Christopher J. Boyd, who for more than forty years has been engaged in
agricultural pursuits near Anna, in Union county, Illinois, is one of the
old and honored citizens of his community, and has identified himself with
various enterprises of a business nature. Mr. Boyd is one of the self-made
men of Union county, and can look back over a life that has been filled with
industrious endeavor and usefulness to his community. He is a native of
eastern Tennessee, and was born in 1848, a son of John and Almira (Johnson)
Boyd, natives of Tennessee, both of whom died in Union county.
Christopher J. Boyd was three years of age when he accompanied his parents
to Union county, where his father assisted to build the Illinois Central
Railroad, and he grew up on the home farm, attending the district schools of
vicinity when he could be spared from his home duties. His education,
however, was cut short by the death of his father in 1861, and from that
time until 1870 he managed the home farm for his mother. In the year last
mentioned he was married to Miss Minerva Hess, who was born in 1848, in
Union county, daughter of John Hess, an old pioneer resident, and at that
time started to farm on his own account, renting land for five years. Having
been reared to habits of industry and economy, he was then able to make a
payment on a tract of fifty acres in Union county, and to this he has since
added from time to time, now owning one hundred and forty-nine acres of some
of the best-cultivated land in his section. He has paid a good deal of
attention to fruit culture, having ten acres in apples and twenty acres in
strawberries, and is president of the Union Fruit Package Company and a
director of the Union County Fruit Growers' Association, having held the
latter position since the organization of that enterprise. Mr. Boyd has
engaged to some extent in truck farming and breeds good horses, at present
having fifteen blooded animals on his farm.
Mr. and Mrs. Boyd have had eight children, seven of whom are living, six
sons and one daughter. Five sons are engaged in farming and one son is a
doctor of medicine. The daughter is the wife of Joseph Hartline, a prominent
farmer of Union county. Mr. Boyd has been a friend of progress along all
lines and has always been ready to do his full share as a public-spirited
citizen. A strong believer in the benefits of education, he served for nine
years as a member of the township trustee school board, and for three years,
from 1906 to 1909, he acted in the capacity of county commissioner. It has
been just such men as Mr. Boyd who have developed the best resources and
advanced the interests of Union county, and who are universally respected as
the prime movers in transforming this section of the state from a vast,
uncultivated tract of practically worthless land into one of the garden
spots of Southern Illinois.
Extracted 13 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from 1912 A History of Southern Illinois, volume 3, pages 1201-1202.
| Jackson | Williamson | |
| MO |
 |
Johnson |
| Alexander | Pulaski |
