John W. Boyd (Tennessee politician)
John W. Boyd | |
---|---|
Tennessee House of Representatives | |
In office 1881–1885 | |
Personal details | |
Born | John William Boyd uncertain Covington, Tennessee |
Died | March 10, 1932 | (aged 79–80)
Resting place | Magnolia Cemetery |
Political party | Republican |
Parent(s) | Jackson and Martha Boyd |
John William Boyd (1841, or ca. 1852 - March 10, 1932) was an African-American ex-slave who became a lawyer. He served as a magistrate in Tipton County, Tennessee and served two terms in the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1881 to 1884. He was a Republican.[1]
Background
Most sources assign a birthdate to Boyd of approximately 1852. Loan documents from 1871 show him as 19 years old, and as being born in Covington, Tennessee. His older brother, [George] Armistead Boyd, was only 19 in 1865 when he joined the Union Army. However, John Boyd's gravestone shows a birthdate of 1841.[2] His parents were Philip and Sophia Fields Boyd, who were slaves to Henry Sanford and his wife Jean Murray Feild [sic] Sanford (both of whose families had moved to West Tennessee from Virginia). He is believed to have been a cousin of William A. Feilds, another African-American Tennessee legislator of the Reconstruction era.
Career and personal life
By the early 1870s Boyd was living in Mason, Tennessee and working as a clerk for local businessmen. At some point, he was admitted to the bar in Covington, presumably after reading law as was then the custom. He would continue to work as a lawyer for the rest of his life, still listing his profession as "attorney" on the 1930 census report.
On March 13, 1879, he married Martha C. "Mattie" Doggett, daughter of Andrew Doggett, a
Politics and public office
Boyd was a delegate to the Republican state convention in May 1876, and was selected as a delegate from
Assembly and Senate
Boyd Boyd was first elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1880 to represent
In 1884, Boyd was nominated for the
After the legislature
Boyd continued in practice for some years after his last term as magistrate ended in 1906. By then a widower, he died of heart failure March 10, 1932, and was buried in the segregated Magnolia Cemetery in Mason.[6]
See also
- African Americans in Tennessee
- African-American officeholders during and following the Reconstruction era
References
- ^ "African American Legislators".
- findagrave.com
- Newspapers.com
- ^ [https://sharetngov.tnsosfiles.com/tsla/exhibits/blackhistory/pdfs/BoydSenate.pdf "John W. Boyd: Contested Senate Election, 1884" Tennessee State Library and Archives
- ^ Kousser, J. Morgan "'The Magical Effects of The Dortch Law'" in, The Shaping of Southern Politics: Suffrage Restriction and the Establishment of the One-Party South, 1880-1910 Yale Historical Publications Miscellany. Vol.102. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1974; pp. 104-123
- ^ "John W. Boyd," in, This Honorable Body: African American Legislators in 19th Century Tennessee Tennessee State Library and Archives website 2013; accessed October 27, 2021.