The story
Read it all →How Boyd came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Boyd.
Boyd was platted in 1884. A post office has been in operation at Boyd since 1884. The city was incorporated in 1893.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
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History · Boyd
Boyd’s post office opened in 1884, and 70% of its homes were built before 1940
Below: maps from 1965 on and the census since 1900.
1884first post office
0on the National Register
70%homes built before 1940
Quick answers
How Boyd began
When was Boyd founded?
1884
The Boyd post office opened in 1884, the earliest record of the town by name.
First census: 335 in 19002020 census: 141142 years
Founding year: the first Boyd post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Boyd’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Boyd’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Boyd’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.People over time
Boyd, census by census
Peaked at 549 in 1920; 141 people lived here in 2020.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Boyd’s Wikipedia page.
Timeline
Boyd, 1884 to 1965
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
- 19th century
- 1884Post officeThe Boyd post office opens
- 20th century
- 1920CensusPopulation peaks at 549
- 1965
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade
No old photos in the archives yet
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your albumOn the map
Boyd on the map, 1965 to 1986
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Boyd. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1965Boyd sheet · 1:24,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Boyd.
Questions about Boyd’s history
What year was Boyd founded?
The Boyd post office opened in 1884, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Start a conversation
Sources
Where this page comes from
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.