| MarkBoyd |
MARK BOYD, a pioneer farmer of Rushvilletownship, now retired from active labor, was born in county Armagh, Ireland,February 6, 1823, a son of William Boyd, a native of the same county. Thepaternal ancestors were natives of Scotland. William Boyd was reared tothe life of a farmer and when he had arrived at man’s estate he emigratedto America; this was previous to the war of 1812, and he remained threeyears; at the end of that period he returned to Ireland, was married, andresided there until 1838. In that year he sailed with his wife and threechildren for the port of New York, the voyage consuming three weeks. Heengaged in teaming, in New York city, and resided there until 1868, whenhe bought a farm of 120 acres, on which he lived until his death, February10, 1868. He married Maria Boyd, who died in Rushville, in 1868; she wasthe mother of three children: Esther J., Mark and Samuel. Mark Boyd wasa child of five years when he crossed the deep blue sea with his parents.He received his education in New York, the school which he attended beinglocated on Seventeenth street, near Eighth avenue.In 1841 he began to learn the trade of abaker, and followed this calling until 1860, when he went to Orange county,New York; he was employed on a farm until 1867, when he came to Schuylcrcounty, Illinois. His first investment here was in a farm of eighty acres,and to this he has made additions until he now owns nearly 200 acres, inOakland and Rushville townships. There he made his home until 1892; inFebruary of this year he removed to Rushville, where he is living in thequiet enjoyment of the reward his years of industry and toil have won.
Mr. Boyd was married in New York city, September11, 1845, to Sarah Fourgeson, the daughter of Daniel Fourgeson. Her paternalgrandfather, John Fourgeson, was a native of Scotland, and removed to countyDerry after his marriage, where he purchased a farm and passed the remainderof his life. He married Ann Kennedy, also a native of Scotland. DanielFourgeson, their son, spent his entire life on the farm where he was born;he married Mary Fulton, a descendant of Scotch ancestors, but a nativeof county Derry, Ireland, Mrs. Boyd and her sister Elizabeth, wife of DuncanTaylor, were the only members of their family who came-to America. Mrs.Boyd sailed from Liverpool in 1850, and after twenty-one days on the waterreached the port of New York. Our subject and wife are the parents of threechildren: Maria J., Elizabeth and Sarah. Maria married James Bill and isthe mother of three children; Robert W., Henry and Charles; Elizabeth isthe wife of George Manlove, and has a family of three children,-Bessie,Annie and Mark; Sarah married Elijah Wilson, and has a family of six children,Nellie, Annie, Maud, Henry, Walter and Jennie.
Mr. and Mrs. Boyd were reared in the Presbyterianchurch and have always adhered to that faith. They are people of much forceand stability of character, and have reared a family who are an honor tothem and a credit to the community in which they live.
Biographical Review of Cass, Schuylerand Brown Counties, Illinois, Biographical Review Publishing Co., Chicago,1892, pages 160-161.
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