Biography of Edgar Harrison Boykin, Gadsden County, FL File contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Nancy Rayburn (naev@earthlink.net). USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or publication by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ****************************************************************************************** Transcribed from: The History of Florida: Past & Present, The Lewis Publishing Co., Vol. III, page 217, 1923. BOYKIN, EDGAR HARRISON is active head of E. H. Boykin & Company, Merchants, and president of the Gadsden County State Bank at River Junction. At the age of forty-nine he is a very substantial man of affairs, though in his younger years he had to contend with some heavy handicaps and adversities, and has been the real architect of his destiny. Mr. BOYKIN was born in the Village of Chattahoochee, Gadsden County, April 10, 1873, son of JAMES C. and JANE C. (McKEOWN) BOYKIN, both natives of South Carolina. His father as a young man enlisted in Company B of the Sixth Florida Infantry, and served all through the war. He was once wounded. Following the war he engaged in farming, and after was a merchant at Chattahoochee. He moved to Washington County in 1876, and was again a farmer and merchant, and while there was elected sheriff of the county. From Washington County he moved to Jackson County, and was clerking in a store at Sneads when he died in 1885. He was a Mason and a Baptist. His wife died in Jackson County, Florida, in 1901. EDGAR HARRISON BOYKIN was twelve years of age when his father died. That threw upon him responsibilities not only for his own support, but as a contributor to the upkeep of the family. He had to be satisfied with only a common school education, but his mental growth and horizon had been constantly expanding during his years of business experience. In 1893 Mr. BOYKIN, after having assisted on the farm for a number of years, became a clerk for Liddon Brothers of Sneads. At the end of five years he established and took charge of a business at Cypress, conducted under the name E. H. Boykin & Company. He was there four years, from 1898 to 1902, and in the latter year, still associated with the Liddon Brothers, he opened a general department store, E. H. Boykin & Company, at River Junction. He has given this business his active management and personal attention for twenty years, and it is one of the very substantial business enterprises of Gadsden County. Mr. BOYKIN in 1907 helped organize and became a director in the Gadsden County State Bank, a state bank at River Junction, and since 1908 has served as its president. He was one of the incorporators and since the incorporation has been city clerk of River Junction. He is a Baptist, and in the Knights of Pythias Order has served as chancellor commander of Jefferson Lodge No. 61 at Sneads, and of Summitt Lodge No. 86 at River Junction. He is also affiliated with Lodge No. 21, F. and A. M., at River Junction, with Gadsden Chapter, R. A. M., St. Omer Commandery, K. P., and Morocco Temple of the Mystic Shrine. During the World war he was district chairman of the fourth and Victory Loan drives and local chairman of the third drive. Mr. BOYKIN married at River Junction Miss JULIA JONES, a native of Decatur County, Georgia. Her father, the late Doctor W. L. JONES, was a Confederate soldier and for many years practiced medicine in Georgia and Florida, being a physician at Chattahoochee for a number of years. Mrs. BOYKIN is president of the Woman’s Club of River Junction. They have three children, CARLEEN, RISDON LIDDON and BURTON HALDANE.