The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1915-11-27
ESTHER WRIGHT BOYD.
AN APPRECIATION.

| NOV. IL, the immortal spirit Of the
sweetest purest, truest woman, the
writer of these lines has ever known.
To the majority of our readers she
was an utter stranger. Few of you had
ever heard of her even as wife and
then widow of Col David French Boyd,
the first president of the Louisiana
State Seminary after it's name had
been changed to the Louisiana State
University. So quietly did she fill her
place in life, that strong and noble and
gifted woman though she Was adequate
to all tasks that fell to her hands, she
was never widely known Her day was
not that of the new woman in self
assertiveness or wide advertisement,
and while her bright and vigorous mind
kept pace with the progress of the
times, she never learned the modern
arts Of notoriety. Her life however
was such beautiful one that even to
those who never knew her, the writer
makes NO, apology for this endeavor to
show her as she was, albeit, as through
glass, darkly
She was born seventy-one years ago,
in Rapides parish, Esther Gertrude
Wright, the youngest daughter of DR..
Jesse Wright, native of Connecticut,
and Sarah Roberts Grimball of South
Carolina. 1t is) told that singularly
enough she was named for a sister,
who had died at the age of thirteen
years, and whose beautiful Christian
character induced the Borrowing parents
to name their last child Esther also, as
plea that the graces and virtues
of the beloved daughter in heaven
might be commemorated. Those who
knew the second Esther, in youth or
age, never doubted that the mantle of
the young saint had fallen on worthy
shoulders. The Wright sisters, five in
number, were partly educated at their
comfortable plantation home, near
Cheneyville, by private tutors, not gov
ernesses, from the North, finishing"
according to the verbiage of that day
at Mansfield Female College. Their
education was thorough and included
proficiency in music: Esther Wright
having an eXquisitely trained and bird
| like voice, that she retained all her
life During the troublous years of the
war; she met and loved the gallant
young Confederate major, David F.
Boyd They were married in 1865
Major Boyd became superintendent of
the state seminary near Pineville, the
position giving him the rank of colonel
in the state militia. Later, when fire
destroyed the seminary buildings, the
college was removed to the state build
ing for the Blind, Deaf and Dumb at
Baton Rouge, and through the stren-
uous exertions of Col. Boyd, the semi
nary was merged into and became the
Louisiana State University.
There followed a year OF two of
prosperity for the University and the
Boyds. Then the Republican legisla-
ture withdrew the state appropriation
from the University and there ensued
privation and threatened extinction for
the State University Had it not been
for the courage, the faith in the Uni
versity and the people of Louisiana,
the superhuman efforts of one man,
Col David F. Boyd the University
would have gone under, for the time
With a small corps of professors, he
worked on, with little or no pay, pull.
ing every possible wire for the Univer.
sity's benefit, and apparently never
losing heart till the University was
again supported by the State. The
writer, though a child at the time, re-
members we'll when there were but
few more cadets than professors, and
when the ration for extra occasions
was corned beef and dried apple pie
1t was hard times for the Boyds also
and the mention comes rightly into
this sketch, because She with her I'M
faltering spirit, her brave cheerfulness
must have done her part in these years
of struggle. Apparently absorbed in
rearing her rapidly increasing family
and in doing church work, Mrs. Boyd
endured and thought for the Univer
sity also.
How much Louisiana appreciated
Col. Boyd's efforts is a matter of record
elsewhere. The prOverbial gratitude
of states was exemplifed in this case
and it is sufficient to say that Louisiana
has never repaid her debt of apprecia
ton to David French Boyd. Some
time in the early SOS, he resigned from
the presidency and accepted that Of
the Agricultural College at Auburn
Ala. The family removed to that place
and though Col Boyd held positions il
other colleges, Mrs. Boyd remained a
Auhurp to complete the education o.