Tulare County Biographies

JAMES ANDREW BOYD

Transcribed by Beverly Green

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


James Andrew Boyd, a successful horticulturist of Traver, crossed the plains to 
California with his father and family in 1859. He was born in Arkansas, June 24, 
1848, the eldest child of James Saxton and Mary M. (Little) Boyd. (See their 
history in this book.)

After the family arrived in this State they spent their first year in Napa 
County, thence to Placer County, thence to Calaveras County, and in the spring 
of 1866 located in Tulare County, where James A. worked for wages. Visalia was 
then a small town, and only a few settlers were scattered throughout the county. 
Since that time the growth and development in this section of the country have 
been marvelous.

Mr. Boyd at first took up what he supposed was government land, but when 
surveyed was found to belong to the railroad company, and he lost it. He then 
purchased 160 acres, improved his property and added to it by other purchases 
until he had 800 acres, on which he lived and farmed until 1888. That year he 
sold out and came to his present locality, three miles north of Traver. Here he 
owns forty acres of choice land, abundantly supplied with water, on which he is 
engaged in horticultural pursuits, his trees and vines showing luxuriant growth 
and bearing heavily.

Mr. Boyd was married, in 1869, to Miss Letha A. Work, a native of Missouri and a 
daughter of Flemming Work. They have one daughter and two sons, namely: Annie 
L., now the wife of John H. Johnson, resides at Dinuba, this county; James F. 
and Zachariah Elphenos.

In politics Mr. Boyd is a Democrat. When a young man he held the office of 
Constable, but he is not a politician. He is a member of the Christian Church, 
is an honorable and upright man and is held in high esteem by his 
fellow-citizens.

SOURCE: Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Fresno, Tulare and 
Kern, California; Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1892, Page 739, 740