William Hart Boyd ~ Lucy Chapel

Monroe County, Michigan

 

 

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William H. Boyd was born in Hartwick, Otsego county, New York October 6, 1811.  His father, William A. Boyd, was born November 10, 1785, in Richmond, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, the son of John Boyd, who was born in Irvine, Scotland, in 1739, and emigrated to this country in 1770.  He was a descendant of the Earl of Richmond, educated in the University of Edinburgh, a lawyer by profession, and made a notary in 1761.  On coming to this country was licensed by William Tryon, governor of the province of New York, in 1774.  Married Christina Van Dusen, of Kinderhook, and related to the Van Buren family.  He removed from Berkshire county to Philadelphia where he died September 18, 1798.

 He left four sons, Robert, William A., John, and James.  John had a large family, whose descendants are scattered in Wisconsin, Virginia, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.  John E. Boyd, one of the descendants, is connected with the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian church in New York City.

William A. Boyd, father of William H., received his early education in Philadelphia and Albany, and entered a wholesale dry goods store in Albany where he was thoroughly trained in the business.  he afterwards settled in Otsego county, and married Miss Ruth Seymour, who was born in Berlin, Connecticut, August 28, 1789.  Her father and mother (the latter's maiden name was Hart) were of Puritan stock, and among the first settlers and honored names of Connecticut.  They possessed sterling Christian characters, and trained a family of noble Christian men and women, numbering among their descendants six who have been or now are ministers of the Gospel.  William A. Boyd had three children, William H., Erasmus J. and Mariet.

Erasmus was educated at Hamilton College, New York, and at the theological seminary at New York.  He entered the ministry, and was for years pastor of a church in Brooklyn, Michigan.  He was principal of the Young Ladies' Seminary of Monroe from its origin for twenty-nine years.  He married Sarah Clark, of Troy, New York; had two daughters, who married and settled in the West.

Mariet married Charles P. Woodruff, of Detroit; has three sons and three daughters.

William H. Boyd was educated at Ovid Academy, New York, where he pursued a course in the languages and mathematics preparatory for college, but not desiring a profession he turned his attention to natural history and the sciences.  He entered the Rensselaer Institute, then under the charge of the distinguished Professor Amos Eaton, at Troy, New York, where he graduated in 1835.  His class contained such scholars as Professor James Hall, of Albany, and Hon. S. Wells Williams, of Yale College, late of China, the last being his roommate for two years.  At this institute students were required to lecture in the studies in the presence of the whole class and the professors.  This exercise proved of great value to the students in after life.

From this institute Mr. Boyd returned to his home in Ovid, New York, and spent some two years with his father in the mercantile business, during which time he accumulated a valuable library of literary, historic and scientific works, which he diligently studied in his leisure hours.  He entered heartily into Sunday school work and the cause of temperance.  In 1834 he was chosen superintendent of the Presbyterian church Sunday school which office he held while he remained in Ovid, also acted as superintendent of a Sabbath school three miles outside of the village.

In the spring of 1830 he made choice of Monroe as his future residence and engaged a store building, returned to Ovid, from thence to New York, and purchased a stock of dry goods.  With a capital of $200 purchased $3,000 on a credit of six months, and returned to Monroe in June and opened his stock in trade.  About the 1st of December he added a stock of groceries.  His business increased and was continued in the stand, in the building now occupied by H. Duvall, on First street, for ten years, during which time he built a store at Hillsdale, and one at Jackson, continuing the three stores for twelve years.  He changed into the hardware trade, which he continued seventeen years, and then took in tow partners, George W. Bruckner and Robert Powell, and after seven years old out to them.  From that time he devoted his time to other branches of trade, produce, wool, clover seed, etc.  In 1868 his hardware store was burned, when he went to New York City and spent two years in the oil trade, opening an important business in native lubricating in Russia, Germany, France and England, which business has been carried on most successfully by his son and his associates to the present time, making in June 1886, over fifty years of continued business.

When he commenced business in 1836, he wrote a pledge which he first signed and required all his clerks for the first ten years to sign, pledging total abstinence from intoxicating drinks and saloons, and of the large number connected with him in business, all with one exception of those now living have kept their pledge, and all with two exceptions have proved in after life to be men of sterling character, and most of them leading business men in society where they resided.

