BIOGRAPHY: Boyd, W. S. From the A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875 ************************************************* Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ************************************************* W. S. BOYD, M.D. – A little more than twenty one years ago the subject of this sketch, Dr. W. S. Boyd, then a young, well read and enthusiastic physician, cam to Vinton and tendered his services as a medical man to the citizens of that community. He had at that time been practicing his chosen profession nearly five years, being a native of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, where he was born June 20, 1814. Being raised on a farm in a sparsely settled portion of the state, his early advantages for receiving an education were none of the best, his instructions being limited to the commoner English branches. At twenty he entered the Washington Academy, and remained two years, making the best possible of the time and opportunities thus afforded him. He studied medicine for three years and six months with Dr. Thomas Brinker at Pleasant Unity, Pennsylvania, and then attended three courses of lectures at the Cleveland (Ohio) Medical School, graduating in the Spring of 1849. He then opened an office and commenced the medical practice at West Salem, Wayne County, Ohio, where he remained until the Fall of 1854 when he located at Vinton, Iowa, and was the first regularly educated physician that settled in Benton County. Since his residence in Iowa he has had a large and extensive practice, meeting with uniformly good success, and doing a large amount of charity work. He has performed many difficult surgical operations, which entitle him to the reputation he has well earned, of being a bold, skillful and successful operator. Dr. Boyd has been married three times, his first wife living only about one month after they were married. He has four children living, his oldest son being married and practicing medicine in Clinton County, Iowa, where he is gaining quite a reputation in his profession.