Amor Boyd

    Amor Boyd, proprietor of the Montpelier Tile Works, is one of the active and enterprising men of Blackford County, and one of the leading citizens of Montpelier. The first steps taken toward the establishment of the above enterprise was in march, 1876, and thirty days later the works were ready for operation, and is today the leading one of the kind in this portion of Indiana. The firm was known at first as Boyd & Hopkins, being composed of Amor Boyd and John R. Hopkins, but in 1878 Mr. Boyd purchased his partner's interest, and has since conducted the business alone. The main building is 30 x 100 feet in ground area, and three stories in height. The first floor is the mill and crusher, operated by a steam engine of thirteen horse power, which was put in 1883. Eighty feet of the first floor, beside the second and third floors are devoted to drying purposes. These buildings were erected in 1883, but there is another shed built in 1876, 18 x 170 feet, which is also devoted to drying purposes. The engine room is 18 x 25 feet. The kiln burns all that can be dried in all the sheds, and they burn every week during the season, and during the past four years have turned out an average of 10,000 rods of tile per year, from three to ten inches in diameter. The dry rooms are fitted up on scientific principles, which insure the best possible results, and are on a system which is seldom met with. Mr. Boyd disposes of all he can manufacture in the home market, though he has occasionally shipped to more remote points, and the tile manufactured at these works has a high reputation in the trade. He is now burning tile with natural gas, and also using it as fuel to run his engine.

    Mr. Amor Boyd, whose name heads this sketch, is a native of Ohio, born in Belmont County, December 1, 1844, and when two years his parents came to Indiana and located in Jackson Township, Jay County, where the father, Cyrus Boyd, afterward bought land. He is now a resident of Huntington County. The mother of our subject died in Jay County in 1874. Amor was reared to manhood in Jay County, and in early life devoted his attention to farming. He made his home with his parents until his marriage, August 25, 1867, to Miss Elma M. Johnson, who was born in Jackson Township, Jay county, her father, Levi Johnson, being one of the early settlers of that county. They are the parents of four children -John P., Ethel L., Victor Levi and Jesse Riley. Mr. Boyd began life for himself after his marriage on forty acres of land, which he had bought on section 20, Jackson Township, Jay county, and of this land he cleared and put under cultivation twenty acres. He owned this farm until about 1885, although he removed from it in the spring of 1876, when he came to Montpelier and started the tile manufactory. After living in Montpelier six years he bought 120 acres of land about a half mile from the town, where he has since lived, farming and raising fine horses as well as carrying on his tile business. He has seven colts from the imported Clydesdale stallion, Grand Turk, besides having an interest in the animal named. He has two trotting blood horses, one a colt. All his cattle are of the Jersey breed, and in fact all his stock is of high grade. In his political views Mr. Boyd is somewhat independent, although he takes an active interest in public affairs. The position he holds today among the business men of Blackford County is solely the result of his own efforts. Only twenty years ago he possessed nothing but a forty acre tract in the woods of Jay County, but by persevering industry and good management he has become one of the prosperous citizens of the county, where he has gained the respect and confidence of all who know him by his fair and honorable dealing.

Source: Biographical and Historical Record of Jay and Blackford County, Indiana. The Lewis Publishing Company, 1887, page 786-87.