History:  Columbia County.  Mr. Boyd Obit, Reminisces of Dr. H. R. Casey
=======================================================================

USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing
         free information on the Internet, data may be used by
         non-commercial entities, as long as this message 
         remains on all copied material. These electronic 
         pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit
         or for presentation by other persons or organizations. 

         Persons or organizations desiring to use this material
         for purposes other than stated above must obtain the 
         written consent of the file contributor. 

         The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb 
	 Archives to store this file permanently for free access.
	 This file was contributed by: Stephanie Harrison
                                  info@conquestmusic.com 

=======================================================================
January 3, 1883

I have known Mr. Boyd for the last twenty years, and I can truly
say of him (if I am to judge the inner man by his outward works-his walk
in life-his example) that he was a man of fine practical sense, great
will and wim, strong attachments, stickly honest, a good provider, and a
sincere Christian. He often expressed himself as having great affection
for the people of Columbia County, and especially for his immediate
neighbors. He was a successful farmer, even under the "New
Dispensation" and loved to see that great industry prospering. He was a
good trainer of youth and said to me, only a few days before he died,
that he tried to give his boys a good education. He taught them at home
during vacations, this fact, "and I quote," he said "to impress it
indelibly upon them, that to live well and prosper, work was necessary. 
I made my boys, when at home, get between the plow handles, and do other
farm work, in order that idleness, the fruitful source of mischief,
might not be fastened on them." His teachings were not only sound in
theory, but have worked well in practice.
When the Grange at Bethel was organized, he said to me, "Doctor, if
I could see and hear, I would not only join you, but would be an active
worker in the cause, I believe that its aims, objects, and purposes are
for the advancement of agriculture, a reformation so much needed. But,
as it is, old, blind, deaf and infirm, all I can do is to give you the
benefit of my example. I cannot participate in your councils, but you
may enroll by name as a member, and I will aid you by any means when you
need it. "He was a true man-a type of the true Southern, a link that
bounds the glories properities and honors of the passt of our county
with the melancholy memories and desolated fields and firesides of the
present. Mr Boyd was a good man because of his innate love of the good
and virtuous. His motto was that nothing was impossible of industry. 
"Where there is a will, there is a way." Hence, he was always found in
place of duty which is the post of honor. In 1828, the ordinance of
baptism was administered to him by Jabez Marshal, the then pastor of
Kiokee Church. A few years, therafter he removed his membership to
Bethel church where it continued until his death. For one'half a
century he continued a zealous member of the Baptist Church, and Bethel
church will deeply feel his loss.
"Why weep ye, then for him, who having run the bound of man's
appointed years, at last life's blessings all enjoyed, life's labors done.
Serenely to his final rest has passed.
While the soft memory of his virtues yet.
Lingers, like the twilight hues when the bright sun was set."