David French Boyd

David French Boyd (October 5, 1834 May 27, 1899) was an American teacher and educational administrator. He served as the first head of Louisiana State University (LSU), where he was a professor of mathematics and moral philosophy. He was also briefly the president of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama (now Auburn University).

David French Boyd
President of Auburn University
In office
1883–1884
Preceded byWilliam Leroy Broun
Succeeded byWilliam Leroy Broun
President of the Louisiana State University
In office
1877–1880
Preceded byFirst LSU president
In office
1884–1886
Succeeded byThomas Duckett Boyd (interim)
Personal details
Born(1834-10-05)October 5, 1834
Wytheville, Wythe County
Virginia, USA
DiedMay 27, 1899(1899-05-27) (aged 64)
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Resting placeMagnolia Cemetery in Baton Rouge
RelationsThomas Duckett Boyd (brother)
ParentsThomas J. and Minerva A. French Boyd
Military service
Allegiance Confederate States of America
Branch/service Confederate States Army
Rank Major
Unit9th Louisiana Infantry
Battles/warsAmerican Civil War

Biography

June 1865 Major Boyd is at far left top row

Boyd, the eldest son of Thomas J. Boyd, a wealthy lawyer and railroad promoter, was born in Wytheville, Virginia. He studied at the University of Virginia but failed to graduate. Because of personal difficulties in his native state, he migrated to Louisiana and, in 1860, joined the faculty of the newly created Louisiana State Seminary of Learning in Pineville in Central Louisiana. There, he became a close friend of the institution's superintendent, William Tecumseh Sherman, who on the eve of the American Civil War famously warned Boyd, an enthusiastic secessionist, of the South's folly in pursuing a war with the North which it could not possibly win.

During the war, Boyd fought in the Confederate army. He initially served in the 9th Louisiana Infantry, a regiment that was part of the famed Louisiana Tigers of the Army of Northern Virginia. He later transferred to the Western Theater, where he was a major of engineering. He was captured by Jayhawker militia and sold to the Union Army before being exchanged and returned to the South following Sherman's intervention.

After the end of the war in 1865, Boyd returned to the Seminary as superintendent and later wrote the charter that transformed the institution into Louisiana State University, based in Baton Rouge, under the terms of the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act. He was dismissed in 1880 over conflicts with the faculty, but was restored as president of LSU in 1884. During his hiatus, he served a year as the president of Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama.

He died in 1899, and is buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Baton Rouge.

References


Academic offices
Preceded by
William Leroy Broun
President of Auburn University
1883–1884
Succeeded by
William Leroy Broun
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