Biography-History

By the early 1830s, James Hervey Boyd was living in Jackson, where he engaged in a variety of mercantile enterprises. During the 1850s, Boyd built and operated the Pearl River steamboats Bloomer and Pearl Plant.

In 1843 James Hervey Boyd married Eliza Ellis, the daughter of James E. and Sarah Morehead Ellis of Kentucky. The Boyds had six children, James A., John Hargrove, Mary Eliza, Newton Halsey, Sallie E., and Susan M. Boyd. The Boyd family lived in the circa 1853 Greek Revival cottage, The Oaks, located on Jefferson Street in Jackson, Mississippi.

Boyd was elected mayor of Jackson in 1842 and again in 1843. While serving as mayor, he built a new city jail, purchased a fire engine, and prosecuted unlicensed retail-liquor dealers. Boyd was also elected mayor of Jackson in 1850 and 1858. In 1844 he served as a Jackson alderman, and he was appointed to a committee responsible for establishing a school for orphans and other financially disadvantaged children. Boyd also served additional terms as alderman in 1847, 1862, 1863, 1865, and 1866. In 1850 Governor John A. Quitman appointed him to the board of commissioners that supervised the construction of the State Lunatic Asylum in Jackson. Boyd served in the state militia during the Civil War and as a Hinds County justice of the peace after the war. He was a member of the Masonic Order and the First Presbyterian Church of Jackson. Boyd died on July 4, 1877.

Sallie Boyd married Lyman C. Gunn in 1870. Mary Eliza Boyd married Richard F. McGill in 1879. The McGills lived at The Oaks with the widowed Eliza Ellis Boyd. The Oaks remained in the McGill family until 1960 when it was purchased by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Mississippi. The house now serves as a state headquarters and museum of this organization. The Oaks is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Scope and Content

Series Identification

1. Correspondence (incoming and outgoing). 1870–1871; 1876; 1895; 1907; 1928; 1939; 1944; 1967; 1969; n.d. (23 items). This series contains the scattered personal correspondence of various Boyd, Gunn, and McGill family members who were associated with The Oaks, a circa 1853 Greek Revival cottage located on Jefferson Street in Jackson. Of particular interest are a March 11, 1870, letter written by James Hervey Boyd to one of his daughters and a December 11, 1895, letter (and poem) written by John Logan Power to Lyman C. Gunn commemorating the twenty-fifth wedding anniversary of Lyman C. and Sallie Boyd Gunn. Arranged chronologically.
   • James Hervey Boyd. 1870. (2 items). Box 1, folder 1.
   • Carolyn Gunn Davis. 1969; n.d. (2 items). Box 1, folder 2.
   • Daisy Gunn Ezelle. 1928; 1939; 1967; n.d. (6 items). Box 1, folder 3.
   • Lyman C. Gunn. 1895. (1 item). Box 1, folder 4.
   • Mary A. Gunn. 1871. (1 item). Box 1, folder 5.
   • Sallie Boyd Gunn. 1876; 1895; 1907; 1944. (7 items). Box 1, folder 6.
   • Miscellaneous. n.d. (4 items). Box 1, folder 7.
2. Civil War Narrative. n.d. (1 item). This series contains a brief, handwritten account of the experiences of a Confederate soldier who served in the Fourth Tennessee Infantry and Bennett's Tennessee Cavalry Battalion. Included are references to the battles of Munfordville and Perryville, Kentucky, and Confederate generals Braxton Bragg, John Cabell Breckinridge, Simon Bolivar Buckner, Joseph Wheeler, and Felix Kirk Zollicoffer. There are also references to Union general Don Carlos Buell. The narrative is believed to have been written by Lyman C. Gunn. Box 1, folder 8.
3. Civil War Records. 1865. (2 items). This series contains Confederate soldier Richard F. McGill's request for a furlough dated January 26, 1865, and his oath of allegiance to the United States government dated June 5, 1865. Arranged chronologically. Box 1, folder 9.
4. Legal Records. 1850; 1865; 1880. (3 items). This series contains a typescript of the 1850 act of the Mississippi legislature incorporating the Pearl River Steam Navigation Company; a deed for Hinds and Rankin County lands conveyed to Eliza Ellis Boyd by Andrew J. Neely on December 2, 1865; and a deed for Hinds County lands conveyed to Newton Halsey Boyd by the State of Mississippi on May 24, 1880. Arranged chronologically. Box 1, folder 10.
5. Financial Records. 1878–1879; 1881–1885. (31 items). This series contains invoices and receipts for maintenance, renovations, and repairs to The Oaks, the ante-bellum home of the Boyd family located on Jefferson Street in Jackson, Mississippi. Arranged chronologically. Box 1, folder 11.
6. Genealogical Records. n.d. (4 items). This series contains biographical sketches of James Hervey and Eliza Ellis Boyd, and their daughter, Mary Boyd McGill. Also included are scattered genealogical notes pertaining to various members of the Boyd family. One note refers to Sue Landon Vaughan who founded Decoration Day in 1865 while living with the Boyd family at The Oaks. Box 1, folder 12.
7. National Register of Historic Places Nomination File. 1969; 1973; 1975. (6 items). This series contains correspondence and forms associated with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History's nomination of The Oaks to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. Arranged chronologically. Box 1, folder 13.
8. Tennessee Central Railway File. 1900; 1953–1954; 1968; n.d. (6 items). This series contains an estimate of freight and passenger traffic anticipated for the Tennessee Central Railway prepared by Lyman C. Gunn on May 12, 1900, and various newspaper clippings pertaining to the history of the railway. Arranged chronologically. Box 1, folder 14.
9. Radio Script. 1941. (1 item). This series contains a typewritten script for a 1941 WJDX Memorial Day radio broadcast entitled A Page from the Past that was presented by the W. D. Holder Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Eliza and Sallie Boyd and Charles H. Manship were the characters portrayed on the radio program. Box 1, folder 15.
10. Poetry. 1966; 1968; n.d. (8 items). This series contains miscellaneous poetry. Arranged chronologically. Box 1, folder 16.
11. Printed Material. 1906; 1915; 1967; n.d. (6 items). This series contains a broadside with a brief history of Decoration Day written by its founder, Sue Landon Vaughan, on October 12, 1906; a November 19, 1906, funeral notice for Richard F. McGill; a May 9, 1915, church bulletin from the First Presbyterian Church, Portland, Oregon, where the Reverend John H. Boyd was pastor; a 1967 funeral notice for Richard McGill; an undated broadside introducing Captain John H. Boyd, a Coca-Cola Company executive who frequently lectured on World War I; and an undated obituary of Mrs. Lyman C. Gunn. Arranged chronologically. Box 1, folder 17.
12. Newspaper Clippings. 1902; 1962; 1966; 1968–1969; n.d. (18 items). This series contains a variety of newspaper clippings pertaining to Boyd, Gunn, and McGill family members; Confederate memorials and monuments; activities of the United Daughters of the Confederacy; and Confederate general Felix Kirk Zollicoffer. Arranged chronologically. Box 1, folder 18.