Benjamin F. Boydstun, a farmer in the northern part of Lauderdale County, was
born in Campbell County, Tenn., and is a son of Thomas Boydstun. Our subject
was raised on a farm, and received a limited education in the subscription
schools of the county, and has always been a farmer. He married in this
county, August 30, 1843, Mary Wood, daughter of Armstead Wood, a farmer, and
to them were born three sons and one daughter. The latter died in infancy, and
the sons were named James K. Polk, Armstead Wood and Thomas Jefferson. The
mother of this family was born in Alabama in 1823, and died June 6, 1875, and
our subject was again married in the home where he now lives, December 28,
1882, to Mrs. Martha F. Ledbetter, daughter of Jasper Meadow, a merchant and
farmer. She was born in Williamson County September 25, 1842, and by this
marriage one daughter was born, who died in infancy. Our subject was in the
Confederate Army in the First Regiment of Cavalry, under Col. H. C. King, and
was in the battles of Perryville, Ky., Murfreesboro, and served seventeen
months. He had three sons in active service; one served through the entire
war, one a less period, and one was wounded near Pulaski, Tenn., from the
effects of which he died October 15, 1864. Mr. Boydstun is a Democrat, and
cast his first presidential vote for James K. Polk. Mr. and Mrs. Boydstun
belong to the Missionary Baptist Church. He is a kind, generous man, of strict
integrity, and owns 140 acres of land five miles north of Ripley.

Goodspeed’s Biographies of Lauderdale Co., TN