My Genealogy Hound

Benjamin F. Boydstun, a farmer in the northern part of Lauderdale County, was born in Campbell County, Tenn., and is a son of Thomas Boydstun. Our subject was raised on a farm, and received a limited education in the subscription schools of the county, and has always been a farmer. He married in this county, August 30, 1848, Mary Wood, daughter of Armstead Wood, a farmer, and to them were born three sons and one daughter. The latter died in infancy, and the sons were named James K. Polk, Armstead Wood and Thomas Jefferson. The mother of this family was born in Alabama in 1828, and died June 6, 1875, and our subject was again married in the home where he now lives, December 28, 1882, to Mrs. Martha F. Ledbetter, daughter of Jasper Meadow, a merchant and farmer. She was born in Williamson County September 25, 1842, and by this marriage one daughter was born, who died in infancy. Our subject was in the Confederate Army in the First Regiment of Cavalry, under Col. H. C. King, and was in the battles of Perryville, Ky., and Murfreesboro, and served seventeen months. He had three sons in active service; one served through the entire war, one a less period, and one was wounded near Pulaski, Tenn., from the effects of which he died October 15, 1864. Mr. Boydstun is a Democrat, and cast his first presidential vote for James K. Polk. Mr. and Mrs. Boydstun belong to the Missionary Baptist Church. He is a kind, generous man, of strict integrity, and owns 140 acres of land five miles north of Ripley.