BOYD, JOHN (1796-1873). John Boyd, legislator, the son of Abram Boyd, was born near Nashville, Tennessee, in 1796. The family moved to Kentucky, but Boyd returned as a young man to Tennessee, where he married Elizabeth McLean in Maury County and settled in Trigg County. The couple had nine children, six of whom died in childhood. Boyd and his family moved to Texas in the fall of 1835 and settled in Sabine County. Though no record of his military service is extant, he is said to have participated in the Texas Revolution. From October 1836 through May 1838 he represented Sabine County in the House of the First and Second congresses of the Republic of Texas. He moved from Sabine to Robertson County in 1845 and then to Limestone County, where he located a claim near the Tehuacana Hills. Boyd was a strong supporter of secession and represented the Nineteenth Senatorial District in the Ninth Legislature (1862-63). He was a Cumberland Presbyterian. He gave 1,100 acres and a cash donation for the founding of Trinity University at Tehuacana. Boyd died in Limestone County in 1873.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Memorial and Biographical History of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone, and Leon Counties (Chicago: Lewis, 1893). Texas House of Representatives, Biographical Directory of the Texan Conventions and Congresses, 1832-1845 (Austin: Book Exchange, 1941).
