Albert W. Boyden, Sheffield, son of Dr. Wyatt and Elizabeth Woodbury Boyden, was born in Beverly, Mass., May 24, 1833. His father was a practicing physician of Beverly, and intended his son should be a farmer, consequently, when old enough, he was placed on a farm during the summer seasons, and was also employed in a band for some time, and there was taught lessons which have been valuable to him in his business career.
In September, 1853, Mr. Boyden came West. clerking a while in Chicago, and for the Stevens firm in Tiskilwa, and then settled on his farm north of Sheffield. Not being suited with farming, he removed to Sheffield in the fall of 1858, when for two years he was Deputy Sheriff of Bureau County under Sheriff David E. Norton. His name was then announced to the Bureau County Republican Convention as a candidate for the office of Sheriff, when, unfortunately he did not secure the nomination. After clerking three years for Scott and Boyden he bought the interest of Mr. Porter, and the firm was changed to Scott & Boyden. In 1870 Mr. Boyden sold to Scott & Co., and engaged in business with Mr. H. C. Porter, and banking was added to their mercantile business. Mr. Porter died in October, 1875, and January 1, 1876, the firm was changed to Boyden & Dewey. (See sketch of B. F. Dewey.) Since Mr. Porter’s death Mr. Boyden had been Secretary and Treasurer of the Sheffield Mining Company. He is also engaged in mercantile, limber and grain business in Mineral (W.W. Dewey & Co.), and in mercantile business at Sioux Rapids, Iowa (F. D. White & Co.,), and is pre-eminently one of the successful business men of Bureau County.
In politics he is Republican, and an active member of the Congregational Church. In 1884 he was nominated by the Republican Convention of the Twenty-fifth District one of the candidates for Representitive to the State Legislature, and elected the November following.
Mr. Boyden married, April 2, 1856, Ellen R. Webb, (born in Skowbegan, Maine, April 18, 1837.) daughter of Joseph B. and Martha (Weston) Webb, who came to this country in 1851. They have the following children: George W. Boyden, born January 3, 1858, now a member of the firm of Boyden & Dewey, married in Rock Island, Ill., June 28, 1881, Ella Wiser, and they have Albert W. Boyden second; William C. Boyden, April 6, 1864, in Junior Class Harvard College; Mattie F. Boyden, July 21, 1866; Charles W. Boyden, July 31, 1872; Albert A. Boyden, April 10, 1875.
Source: History of Bureau County, Illinois, H. C. Bradsby, Editor. World Publishing Company Chicago 1885