San
Joaquin County
Biographies
ALBERT BOYD
Among the worthy men who have done
what they could to make California more prosperous and a better place to abide
in during his half century of residence within the confines of the state is
Albert Boyd, who was born in St. Boyer, thirty miles from Montreal, Canada,
November 4, 1854, being descended from one of the splendid old Canadian
families who trace their lineage back to France and Scotland. He lived in a farming community and learned
the rudiments of agriculture while he attended the public schools. When fifteen years of age he
migrated to Burlington, New York, where for two years he was employed on
railroad construction work. When
he reached the age of seventeen he resolved to come to California, so in 1872
we find him in Marin County, where he was employed in the woods near Fort Ross,
continuing for a period of twenty-two months, when he removed to San Francisco
and began learning the blacksmith trade.
He did not like the city so in a few years he removed to Hayward, where
he worked at blacksmithing for one year, and thence to Doublin,
where he completed his trade. It was in
that town in 1879 that Mr. Boyd was married to Miss Mary Campbell, who was born
in San Lorenzo, California, a daughter of William Campbell, a ‘49er and
prominent pioneer in Alameda County.
After seven years at Doublin he purchased a blacksmith shop at Greenfield, near
Livermore, which he ran for three years; selling out in 1883 he came to
Stockton where he worked as a blacksmith for Benjamin Holt for a period of ten
years, and then moved to Jenny Lind, where he ran a blacksmith business of his
own for three years. He then returned to
Stockton and again worked for Benjamin Holt.
This time he continued for eight years as a blacksmith, when he again
went to Turlock and for two years ran a shop of his own, and then moved to
Atlanta, San Joaquin County, and purchased a blacksmith shop, where he did a
successful business for three years.
Selling out, he came back to Stockton and again worked for the Holt
Manufacturing Company, but only remained two months, and then went to Valley
Springs, Calaveras County, purchased a shop and engaged in general
blacksmithing for eight months, when he disposed of it and again took his old
place with Mr. Holt and continued steadily with them as a blacksmith for ten
years, until he was retired on a pension, favorably known as one of their
oldest and most trusted employees. He
knew the Holt’s personally and found them fine men, and on the other hand the
Holt’s spoke of him as a valuable and reliable man.
Mr. Boyd was bereaved of his
faithful wife in 1915, a woman deeply mourned by her family and friends, and
her taking away left a void in the family.
Mr. and Mrs. Boyd were the parents of eight children: William, deceased; Oliver is a blacksmith
with the Holt Manufacturing Company; Arthur, Walter, Annie and Elmer; all
deceased; Harold is a popular baseball player with the National League; and
Lottie, who is a bookkeeper, also presides over her father’s home.
Mrs. Boyd was a member of the Native
Daughters of the Golden West, while Mr. Boyd is popular in the K. O. T. M., and
politically is a strong Republican.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1522. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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