William Boyd

Source: Virginia Historical Magazine

William Boyd settled in the Bluestone district of Mecklenburg County; he was a planter and, at various times interested in mercantile establishments. At one time he was engaged in business with his half-uncle, Willam Mallory Swepson, and later with his sons-in-law, Howell L. Read, and Dr. Charles L Read (both of Glanville County) who operated a business in Boydton, VA under the name of Howell L. Read & Company, which was managed by Alexander Boyd, William's son.

In the fall of 1832, William and Fanny Boyd moved to Haywood County, Tennessee, where several of their sons had already settled. It was a period of general exodus from the Roanoke River region to the new cotton lands of West Tennessee, and they settled in a community of kinspeople from both sides of the Virginia-Carolina line.

William Boyd lived only two years after leaving Mecklenburg. He died May 24, 1834, and lies buried in a private cemetery not far from Brownsville, the county seat of Haywood. His wife died June 20, 1847. By tradition this couple is said to have had nineteen children born to them; they had fifteen children to grow up and marry. Their home in Virginia, a frame house still in excellent repair stands in sight of U.S. Highway 15, on the edge of Charlotte and Mecklenburg Counties. After his parents moved to Tennessee, Alfred Boyd of Boydton sold it, under power of attorney, to Dr. Paul C. Venable, in whose family it remained until after the War Between the States. It was known as "Wheatland", at least during the ownership of the Venables.