Boyd, Daniel

Person

Staff Only

Biographical note

Daniel Boyd was born in Donegal County, northern Ireland in 1794. He came to America in 1819 and walked over the mountains to Steubenville, OH where he found employment as a teacher and weaver. In 1825 he married Jane Elliot, sister of the Rev. Charles Elliot who was a widely known Methodist minister, editor, and author. In 1827 Daniel Boyd moved to Coshocton County, OH where he went into business for himself. The business failed and having acquired large debts he moved to Athens County, OH where he settled on a farm in Carthage Township. He worked to repay his debts for the next 30 years until his death in 1867.

Daniel and Jane Boyd had nine children: John Elliot, a physician who died in Columbus in 1855; Mary Ann, who died in 1867; Jane, a prominent teacher in Athens County; Kate, Principal of Athens High School; Hugh, who graduated from Ohio University in 1859; Lucy, a teacher in Nelsonville; William Fletcher, who graduated from Ohio University in 1866 and an attorney in Cincinnati; Francis Blair, wife of Charles Lawrence of Carthage Township; and, Margaret, the first woman to graduate from Ohio University in 1873.

After the death of their father in 1867, the Boyd family sold the farm and moved to Athens.