Boyd, Weir, 1820-1893

Colonel, Fifty-second Georgia Volunteer Infantry. Born September 14, 1820, in Hall County, Georgia, Boyd comes to Dahlonega in the 1830s. He is a student at the Old Academy, a private school in Dahlonega. He marries Sarah J. Sitton on February 9, 1843. (Born in 1824, Sarah outlives her husband and sons Augustus and Marion, living until 1905.) Boyd is elected clerk of the Superior Court in 1850, and moves to Dahlonega. He is admitted to the bar in 1856, and later represents his county and district in both branches of the Georgia legislature. At the beginning of the Civil War, Boyd reads the governor's proclamation, and calls for volunteers to fill the requisition of the state upon Lumpkin County. Though the required number of volunteers is only 110 men, 150 men volunteer, including Boyd. He is soon elected colonel of the Fifty-second Georgia Volunteer Infantry. He resigns later in 1862, due to typhoid fever. His son Augustus Franklin Boyd also serves in the Fifty-second Georgia Regiment, as captain of Company B, and is tragically killed while rallying his men on May 16, 1863, during the battle at Baker's Creek, Mississippi. The Gus Boyd Chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy, organized in 1905, is named for Augustus, at the suggestion of Colonel William Pierce Price. After the Civil War, Boyd is chosen to be a member of the Georgia Constitutional Convention, which drafts the state constitution in 1877. An attorney in Dahlonega, Boyd forms a partnership with his son Marion, and acts as a broker, collector and liaison for a number of clients. He is also a member of the Masonic Lodge, and a minister, and is instrumental in establishing the post offices in Jay and Dahlonega. Although Weir Boyd is originally a Presbyterian, and on the board of trustees of the Presbyterian Church, the Boyds become Methodists and are among the prominent "tent" holders at the Cedar Mountain Campground, ten miles north of Dahlonega. In the early part of October each year, the most enthusiastic and devout members of the Methodist Church (along with some Baptists and unaffiliates) assemble for a series of religious services continuing for a week or more. Boyd is one of the preachers at these camp meetings. At its height, the campground features around thirty "tents" constructed of wood and supplied with a rude chimney, beds, benches, and the like. A whole family and several guests moves into each tent to live, eat, and sleep there during the meeting. Another of Boyd's sons, J. W. Boyd, becomes a professor of mathematics, first at Young Harris College, and then at North Georgia College. J. W. Boyd later becomes a minister, and is elected without opposition as state senator to represent the Thirty-second District from 1907 to 1908. He introduces legislation to pave roads between counties, laying the foundation for the present highway system. Mattie Boyd, who marries Professor B. Palmer Gaillard, is Weir Boyd's daughter. Born in 1854, she lives until 1925. She serves as president of the Corona Hedaera Society, a society for young ladies. Boyd serves as defense attorney for the Augusta & Dahlonega Mining Company in the case Oats v. Early, 1867. When the main building of North Georgia College, the old Mint building, burns down, Boyd and other members of the board of trustees meet to plan rebuilding the college. The Signal acknowledges in 1892 that Boyd is one of the seven known soldiers of the Indian wars prior to 1843 in Lumpkin County. He dies November 8, 1893 in Dahlonega.

 

Source: "Thar's Gold in Them Thar Hills": Gold and Gold Mining in Georgia, 1830s-1940s

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