Frank married his first wife, Wealthy Jane Pearson, on 24 Nov 1840, in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, and they had five children.  Wealthy and her three oldest children were living with her parents, James and Harriet Pearson, on the 1850 Census; Frank is not identified in this household, nor was he located anywhere on the 1850 census.  His profile timeline indicates he may have been absent from his family between early 1847 through early 1852.  He was listed in the local newspaper as having unclaimed mail at the post office in 1851.  Family folklore claims he went to California during the Gold Rush.  No documentation was found to confirm he was in California at any time; however, the missing time away from his family fits with the timing of the Gold Rush.  

He did return home by early 1852, around the time his youngest son, Frank, was conceived.  However, just prior to the break-out of the Civil War, he was again absent from his family, living in Mobile, Alabama and working as a clerk for Pomeroy & Marshall, a prominent feed and grain merchant firm during the mid-19th century.  Mobile was one of the South’s most important Gulf Coast ports, second only to New Orleans. It exported vast quantities of cotton, making it a vital artery in the global textile trade.  The city’s waterfront bustled with steamboats, schooners, and merchant firms like Pomeroy & Marshall.  

Two of his sons, James and Frank, moved to Mobile in the early 1870’s; likely following their father to find work in a busy port town after the War.

By June 1870, Frank was back in Tuscaloosa, living with Wealthy and their youngest child, Clara.  Sadly, just a couple of months later in August, Wealthy died.    

Not long after Wealthy died, Frank left Alabama for New Orleans, taking his youngest daughter Clara with him, where he found work as a salesman for G.M. Bayly & Ponds, best known for producing Crescent Bitters, a type of medicinal or cocktail bitters, often marketed for digestive health or as a flavoring agent in alcoholic drinks.  

Frank had married his second wife in 1872, Ellen Virginia Coughlin, daughter of John K. Coughlin and Sophia Griffith of New Orleans.  Frank and Ellen had five children, the youngest being my great grandfather, Charles Joseph Boyd.    

By the mid-1870’s Frank and his son, Frank Jr, were working for John J. Barr & Co. as a rice brokers; however, sometime around 1877, Frank moved his family from New Orleans to Live Oak County, Texas, including the two youngest children from his first marriage, Frank and Clara.  Reconstruction was ending, and New Orleans was grappling with political unrest, racial violence, and economic instability.  It was a time of new beginnings for many. Whether escaping debt, seeking land, or starting fresh after the war, Texas was booming with land availability after the Civil War. Live Oak County was part of a region being settled by ranchers and farmers, and Frank decided to try his hand at raising sheep.  The Texas Land Grant system and railroad expansion made it easier to acquire property.  

By 1892, the Boyd family had moved to Calhoun County where they settled on Colorado and Guadalupe streets.  My family still owns some of the original bay front lots purchased by Frank Boyd when he arrived in Port Lavaca.  Calhoun County sits on the Texas Gulf Coast, with Port Lavaca as its county seat.  The decade began in the shadow of tragedy: the 1886 hurricane had destroyed Indianola, once a thriving port and the original county seat. It was never rebuilt, and Port Lavaca took its place in 1887.  The coastline remained vital for trade, fishing, and oyster harvesting, but the loss of Indianola shifted the county’s economic and social center inland.  

Frank died 04 Jan 1902 and was buried in the old Port Lavaca Cemetery.  Ellen died just four years later and was buried next to Frank.

Frank and Ellen’s children are:

1. Euphemia Virginia Boyd was born 07 Jun 1873, in New Orleans, Louisiana.  She married Frederick William Pope in 1899.  Frederick was in the Coast Guard.  They had four children:  Helen Pope (1901-1974), Marian Naomi Pope (1904-1960), Lorena Pope (1906-?, never married, moved to Washington DC); Frederick William Pope (1909-1981).
2. John Smith Boyd was born 10 Nov 1874, in New Orleans, Louisiana.  He never married.  John’s right arm had been cut off at the elbow; according to Grandma (John’s niece), he was injured when he fell off or was thrown off a mule as a young man.  In the 1930’s John worked as the Treasurer/Tax Assessor of Calhoun County and was subsequently charged and convicted of “conversion of county funds”.  He received a four-year prison sentence and was incarcerated at the prison in Huntsville.  He received a full pardon in 1942 by Gov. Stevenson.  
3. Mary Sophie Boyd was born 07 Aug 1876, in New Orleans, Louisiana.  She married Henry Martin Seerden in 1897, and they had nine children:  Ellen Hedwig Seerden (1898-1979), Bertha Inez Seerden (1900-1966), Frank Boyd Seerden (1902-1991), Florence Claire Seerden (1904-1979), Henry Murray Seerden (1906-1996), Catherine Clara Seerden (1908-1916), Lawrence O’Connell Seerden (1911-1970), Walter Earl Seerden (1915-1915), Mary Cecelia Seerden (1917-1917).  
4. Bertha F. Boyd was born 24 Jul 1878, in Live Oak County, Texas.  She never married.  She and her niece, Lorena Pope, moved to Washington DC and worked for the federal government.  
5. Charles Joseph Boyd (my great grandfather) was born 08 Apr 1882, in Live Oak County, Texas.  He married Bertha Eleanor Jacobs, daughter of Michael Jacobs and Mary Bitterly (immigrants from Kruth, Alsace).  Charles and Bertha had two children:  Archibald John Boyd (1912-1962), Mary Ellen Boyd (1915-2006; my maternal grandmother).