SOUTH DEERFIELD — Just as Veterans Day can trace its lineage to the first Armistice Day, so too can a local woman, whose grandfather’s brother called the American Expeditionary Forces headquarters with news of peace during World War I.
Nancy Durham’s great-uncle, Army Col. Carl Boyd, was the senior aide-de-camp to Gen. John J. Pershing. Boyd made the 6 a.m. phone call to Col. George C. Marshall in Haute-Marne, France, on Nov. 11, 1918, to inform him that a formal agreement had been signed a few minutes prior and that all fighting was to cease at 11 a.m.
“I have a lot of faith in what people can do, and young people can do, and say, ‘Just keep following [your dreams], working hard and pursuing your desires,'” Durham said, “and this man was obviously one who did — otherwise he wouldn’t have achieved what he did.
“And I am quite certain, from what we’ve read, that he had a great attitude and outlook,” she continued.
Durham, who has lived in South Deerfield with her husband Joe since 2008, has generations-old ties to Franklin County but grew up in various places as a military brat. She is the daughter of U.S. Navy Capt. Gideon Millard “Gid” Boyd III and Ruth Hawks, and the granddaughter of Gideon Millard Boyd II, whose brother was Adairsville, Georgia-born Carl Boyd.
Carl Boyd graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, in 1903, the same year as Douglas MacArthur. He was appointed second lieutenant and assigned to the 3rd Cavalry Regiment at Fort Yellowstone, Wyoming.
He was sent to France in the summer of 1912, specifically to perfect his French, in preparation for being assigned as an instructor of the language at West Point. He returned to France in 1913 and served as a military attaché and observer at the American Embassy in Paris during World War I, where fluency or high proficiency in French was required.
The hostilities of World War I ended on Nov. 11, 1918, but Boyd did not know peace for very long. He fell ill and died in Paris 93 days later and was buried at the Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial in France.
Pershing wrote to Boyd’s mother to express his condolences.
“In the death of your son, Carl, of pneumonia at Paris today, the Government loses a gallant officer who has given throughout the war the most loyal and distinguished service,” he wrote. “We at General Headquarters lose a tried and trusted companion, and I lose a faithful aide, counsellor and friend. We all join you in sympathy at the great loss you have sustained. Carl had the best medical attention and his wife and friends were with him at the end.”
Pershing also vowed that the General Headquarters would do everything possible to help Boyd’s widow, Annie Peeples. The two were married in September 1903 and had a daughter, Ann Boyd Scotten.
Boyd Scotten, the first cousin of Nancy Durham’s father, died in 1998 at age 93. She was the widow of U.S. diplomat Robert McGregor Scotten, who at one point had been ambassador to New Zealand. According to her obituary, she had the responsibility of entertaining many visiting dignitaries, including Helen Keller and first lady Pat Nixon.
