Montour-Northumberland County PA Archives Biographies.....Boyd, Daniel Montgomery 1826 - living in 1899

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Author: Biographical Publishing Co.



DANIEL MONTGOMERY BOYD, president of the First National Bank and a gentleman

closely identified with many industries of Danville, Montour County, Pa., whose

portrait appears on the opposite page, is now retired from active business,

owing to ill health, and resides with his family in his handsome home, No. 5

Bloom street.



  The Boyd family for many years past has been connected with all of the

important business projects in the vicinity of Danville and is accredited with

having done much toward elevating the borough to its present standing among the

industrial communities in Pennsylvania. The annals of history accord the family

due credit for establishing one of the first railroads in that section, thus

making possible communication with other markets and indirectly promoting all

business enterprises. Our subject is recognized the county over as a man of

sterling worth to the community and his friends are without number. He is a son

of John C. and Hannah (Montgomery) Boyd, and was born in Rush township,

Northumberland County, Pa., April 23, 1826.



  The family was established in this country by our subject's great-grandfather,

William Boyd, who with his brother, Thomas, left his native home at Armagh,

Ireland, and came to the United States in 1732. He was of Scotch-Irish parentage

and was an adherent to the faith of the Protestants. He settled near the

Half-Way House in New Garden township, Chester County, Pa., and on March 26,

1773, was appointed justice of the peace under King George and served in that

capacity during the remainder of his life. He was also a member of the

provincial council and his name appeared for the last time upon the records in

1761. He was a faithful member and officer of the Presbyterian Church at Fagg's

Manor, Chester County. Late in life he moved to the village of Oxford where he

resided until his death in 1767. He reared the following children: James; John;

William; Jane; Mary; and Hannah.



  John Boyd, the grandfather of our subject, served an apprenticeship to the

tanner's trade, but upon the breaking out of the Revolutionary War he enlisted

in the army and served until he received his honorable discharge in 1782,

proving himself a man of valor and one in whom his country could place

dependence. He was subsequently appointed general of the First Brigade, Third

Division, of the Pennsylvania State Militia by the governor of the state. After

his marriage on December 18, 1782, he established a tannery at West Fallowfield,

Chester County, Pa., which he conducted with much success. He served in the

legislature many years. He was a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church at

Fagg's Manor for a period of twenty years. He married Mary Cowan, a daughter of

James Cowan of Octoraro, Chester County, and they reared the following children:

Jane; Joseph; William; James; John C.; Mary; Hannah; and Eliza.



  John C. Boyd, father of the subject of this biography, was joined in marriage,

on May 18, 1820, with Hannah Montgomery, a daughter of Gen. Daniel Montgomery,

after whom the borough of Danville was named. He then settled in Danville and

conducted a store, where his wife's father had previously lived, until 1824 when

he sold out and removed to what is now known as the Boyd farm, a gift to Mrs.

Boyd from her father at the time of her marriage. There he erected a large

mansion and continually added to the land until he possessed a farm of nine

hundred acres, nearly all of which was under cultivation. Ably supported by his

sons and Gen. Montgomery, Mr. Boyd planned many projects to promote the

interests of the town and aid in its growth, the most important of these being

for the construction of the Danville & Pottsville Railroad. It was he who first

conceived the idea of using wooden rails. It is not to be imagined however that

he did not encounter many difficulties in this enterprise, but with renewed

energy and characteristic good judgment he finally obtained the desired results.

He also built a furnace on a tract of land at Shamokin, Northumberland County,

and this he operated with good success.* He was a man of irreproachable

character, dignified, and at all times courteous, and there were few who could

boast of more friends or who were accorded a higher degree of confidence by

their fellow citizens. His useful life was terminated August 18, 1849, at the

age of fifty-six years, as the result of an attack of dysentery. Mr. Boyd and

his wife became the proud parents of seven children: Mary L., the wife of

William Neal, proprietor of the Neal Furnace of Bloomsburg; Daniel Montgomery,

the subject of this biographical record; H. Eliza, deceased; James, who married

Louise Yeomans, a daughter of Rev. J. W. Yeomans; J. Alexander, who married a

Miss Titus and resides in Philadelphia; Christianna, the wife of Col. William

McClure; and Joseph C., who married Anna Butler, a daughter of William Butler of

Danville.



  Daniel Montgomery Boyd received a good education in the Danville Academy and

shortly after leaving school he became a coal dealer at Pottsville, Pa., and

also engaged in opening and developing mines in the Shamokin Coal Basin. He and

his partner in business were among the first to introduce the improved

coal-breakers in that section. In 1862 he went to Havre-de-Grace and conducted

business under the name of Hilles, Boyd & Company, selling coal and shipping it

by vessel to various points in the South and West; as this proved a very

remunerative occupation he continued it until 1881 when he was obliged to

relinquish it owing to ill health. Our subject lived in retirement for some time

in Danville, but as soon as his health permitted he associated in many important

business ventures. He became president of the First National Bank of Danville,

president of the Danville frail Manufacturing Company, and is a liberal

supporter financially of all worthy enterprises. He was also president of the

board of trustees of the State Hospital for the Insane, but recently resigned

that office. He continued to improve in health until the winter of 1897-98, when

he took to his bed, owing to an attack of la grippe which left him in a very

weak condition.



  Mr. Boyd has twice married, his first wife being Caroline A. Bockius, a

daughter of Samuel Bockius of Germantown, Pa., to whom he was united in 1869.

After her death in 1876 he formed a second matrimonial alliance with Ida

Cottrell, a daughter of Joseph W. and Esther A. (Sloan) Cottrell, he being a

prosperous hardware merchant of Columbia, Pa. This union resulted in the birth

of two children: Daniel Montgomery, deceased; and Elsie M. Mr. Boyd and his

family are consistent members of the Presbyterian Church, of which he is a

trustee.





Additional Comments:

Extracted from:



Book of Biographies of the Seventeenth Congressional District

Published by 

Biographical Publishing Company of Chicago, Ill. and Buffalo, NY (1899)



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