“Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County,” published:  
Chicago;  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1892.

JOHN L. BOYD,  one of the most enterprising and successful business men of Dallas, 
Texas, was born in Franklin county, New York, in 1848, and is a son of Benjamin and 
Sophia (Guyette) Boyd.  The parents were Canadians by birth, and were devoted to 
agricultural pursuits.  They reared a family of eight children, six of whom survive.  John 
L. received his education in the common schools, and at the age of fifteen and a half 
years he enlisted in the service of his country.  March 31, 1864, he joined Company H, 
Ninety-eighth New York Volunteer Infantry, Colonel Weed commanding.  He met the 
regiment at City Point, Virginia, and from that time he led a life of active service.  He 
participated in the fight at Cold Harbor, where Colonel Weed was killed.  He was in 
many other noted engagements, and after the surrender took part in the grand review at 
Washington, District of Columbia.  At Petersburg he received a serious wound, from 
which he was a long time in recovering.  He returned to his home in Franklin county, 
New York, and remained there one year, and then went to Springfield, Illinois, where he 
operated a sawmill until his removal to Dallas in 1876.  Since coming to this city he has 
been engaged in the manufacture of lumber, and has erected some of the finest buildings 
in the place.  He employs from forty to sixty-five men, and does a business of $80,000 a 
year, and has assisted very largely in the development of the business interests here, 
being senior member of the firm of Boyd & Webster.

Mr. Boyd was married to Marceline La Flech, a native of New York, in 1869.  Seven 
children have been born to them:  Louise was educated at the Ursuline Convent;  Barbara 
Ann is a pupil in the Convent at the present time;  Cora Alice, Cicely Ellen, John 
Edwards, Irene and Josephine.  The family are all of the Roman Catholic faith, and 
belong to the Church of the Sacred Heart.  Mr. Boyd is a member of Dix Post, G.A.R., of 
which he has been Commander.  He attended the grand Encampment at Boston, and is 
now Assistant Quartermaster-General of Texas.  He has always voted the Republican 
ticket.  He has not taken an active interest in political questions further than to exercise 
his right of suffrage.

Submitted by L.Pingel