My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM BOYD, retired, Wilkinsburg, was born in the County Down, near Belfast, Ireland, November 23, 1816. Six years later his parents, David and Mary (Bryson) Boyd, came to America, and settled on a farm in that part of Indiana township which now constitutes O’Hara. There the father died at the age of seventy-seven, and the mother when eighty-six. They had six sons and one daughter: John, Alex., David, Hugh, James, William and Jane (Mrs. Dr. John Wadsworth). William, who is the youngest and only one living, remained on the home farm till eighteen years old, when he went to Pittsburgh and learned the molder’s trade. With two partners he started a foundry at Johnstown in 1836, and continued to operate it nine years. He came to Wilkinsburg in 1845, and dealt in cattle and stock fourteen years; bought a farm in Indiana township, which he cultivated till 1873, when he returned to Wilkinsburg, and is here extensively interested in real estate. He and his family are connected with the Covenanters’ Church, of which his parents were members. Mr. Boyd is an active democrat, and came within a few votes of being made burgess in 1888, although the borough is overwhelmingly republican. In 1859 he married Louise M., daughter of William and Mary (Markle) Miller, of Westmoreland county, Pa., of German descent. Mrs. Louise M. Boyd is a niece of the late Gen. Joseph Markle, of Mill Grove. Mr. and Mrs. Boyd have two daughters, Mary and Jennie, at home.