W. L. Boyd Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Pages 541-542

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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W. L. BOYD. In America labor is king and the sovereignty that her 
liberty loving people acknowledge is that of business. The men of 
influence in a community in this enlightened age are its enterprising 
and progressive representatives of commercial interests and to this 
class belongs W. L. Boyd, a prominent business man of Bowdle, South 
Dakota. 

He was born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1852, and his parents Thomas and 
Jane (Giving) Boyd, were also natives of that country and of Scotch-
Irish descent. The father was foreman in a linen factory for twenty 
years and also engaged in farming at the same time. Our subject was 
named for a grand uncle who was a surgeon in the British army and he 
also had another grand uncle, Robert Boyd, who was a Presbyterian 
minister. 

W. L. Boyd was reared on a farm in his native land and also served a 
four years' apprenticeship as a finisher in the process of bleaching 
linen. At the age of twenty one he left home and came to America, 
landing in New York. He settled in Southern Michigan, where he bought 
land and through the winter months engaged in getting out ship timbers, 
being interested in the lumber business for some time. Immediately 
after his arrival in this country he learned the brick layer's and 
mason's trade in Wisconsin, and worked at the same from 1876 until 
1896. Fffteen years of this time was spent in the Badger state, where 
he was engaged in business on his own account as a contractor and 
builder. There he was married, in 1877, to Miss Margaret Meaken, a 
native of Illinois, who was left an orphan at the early age of three 
years, her father being killed in the Civil war. She was adopted by a 
hotel keeper and brought up in the village of Montello, Marquette 
county, Wisconsin. To our subject and his wife have been born five 
children, four sons and one daughter, all at ,home attending school. 

Mr. Boyd first came to Bowdle, South Dakota, in 1888, but did not 
locate permanently in this state until the following year, when he 
purchased a farm of three hundred and twenty acres in Spring Lake 
Valley, Walworth county, upon which he made his home until the fall of 
1898, when he removed to Bowdle. In connection with general farming and 
stock raising, he also worked at his trade to some extent. On coming to 
Bowdle he erected an elevator and embarked in the grain business in 
partnership with J. McKoane. In the spring of 1899 they bought the 
gristmill of W. W. Brant, and in connection with their other business 
now deal in flour and feed and do a general milling business. Mr. Boyd 
still owns a valuable farm of four hundred and eighty acres, and 
operates altogether five quarter-sections of land, and is extensively 
interested in the live stock business, his specialty being horses and 
cattle. He ran a wagon and carried milk to the creamery until 1899, and 
has been one of the largest patrons of that industry. He is a most 
progressive, energetic and reliable business man and in his 
undertakings has met with well-deserved success, becoming one of the 
substantial and prosperous citizens of his community. In his political 
affiliations he is a Republican. He is a charter member of Hiddenwood 
Lodge, No. 117, F. & A. M., in Bowdle, of which he was the first senior 
warden and the second past master. He was also the first worthy patron 
in Eastern Star Lodge and has held that office continuously since 1888.