Alexander Spotswood Boyd.

9 November, 1815 - 26 May, 1892

CSA 1861-1865
Third Regiment, Virginia Cavalry, Company A
Private

Grandson of Alexander Boyd, founder of Boydton.

There Were Boydton Boyds on the Marianna. According to an article written by William B. Hill, February 20, 1949, in the Richmond Times Dispatch, we have this information: "Your readers might be interested in a note on the voyage of the Marianna to California in Alexander Heiskell in his journal which you published last Sunday referred to the election of Mr. Burwell as president and Mr. Boyd as vice-president of the company which set out for the gold fields in that ship. The journal of Mr. Boyd for that same trip is in existence, and belongs to his daughter, Mrs. G. H. Finch, of this place. (Mrs. G. H. Finch is now deceased.) He was Alexander Spotswood Boyd who left Boydton accompanied by his first cousin, Henry H. Burwell, his 29-year old nephew, Phillip Rainey, Jr., and by Paschal F. Gafford. His younger brother, John Ravenscroft Boyd was also a member of the company. Apparently, each of them subscribed $300 to become members of the Pacific Trading and Mining Company. What gold they found I do not know, but none of them became rich in California. Mr. Boyd's journal is in greater detail than that of young Heiskell but he did not complete it. The last entry being dated June 19, before they reached Cape Hom. They had no easy voyage. Speaking of the heavy seas and the sea sickness from which they suffered, Boyd wrote on March 29: 'I believe that some aboard would have given everything they possessed to have gotten ashore and for myself I was opposed to going back only on account of particular circumstances, but I felt if I was only back in old Boydton I would freely give $500 and forfeit.