James A. Boyd. In James A. Boyd the City of Sapulpa has a citizen whose far-reaching enterprise, aptitude for affairs and broad public spirit have been potent in extending the community’s commerce and in advancing its welfare in various directions. In the course of a long and useful career, he has been engaged in a variety of business occupations, in each of which he has gained well-won success, and at the present time there are few men better known in Creek County in the field of real estate, insurance and abstracts.

Mr. Boyd was born in Ralls County, Missouri, May 27, 1866, and is a son of William H. and Isabella Frances (Eustace) Boyd. His father, a native of Kentucky, was taken to Missouri as a child and there reared in Ralls County, where he resided until 1875. In that year he went to Texas, where his subsequent life was passed in farming in various communities, and his death occurred in that state, at Sherman, in 1904, when he was eighty-four years of age. Mrs. Boyd was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the only child of Prof. John Eustace, a native of Ireland, mineralogist, geologist and artist, who was for a number of years connected with the University of Dublin, and on coming to the United States became the founder of Eustace Academy, at Philadelphia. When he retired he went to Van Alstyne, Texas, where he made his home with his daughter and son-in-law until his death, in 1878, at the age of eighty-two years. Mrs. Boyd died at Ardmore, Indian Territory, at the home of her son, James A., in 1894, when she was sixty-six years of age. There were four sons and three daughters in the family.

James A. Boyd was granted the advantages of an excellent home training and a common school education and remained with his parents until 1888, at which time he moved to Marietta, Indian Territory, there being engaged in clerking and in handling cotton. In September, 1891, he changed his field of activity to the ambitious Town of Ardmore, there being identified with a cotton and compress business and with a wholesale grocery, and also took an important part in conducting the first election when the town was incorporated, being associated with Congressman C. D. Carter, C. P. Bruce and others. In 1898 he moved to Wynnewood, where he was assistant manager and salesman of a wholesale grocery business, but in August, 1899, resigned and moved to Oklahoma City, where he took charge of a cotton compress. In August, 1900, Mr. Boyd came to Sapulpa to build a cotton compress, which he conducted for some years, and during this time became interested in the real estate and insurance business, an enterprise which grew so rapidly that finally he began to devote his entire attention to its development. On February 1, 1910, he purchased a controlling interest in the Lafe-Sheer Abstract Company, which he has conducted in connection with his real estate and insurance business to the present time. Mr. Boyd is one of the leading democrats of Creek County. He has been president of the election board two terms, and at present is a member of the Democratic State Central Committee. When movements of a public nature are launched, his is one of the first named to be suggested for important and arduous committee work, and he has never shirked his duty in this direction. Some of Sapulpa’s most beneficial enterprises may be in large part accredited to Mr. Boyd’s energy and public spirit. For more than thirty years he has been a member of the Christian Church, and is a charter member of the church at Sapulpa, of which he has been a trustee since the purchase of the property. His fraternal connection is with the Modern Woodmen of America.

Mr. Boyd was married December 29, 1901, to Miss Juanita Allen, a native of Texas and a daughter of James H. and Martha (Hammock) Allen. Four children have been born to this union: William Powell; Jack Allen, who died in November, 1911, aged seven years; James Stuart, and Virginia Juanita.