“This old pioneer was born December 17, 1804, in Shelby county, Kentucky. His father, William Boyd, and his mother, who was Elizabeth Wiley, came to this county at the same time that Stephen himself came, to-wit in the year 1831. The father was of Scotch descent, while the mother was a German lady. They both died here, in September, 1838, there being but a few days between the dates of their death. Stephen, when he arrived in this county from Shelby county, Kentucky, was twenty-seven years old, and had in 1824 married Jemima Kitson who died in 1826, in Kentucky. He settled three miles east of Urbana and lived there the remainder of his life following here as he had in his old home, the occupation of a farmer. In 1833 he married Eliza Rinehart. His children were James Boyd, a well-to-do farmer who now lives at the old home place, (a sketch of whose life and his portrait appears elsewhere.) John Matthias, who died in 1838, Jemima, who died in 1846, Elizabeth, who married Amos Conway, now residing in Dakota. Mary, who married Frank Champlain, now residing in Cedar Vale, Chautauqua county, Kansas, Emma and Al Boyd, both residing near Urbana. Stephen Boyd was always a consistent and ardent Democrat. He died August 14, 1873, leaving behind him a splendid reputation for honesty and square dealing among those who knew him for the long period of time he lived among the early pioneers. He left to his heirs a goodly estate and did not owe a cent at the time of his death. His living children have all done well and are a credit to the memory of Stephen Boyd, whose record of honesty we gladly preserve for future generations.”320, pg 67

“March 4, 1834, the first grand and petit juries were appointed as follows: ....Petit jury—James Moss, Matthew W. Busey, Elias Stamey, David Gabbert, William T. Webber, Augustine M. Webber, Larkin Deer, Stephen Boyd, Elijah Jackson, Andrew Wilson, Adam Yeazle, James Freeman, Jacob T. Hobbs, John Coddington, Jacob Heater, Moses Kirby, Elias Kirby, John Brownfield, sr.,Wwilliam Coddington, Elias Thomas, Moses Argo, William I. Peters and Hiram Rankin.”320, pg 107

“First School House
It is a substantial structure. It will be noticed that the windows are small, and instead of window glass, greased paper was used. the light thus admitted might have answered all purposes on a bright day but no one suffered from its being too bright. The seats of this school house were hewn slabs and not hewn so very smooth either. As far as we can learn, the first teacher in the Big Grove was a lady who boarded at the house of Martin Reinhart. In 1832, Asahel Bruer taught school in the school house above described, in fact he taught eighteen months. The first Christmas he treated the scholars, according to the custom, to one gallon of whiskey and a bushel of apples, and everything passed off harmoniously. When the next Christmas came around, on arriving at the school house he found the door barred, and in answer to his request for admittance a note was handed him through the crack between the logs asking that he treat to a bushel of apples and one gallon of whiskey and that he give the scholars a vacation for one week. He answered that he would not, and soon mounted the house. The clapboards being held on the roof of the house by weight poles, he had no difficulty in taking out enough to cover the top of the chimney. As there was a large fire made from green wood, in the fire place below, the room was soon filled with smoke. James Kirby, one of the older scholars, took the poker, a piece of a pole, and by throwing it up the chimney knocked the boards off. They were soon replaced by Mr. Bruer and on a second attempt to knock them off Mr. Bruer caught the poker and threw it on the outside and re-covered the chimney. The house was then soon filled with smoke, almost to suffocation. The smaller children began to cry and every one seemed to wish there was an end to the matter. About this time William Trickle crawled into the garrett, pulled aside the boards and jumped out and down to the ground with Mr. Bruer after him. The boys seeing Mr. Bruer catching Trickle, threw open the door and every one piled out smoke and all.

Asahel Bruer Smoking Out the Boys
The boys soon caught Mr. Bruer and began rolling him in the snow, and he said pulling his hair. He protested that they had no right to do this, when the boys submitted the matter to Stephen Boyd and Mr. Bromley who decided that they had a right to bar him out of the school house but not to pull his hair or roll him in the snow. As soon as Mr. Bruer was released he made a run for the school house, closely followed by James Kirby and the balance, but the old gentleman was first in the school house, where he was master of the situation for a short time, when the boys surrounded him and he surrendered saying, “I just wanted to see if you had any Kentucky blood in you.” He then told the boys where to find a gallon of whiskey, and a bushel of apples, hid a short distance from the school house, which were soon produced and the afternoon spent in roasting apples and drinking apple toddy. James Kirby, William and Ashford Trickle, James W. Boyd, Moses Deer, Mrs. Mary Ann Moore, of Danville, Fount Busey, Sol Nox, James Roland, Susan Trickle, now Mr. Kirby’s wife, were present and will long remember the circumstance above narrated. It is especially vivid in the mind of James Kirby, one of the early settlers who gave us these facts. Mr. Kirby, in speaking of the early weddings said, that no special invitations were issued to attend, but every one attended who felt so inclined. Whiskey was as free as water. At one wedding he attended (the parties now living across the grove) nine gallons of whiskey were used and not a man was drunk. The drinks they used those days were mint slings, black strop, tansy bitters and egg-nog.”320, pg 111

