Eminent Homemaker
County: Lake
J. E. Boyd was born Jan. 16, 1873, near LeRoy, Minnesota, and came to Lake County with her parents when she was 7-years-old. The family arrived in Herman township, June 14, 1880, and homesteaded a few miles from Junius.
Boyd started school at the age of nine when the first school house was constructed. At 15 she worked in neighborhood homes, giving what money she could spare to her parents and saving the rest for clothes and books. After completing the rural school course, she worked for her board in Madison and attended Eastern Normal. She taught in rural schools nine years in Lake County before her marriage Jan. 30, 1901, to J. E. Boyd, also a pioneer of Herman township.
Four children were born to the Boyds, the eldest dying in infancy.
The Boyds planted two large orchards on their farm. One year they won $100 in State Fair prizes on fruit. Boyd helped to plant and care for these orchards.
Boyd was ill for 10 years, most of the time in bed, before his death in 1930. During that time, she had the responsibility of managing the farm, helping her children through college and caring for her husband.
She was a member of the Episcopal Church. She was active in the Guild. She was secretary-treasurer of the King’s Daughters four years and taught Sunday school when services were held in the schoolhouse before there was a church in Junius. She was a member of the Junius Ladies Aid for nearly 60 years. She was a charter member of the Junius Parent Teachers Association and a member of the Women’s Relief Corps.
Before Home extension work was started in her community, the Junius ladies had an embroidery club. Boyd interested them in reorganizing into a Home Extension Club, the “Herman Hustlers.” She served as chairman and also as secretary.
Boyd spends much of her time caring for the aged and ill and works as a practical nurse.