Submitted January, 2002.  Submitter's name inadvertently lost.  Please contact us if you provided this information.

The story of the Boyds is recounted in the book, Flood Tides Along the Allegheny.*  The author, Francis R. Harbison, tells of an ancestor, "Massie" Harbison, who was captured by Indians near the Allegheny River, along with three of her young children, and taken prisoner into the woods.  She watched two of her sons being killed, but still managed to escape with her youngest, by feigning sleep and making her getaway when her guard fell asleep.  But the book also tells of the descendants of Massie and of contributing factors to their lives.  One of the main factors was their religion and religious beliefs.

The book tells of the Reverend Abraham Boyd as "a forerunner in a time when written records were seldom made, and such as were, have been largely lost before their value was apparent."  Abraham Boyd was Scotch-Irish, born December 31st, 1770, the fourth child of John and Mary Fulton Boyd, residents of Ireland, believed to have emigrated with their four children in 1772, to Westmoreland County.  Their lives were entwined with the Fultons and the Guthries of that section; Mary's mother was a Guthrie.

John and Mary were the parents of seven sons and two daughters, John, Abraham, Benjamin, and James, all of whom became ministers of the gospel; Robert, who was a farmer in the Bull Creek valley; and Henry and Joseph, who moved farther west.  Of the daughters, Margaret married Joseph Shields, and Mary married Daniel Coe.  It tells that the younger John Boyd became the first minister of the Slate Lick Presbyterian Church; and that James preached in Ohio, where he died in 1813.  Abraham married Eleanor Hillis, who bore nine children before dying in 1816.  He then married Agnes Scott, who bore him three more children.

The History of John Brown, Sr., and His Descendants, compiled in 1930 by Mattie Noble Brown, tells that John Brown had three daughters:  Jane, Susan, and Mary (also known as Pollie); and four sons, James, John, Matthew, and Robert.  James Brown married Nancy Boyd, a daughter of Rev. John Boyd, one of the four Boyd brothers who were the pioneer preachers of Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio.

James and Nancy were the parents of:

• Mary Eleanor, b. 21 Feb 1831, d. 12 Feb 1912, m. Rev. Fulton Boyd, a relative.
• John, b. 18 Jan 1833, d. 17 Nov 1867, m. Frances Jane Wilson
• Margaret Jane, b. 12 Aug 1834, d. 30 Nov 1917
• Catherine, b. 23 Mar 1836, d. 3 Mar 1913, m. Johnston Rea
• Abram Hillis, b. 3 Oct 1837, d. 16 Mar 1840 ov scarlet fever
• Nancy Boyd, b. 14 Apr 1839, d. 19 Mar 1840 of scarlet fever
• Harriet Newell b. 20 Feb 1841, d. 30 Jun 1913, m. Stewart Hyle
• Nancy Hillis, b. 9 Dec 1842, d. 4 Nov 1873, m. E. H. Cox
• James Shields, b. 14 Nov 1844, d. 8 Dec 1913, m. Euena Fawcett
• Harvey, b. 1 Sep 1846, d. 7 Feb 1847
• Melinda Olive, b. 17 Dec 1847, d. 21 Sep 1850

Rev. Fulton Boyd and Mary Eleanor Brown were the parents of the following children:

• Shields Coe, b. 21 Dec 1856
• Mary Olive, b. 23 Jan 1859
• James Loyal Young, b. 20 Sep 1861, d. 6 Sep 1865
• Agnes Margaret b. 3 Dec 1863, d. 23 Aug 1865
• Sarah Agnes, b. 10 Jul 1867

John Brown and Frances Jane Wilson had the following children:

• Jay Lincoln b. 22 Nov 1858, m. Mattie Noble
• James M., b. Jun 1859, m. Agnes Rea
• Lizzie, b. Oct 1864, m. William Rhea
• John, b. 6 Oct 1867, m. Lillie Steffler

Rev James Boyd, the early preacher married Isabelle Craig, a daughter of Capt John Craig.  Her sister, Elizabeth Clark Craig, married George Clark; and their daughter Martha, married James Noble.  It was James and Martha Noble's son William, who was the father of Mattie Noble, who married Jay Lincoln Brown.

*Note: the index to this book is available on this Web site.  Use the Search option to locate it.