George and Nancy Boyd were married in Maine and moved to Minnesota in 1855. She died in childbirth in 1857, and their son, George Jr., was sent to live with his father's brother in New Canada Township. George, Sr., joined the First Minnesota in 1861 and was severely wounded in the thigh at Gettysburg. He survived the war, and in 1866, he married his first wife's sister, Sarah Williams. Soon after the birth of their fourth child, he was taking a boat across the Mississippi River, fell into the water, and drowned. His body went over St. Anthony Falls and was recovered days later.