In the summer of 1836 he united with the First Presbyterian church of Monroe by letter from Ovid, and joining the Sabbath school as teacher, was at once made assistant superintendent until January, 1843, when he was elected superintendent and held the office until July, 1878, some thirty-five years as superintendent, excepting two years when absent in New York....forty years superintendent and assistant superintendent of the same school.  In the Sabbath school work he was active both at home and throughout the State, having aided in the formation of the State Sunday school Association, acted as one of its executive committee, and twice elected president of the State convention, once at Grand Rapids and once at Flint; was a delegate to the national convention in Indianapolis in 1872, and to the international convention in Baltimore in 1875; was a member of the first State temperance convention at Marshall in the winter of 1838; has been a member of the Synod of Michigan repeatedly, and of the General Assembly in Buffalo, New York and Cincinnati, and a life member of the American Sunday School Union, and its vice-president in 1876.  He delivered an historical address on the work of Sunday schools during the past century at the State convention in Owosso in 1876, which was an address of great merit and deemed worthy of publication by the convention.

In the presbytery of Monroe he has been efficient as an elder; delivered an historical narrative of its fifty years' work in 1844, which was published in pamphlet form.  He frequently responded to calls to deliver Fourth of July and historical addresses, as well as patriotic addresses.

He was the first to offer a premium of twenty-five dollars for the first man who would enlist as a volunteer in the first company formed in Monroe county at the opening of the war in 1861.  On the call for the mass meeting in Jackson, July 6, 1854, participated in the organization of the Republican party.  he never manifested any desire for political preferment, but was ever an ardent and zealous Republican.

His efficiency in the Sabbath school work where he labored for forty-two years, can be attested by hundreds of teachers and scholars.  Through his agency every member of the Fourth and Seventh Michigan regiments was furnished with a copy of the New Testament, and by his efforts the Presbyterian chapel was erected, to which he was a very liberal contributor.  Commencing as a Sabbath school teacher at the age of sixteen, he labored fifty-nine years (at this date sixty-one) for the youth of our land, giving a bright example of one who had never used intoxicating drinks or tobacco in any form, or uttered a profane word, or labored or traveled on the Sabbath.

He was active in every enterprise for the interests of Monroe, viz.  In building the plank road to Saline before the railroad was constructed; in building the Detroit, Monroe and Toledo railroad, and the Holly railroad, which was absorbed by the Flint and Pere Marquette; was one of the originators of the Monroe Female Seminary, and invested $3,000 fir the brick addition, which proved a pecuniary loss; was interested in the Union hotel, now known as the Hubble block; also one of the organizers of the First National bank of which he was a number of years president and vice-president; and for many years, and at the present time, president of the Monroe Bible Society, being the oldest Bible society in the Northwest, organized in 1821.

Mr. Boyd married in September, 1839, Miss Lucy Chapel, who lost her parents in early youth, and was adopted by Judge Wolcott Lawrence, and old and honored family of New England, who came to Michigan in 1817.  Mr. Boyd had five children, three of whom died in childhood, leaving Irving P. Boyd, of New York, and Carrie L., residing at Monroe.

Mr. Boyd's character as  Christian gentleman for fifty years in the same community was exemplary and his aim and purpose was to so live as to honor his Maker, and to lead all under his influence to do the same.  In all moral and religious work for the good of his fellow men he was active and ready, and was known throughout the county in all its towns, attending the Sabbath school work and other gatherings with a ready address on the Bible, temperance and Sabbath school work, with illustrations for almost any emergency, giving interest to his efforts.  Of the many persons connected with him in business, it can be said that he never had a serious dispute or trouble of any kind.

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

Another William Hart Boyd bio can be found in the following book/microfilm:

Cyclopedia of Michigan: historical and biographical: comprising a synopsis of general history of the state and biographical sketches of men who have, in their various spheres contributed toward its development by the Western Publishing and Engraving Co. Includes index. Microfilm of original published: New York: Western Publishing and Engraving Co., c1890. - FHL Film 1730732

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