DEATH TAKES PIONEER MAN

W. H. Boyd had been resident of Bitter Creek Section 50 years

Funeral services for W. H. Boyd, 86, who for more than 50 years was a resident of Nolan County, will be held from the family home in the Bitter Creek community Friday afternoon at 2:30, and burial will be in White Church Cemetery. Death came early Thursday morning at the Sweetwater Sanitarium following a pneumonia attack.

Mr. Boyd came to Nolan County in 1881, settling in the Bitter Creek community, where he resided until his death. He was married to Mrs. M. J. Coffee in Sweetwater.

Survivors include his widow and 10 children, Mrs. N. M. Williams, Mrs. M. D. Chitwood, and Mrs. Gerald Witt, all of Nolan County; Mrs. M. L. Brown of Phoenix, Ariz.; J. C. Boyd of Petersburg; J. A. Boyd of Mertzon; Joe Boyd of Big Lake; Elmer Boyd, C. Boyd and G. W. Boyd, all of Sweetwater.

Johnston's Funeral Home is in charge of burial.

From The Nolan County (TX) News, Thursday, May 23, 1935, Page 1
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WILLIAM H. BOYD

William H. Boyd was a cowman for the Goodnight-Loving cattle drives that went from Texas to Colorado. In 1868, he was a member of the funeral cavalcade that returned the body of Loving (killed in an Indian raid) from New Mexico to Weatherford.

Mr. Boyd, his wife (Melissa Ellen Hughes), and three children came to Nolan County in about 1880. They are listed in the 1880 census. They had two log cabins near Black Mountain in Mulberry Canyon, in the White Church community.

Melissa Ellen died in 1883 at the birth of a son, the fifth child. She was the second person buried at White Church Cemetery.

Mr. Boyd's second wife was Martha Jane Coffee. They had seven children.

The family broke land and built a house on Plum Creek in 1905. Boyd and two sons filed on the land, paying $1.00 per acre to the State of Texas. These homesteads are still in the Boyd name.

From a Sweetwater Reporter write-up courtesy of Cate-Spencer Funeral Home (date unknown)
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NOLAN COUNTY DEATH CERTIFICATE

Name: W. H. Boyd
Death date: 23 May 1935
Death place: Sweetwater Sanitarium, Sweetwater, Nolan, Texas
Cause of death: Pneumonia
Gender: Male
Race or color (on document): white
Age at death: 86 years 9 months 18 days
Birth date: 05 Aug 1848
Birth place: Mo
Marital status: Married
Spouse name:
Father name:
Father birth place:
Mother name:
Mother birth place:
Occupation: Farmer
Residence: Sweetwater, TX
Cemetery name:
Burial place: White Church, Taylor, Texas
Burial date: 24 May 1935
Informant: Charlie Boyd
Film number: 2116471
Digital GS number: 4166557
Image number: 229
Reference number: 25210
Collection: Texas Deaths, 1890-1976
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