1201

CHRISTOPHER J. BOYD,
who for more than forty years has been engaged in agricultural pursuits near Anna, in Union county, Illinois, is one of the old and honored citizens of his community, and has identified himself with various enterprises of a business nature. Mr. Boyd is one of the self-made men of Union county, and can look back over a life that has been filled with industrious endeavor and usefulness to his community. He is a native of eastern Tennessee, and was born in 1848, a son of John and Almira (Johnson) Boyd, natives of Tennessee, both of whom died in Union county.

Christopher J. Boyd was three years of age when he accompanied his parents to Union county, where his father assisted to build the Illinois Central Railroad, and he grew up on the home farm, attending the district schools of vicinity when he could be spared from his home duties. His education, however, was cut short by the death of his father in 1861,

1202

and from that time until 1870 he managed the home farm for his mother. In the year last mentioned he was married to Miss Minerva Hess, who was born in 1848, in Union county, daughter of John Hess, an old pioneer resident, and at that time started to farm on his own account, renting land for five years. Having been reared to habits of industry and economy, he was then able to make a payment on a tract of fifty acres in Union county, and to this he has since added from time to time, now owning one hundred and forty-nine acres of some of the best-cultivated land in his section; He has paid a good deal of attention to fruit culture, having ten acres in apples and twenty acres in strawberries, and is president of the Union Fruit Package Company and a director of thu Union County Fruit Growers Association, having held the latter position since the organization of that enterprise. Mr. Boyd has engaged to some extent in truck farming and breeds good horses, at present having fifteen blooded animals on his farm.

Mr. and Mrs. Boyd have had eight children; seven of whom are living, six sons and one daughter. Five sons are engaged in farming and one son is a doctor of medicine. The daughter is the wife of Joseph Hartline, a prominent farmer of Union county. Mr. Boyd has been a friend of progress along all lines and has always been ready to do his full share as a public-spirited citizen. A strong believer in the benefits of education, he served for nine years as a member of the township trustee school board, and for three years, from 1906 to 1909, he acted in the capacity of county commissioner. It has been just such men as Mr. Boyd who have developed the best resources and advanced the interests of Union county, and who are universally respected as the prime movers in transforming this section of the state from a vast, uncultivated tract of practically worthless land into one of the garden spots of Southern Illinois.