A prominent resident and a man of affairs of Pomona, who has implicit faith in the future of Southern California and has become a great "booster" in particular of Pomona Valley, is Sydney R. Boyd, senior member of the real estate firm of Messrs. Boyd & Gates, of 103 South Garey Avenue, Pomona, dealers in orange, lemon and grapefruit groves, alfalfa and other country ranches, and city property. His own home ranch is a place of fifteen acres of a choice orange grove at 1406 East Fifth Street—one of the oldest orange groves in the Valley, rich in varieties of Valencias, Mediterranean Sweets, Seedling and Blood oranges.
Mr. Boyd was born in Lyon County, Ky., on February 15, 1861, and there reared until he was eighteen years of age, when he went to Nashville, Tenn., and followed steamboating, clerking on steamers running on the Cumberland River. After four years, he returned to Kentucky and followed the mercantile business in the towns of Princeton and Fredonia, Caldwell County, Ky., until the Spring of 1906, when he decided to come to the Pacific Coast.
In April, then, he arrived in Pomona and at once located here, starting in the real estate business for himself, and this he has followed practically ever since. With Frank Smith as a partner, and under the firm name of Smith & Boyd, he put on the market the well-known subdivision, Tract No. 1007, ten acres located on North Towne Avenue, between Columbia and Alvarado streets. This property, in one of the best residential sections of the city, has all been sold, and many fine homes built there, so that the exploitation of the same has been a definite contribution to the proper expansion of the city.
Later, when in business alone, Mr. Boyd subdivided Tract No. 2069 on San Antonio Road and at the corner of Columbia Street, and the five acres there have all been sold and built upon. Mr. Boyd himself erected a number of fine homes on each of these tracts, which he later disposed of, one by one, at a fair profit. He has also dealt extensively in orange groves, and has bought and sold no less than twenty-five in the Valley.
He has been twice married, the first ceremony taking place at Princeton and on September 28, 1886, when Miss Jennie Easley, a charming lady, and a native of Lyon County, now deceased, became his wife. She left three sons, Sydney E., Leonard H. and John Baxter Boyd. On the occasion of his second marriage, Mr. Boyd was united to Mrs. Elvin Rice Averitt, also a native of Kentucky, and a lady representative in every way of the delightful social side of Southern life.
Mr. Boyd has served the city of Pomona for four years as a member of its City Council, when the council entered the new city hall. He belongs to the Masons, and he and his family attend the First Presbyterian Church.
History of Pomona Valley, California, with Biographical Sketches
of The Leading Men and Women of the Valley Who Have Been
Identified With Its Growth and Development from the Early Days
to the Present
Published in Los Angeles, Cal., by the Historic Record Company
1920
Transcribed by Linda Jackson 1/9/09, Pages 746-747
Los Angeles County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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