BIO:  Stephen Gill Boyd, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Abby Bowman

Copyright 2004.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/york/
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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, historical editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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Part II, Biographical Sketches, York Borough, Pg 9

STEPHEN GILL BOYD, the subject of this sketch, is the oldest child of John C. 
and Martha (Farmer) Boyd, and was born in Peach Bottom Township, this county, on 
the 6th day of December, 1830.  On his paternal side he is descended from an old 
Scotch-Irish family that emigrated from the County Antrim, Ireland, in the year 
1736, and his maternal grandparents emigrated from Shropshire, England in the 
early part of the present century, and settled near Darlington, Hartford Co., 
Md.  During the minority of Mr. Boyd, his summers were devoted to working on his 
father's farm, and his winters to attending the district school.  Upon reaching 
his majority he repaired to York, and entered, as a student, the grammar school 
of the late Dr. Andrew Dinsmore, and spent his time, until he was twenty-seven 
years of age, mainly in teaching, obtaining academic instruction at various 
educational institutions, principally at White Hall Academy in Cumberland 
County, Penn., and at Bryansville Academy in his native township, and in 
managing his farm, for several years farming in summer and teaching a district 
school in winter.  In his twenty-seventh year, Mr. Boyd, in order to obtain a 
more thorough education, removed with his family to Lancaster, Penn., and for a 
term became a student at the Millersville State Normal School, then under the 
management of Dr. Wickersham.  From this time until 1866, he devoted his time 
exclusively to teaching and study, teaching in Lancaster County, Lancaster City, 
and in Wrightsville, in this county.  In the spring of the year last referred 
to, at the request of Prof. S. B. Heiges, who was then county superintendent of 
the schools of this county, he came to York and joined him in the management of 
a normal school, organized for the benefit of the young teachers of the county, 
with which school he was connected as one of its principal teachers for four 
years.  In the fall of this year (1866) he was elected to a seat in the house of 
representatives, and was re-elected the ensuing year.  In the spring of 1869, he 
was elected county superintendent of schools to succeed Mr. Heiges, and in 1871 
he was elected to the presidency of the Peach Bottom Railway Company, which 
latter position he filled for the term of six years, and until the road was 
completed and put into operation from York to Delta.  In the spring of 1877 Mr. 
Boyd, in conjunction with some of the more enterprising citizens of Hartford and 
Baltimore Counties, undertook the organization of a company to construct a 
railroad from Delta to Baltimore, and on the 21st day of January, 1884, this 
road was completed and opened to traffic.  Mr. Boyd's conduct as a 
representative was characterized by a deep interest in all legislation 
calculated to promote the educational interests of the State and the material 
interests of his own county.  During his first term he finally prepared and 
secured the passage of the bill to incorporate the York and Chanceford Turnpike 
Company, in which company, after its organization, he served as a director until 
his removal to Baltimore, in 1878.  During his second term he prepared and 
secured the passage of the bill to incorporate the Peach Bottom Railway Company, 
and during this term also he took an active part in the passage of the bill 
giving to the non-accepting school districts of the State, their forfeited 
appropriations from the State treasury, for the last ten years prior to its 
passage, and had the pleasure of seeing Manheim Township, in this county, accept 
the system during his first year as county superintendent.  In his second year 
in the office of county superintendent he co-operated with the board of school 
control of the borough of York in the reorganization of the schools of the 
borough, favoring a comprehensive and thorough course of study, and the borough 
superintendency.  Mr. Boyd, since his withdrawal from the management of the 
Maryland Central Railroad, in the autumn of 1884, has been engaged in 
educational work, having adopted the educational platform as a profession.  In 
addition to his labors on the platform, he requently appears in print as an 
essayist, and is the author of a work on the signification of Indian local or 
place names.  Much of his life has been given to the study of literacy and 
scientific subjects, and no small part of it to the promotion of the material 
interests of his county.