Please read the excerpt below. Does anyone have any other data or a copy of
a picture of the store?
Does anyone have more data on this James Boyd?
Rich Boyd
http://www.clanboyd.info
>>>>
In 1843 James Boyd, a Scotch-Irishman of
Boston, who had just become a
shareholder in the company (American Cannel Coal Company), erected a large
store building on the river-front close to the north bank of Casselberry
Creek, and somewhat later built his residence in the block below, between
Taylor and Washington Streets; a long, low structure which stood until the
early seventies, shaded by a picturesque weeping willow tree harmonizing
with its cottage type of architecture. This house is shown in a lithographic
view of Cannelton, of which only one copy is known to exist, reproduced from
a pencil drawing made about 1850-52, from the cliff back of Hawesville by a
Louisville artist whose name is not preserved, although Captain Joseph W.
Carlton, of Hawesville, who was a lad with him when he made the sketch,
recalled the circumstances with perfect distinction sixty years later.
The burning of Boyd's store by incendiaries led to an indictment for arson
against William Ritchey, who was brought for trial before Judge Embree in
Rome at the May term of court, 1844, James Lockhart as prosecutor
represented the state, Samuel Ingle, of Evansville, appearing for the
defendant, who received a two-year sentence upon conviction. An appeal to
the Supreme Court was taken by Ingle, on the ground that no value of the
store burned had been alleged in the declaration. A reversal of decision was
handed down, followed by a re-indictment and a second trial which resulted
in Ritchey's acquittal.
Close to the former site, or at the south-east corner of Taylor and Front
Streets, another store was erected, of such durable materials as to be
practically fire-proof, its massive rock walls and slate roof - with the
inscription "Built by James Boyd, 1844" deeply carved into the stone lintel
of the central doorway - remaining a landmark along the river-front for
three-score years, or long after its disuse as a business house. In 1904 the
Cannelton Flouring Mills put up their modern four-story manufacturing
edifice on the Boyd corner and a portion of the original stonework is now
comprised in the walls of their boiler room.
Source: Perry County : a history, by Thomas de la Hunt; Indianapolis : W.K.
Stewart Co. - FHL Film 934916