“...Of those known as old settlers who have since removed or died, I knew and can name many: James and Asa Gere, Aarcha Campbell, Edward Ater, M. P. Snelling, Robert Logan, T. R. Webber, James Porter, J. W. Jaquity, Penrose Stidham, Jacob Smith, Mathew Busey, Bartlett Elrodd, Joshua Taylor, John Shepherd, D. O. Brumley, T. L. Truman, James T. Roe, John Gilliland, John, Robert, Benjamin, Joseph, Samuel, and Joseph F. Brownfield, Jacob Heater, James and Waitman T. Somers, Lewis Adkins, Mathhias and Martin Rhineheart, James C. Young, William Adams, James Dean, John Cantner, Dr. Winston Somers, A. G. Carle, J. D. Wilson, Stephen Boyd, Elisha Harkness, Wilson Lewis, Asahel Bruer, C. M. Vanderveer, William and Z. E. Gill, John Crabb, James Myers, James Clements, John Shepherd, John Campbell and Benjamin Childers.”320, pg 115

“A number of old settlers, feeling the need of an organization of the people who settled this county and bore the brunt of frontier life, and desiring that the history of the county might be collected from the settlers themselves while they still lived, assembled at the court house in Urbana, May 16, 1870, and were called to order by Thomson R. Webber, who nominated Henry Sadorus, of Sadorus, as president, who was elected by acclamation. J. S. Wright was then elected vice-president. The qualifications necessary to be an old settler were as follows: “Those who were twenty years of age in 1840 and resided in this county at that time.” The following persons then registered as old settlers:

Henry Sadorus, William Sadorus, J. S. Wright, T. R. Webber, John G. Robinson, Fielding Scott, Stephen Boyd, John Maxfield, Asahel Brewer, James Clements, Jos. Maxwell, Paris Shepherd, Wm. Rock, Robert Brownfield, John Corray, James Myers, D. O. Brumley. T. L. Truman, James Kirby, Abraham Yeazel, H. W. Drullinger, James Bartley, B. F. Argo, John K. Patterson, Hiram Rankin, David Swearingen, Samuel Mapes, Thomas Richards, Michael Firebaugh, J. J. Swearingen, F. J. Busey, Harrison Heater, John R. Brownfield, Thomas Swearingen, Wm. Romine, David Argo, B. F. Harris, Mrs. Elizabeth Busey, Mrs. Stephen Boyd, Mrs. Bryant, Mrs. Wm. Harvey, Mrs. John Maxwell, Mrs. Sarah Robertson, Mrs. Fielding Scott, Mrs. Wm. Rock.”320, pg 123

“...Mr. Bartley died and Mrs. Bartley [Malinda (Rankin) Bartley] afterwards married Stephen Boyd, one of the old settlers of Urbana Township. He died and several years afterwards Mrs. Boyd was again married to James Bartley a cousin of her first husband....”320, pg 150

“In the summer of 1832, before the organization of the county and the fixing of its county-seat, when the site of Urbana was, perhaps, only what it had been for generations before—an Indian camping ground—a large number of Indians came and camped around the spring, above alluded to as situated near the stone bridge. It happened to be at the time of the excitement caused by the Black Hawk War, and caused not a little apprehension among the few inhabitants around the Big Grove, although the presence in the company of many women and children of the Indians should have been an assurance of no hostile errand. A meeting of the white settlers was had and the removal of the strange visitors determined upon as a measure of safety. A committee, consisting of Stephen Boyd, Jacob Smith, Gabe Rice and Elias Stamey, was appointed by the white settlers, charged with the duty of having a “talk” with the red men. The committee went to the camp, and mustering their little knowledge of their language, announced to the Indians that they must “puck-a-chee,” which they understood to be a command to them to leave the country. The order was at once obeyed. The Indians gathered up their ponies, papooses and squaws and left, greatly to the relief of the settlers.” [“During the spring and autumn, the Indians (Delawares, Kickapoos and Pottawatomies), occupied themselves in hunting through the country, killing squirrels and wild turkeys in the groves, deer and grouse on the prairies and bear on the Little Wabash River. About the first of March they usually returned toward the Kankakee for the purpose of making maple sugar.”—Urbana (Ill.) Democrat, December 21, 1867.]321, pg 643

“First Settlement—Big Grove
Coming of the squatters—Runnel Fielder first permanent dweller—the site of his home—William Tompkins—Elias Kirby—John Light—John Brownfield—Thomas Rowland—Robert and Joshua Trickle—Lackland Howard—Sarah Coe—Jacob Heater—Matthias Rhinehart—James Clements—John S. Beasley—Matthew and Isaac Busey—Col. M. W. Busey—William T. Webber—Nicholas Smith—Samuel Brumley—John Truman—Asahel Bruer—S. G. Brickley—Stephen Boyd—Elias Stamey—Pathetic Story of the Isham Cook family—Town of Lancaster—Town of Byron.”321, pg 664

“A year later than the Smiths, came also, from Kentucky, William Boyd, his son, Stephen Boyd, and his grandson, James W. Boyd. This family made its home upon land in Sections 9 and 10, which was entered in May, 1831. Descendants of the Boyd family still occupy the lands so bought and others not far away.”321, pg 669

“At the Big Grove were John Brownfield and his sons, William, Benjamin, John, Jr., Joseph, James and Thomas, and his kinsmen, Robert, John R., Samuel and Joseph, all of whom came early in 1832. Matthew Busey, the patriarch of a large family of sons and daughters, among whom may be named, of the sons, Fountain J., Roderic R., Isaac, John S., and, of the daughters, Mrs. Stamey, Mrs. Phillippe, Mrs. Beck and Mrs. Littler—whose coming dates in 1829—still lived. Stephen Boyd and his son, James W. Boyd, came in 1831;...”321, pg 757