

Rev. Erasmas J. Boyd was married soon after leaving the theological seminary to Miss Sarah Clark, who was educated at Miss Willard's famous seminary of Troy, New York.  During their residence in Monroe, three daughters were born: Ella Boyd, who did at the age of fifteen; Florence Boyd, who married Mr. T. E. Schwarz, of Boston, Massachusetts, now living in Colorado; Anna Boyd, who married Mr. F. K. Copeland, of Boston, Massachusetts, now of Chicago, Illinois.  A meeting of the resident Alumni was called in September, 1883, at which it was decided to erect a monument to the memory of Mr. Boyd; former members of the seminary from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast were notified and responded heartily and gratefully, and in a few months a Scotch granite monument was imported and erected over his last resting place, with the following inscription:

"Reverend Erasmas J. Boyd was born November 1, 1814; died November 23, 1881.  For twenty-nine years Principal of the Monroe Young Ladies' Seminary.  He possessed in a high degree the affection and respect of his pupils, who, in loving remembrance, have erected this monument."

His character and the esteem in which he was held cannot be better portrayed than by quoting from the sermon by Rev. J. Y. Cowtrick, D. D., preached at the funeral services in Laramie City on November 26, 1881.  He said:

     "I shall never forget the first time I saw him in Presbytery at Denver, as he rose his tall form towering over those around him, he said he had heard much of the West and had come to see the glory of its wonders and to cast in his lot with us.  Not one word of complaint, not one word of seeking for health....only desirous of entering on the work that is so abundant in the wide and wild fields of the West. He at once entered the conflict and like a mailed warrior died with his harness on in the midst of the battle, 'Let me die the death of the righteous and let my end be like his.'

    "Who can say my friend E. J. Boyd was not a royal knight of a royal master?  He preached to you, my friends, one year; his last sermon being on the anniversary of his first year, and by his brethren in the ministry was requested to preach a union Thanksgiving sermon.  He had just completed it and died with it in his hand.  Yet he died with his harness on, went into the presence of the king of kings with thanksgiving, which, as he joined the hosts at once, was a peace of victory.  He was truly, while here, a prophet, priest and king.  He was a prophet because he spoke for his Master always and everywhere when it was proper and possible to do so.  He was a priest because he was often found interceding for those at a throne of grace.  He was a king because by purity and gentleness manifested in a vigorous life, he ruled for good wherever he was present. 

    "No man ever closed his earthly career in a grander way, working for the Master until within fifteen minutes of his call.  He could, with the Apostle, have well said: ' I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith,'  and to this, people would respond, 'Verily, thou has.'  Henceforth there is laid up for thee a crown of righteousness"

Prof. Boyd's body was sent to his old home, Monroe, Michigan, and laid to rest by the side of his first born and beloved daughter, Ella.

Source: History of Monroe County, Michigan by Talcott Enoch Wing. Includes index.  Pub. New York: Munsell & Company, 1890. - FHL Film 924600 Item 1

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