"Dr.Robert-Fulton-Boyd"(July 8,1855-July 20,1912)

He was born in Giles County,Tennessee,the son of  Maria Coffey and Edward Boyd.He was raised on a farm and in 1866,his mama brought him to Nashville to live with Paul Eve,a surgeon with an international reputation.During his stay with Dr,Eve,he enrolled in night classes at Fisk University and dreamed of becoming a physician.In 1872,he hired himself to General James H.Hickman,a real estate agent.Robert worked half the day and attended school the other half,receiving no wages.

He left in 1875 and began his teaching career at College Grove in Williamson County,Tennessee.he returned to Giles County the following year.He soon become principal of the male school and the female department of  Pulaski's public schools.Robert entered the medical department of Central Tennessee College in 1880,and graduated with honors in 1882.After this,he practiced medicine and taught school in New Albany,Mississippi.He later returned to Meharry as adjunct professor of chemistry.While teaching,he entered the new dental department at Central Tennessee College,graduating with honors in 1886.

One year later  Robert opened an office on North Cherry street in Nashville to practice his professions among the less fortunate.By the turn of the century,he was treating patients in all social and economic  classes.Dr. Boyd was particularly shocked by the African American mortality rate,and in his paper,"What are the Causes of the Great Mortality Among Negroes in the Cities of  the South,and How is That Mortality to be lessened?",he made some of the earliest and most astute observations regarding the physician conditions of  African Americans.Dr.Boyd used public forums,including Nashville churches,to help the African American understand the causes,orgins,and transmission of tuberculosis,teaching them ways to combat this disease.During 1890,Dr.Boyd attended the Postgraduate School of  Medicine at the University of  Chicago.In 1891,he receive the Master of the Arts degree from Central Tennessee College.Two years later,Dr.Boyd  ran for mayor and for a seat in the Tennessee General Assembly as a Republican.He returned to the Chicago School in 1892, specializing in the diseases of women and children.

His experiences in a Chicago teaching hospital proved highly beneficial to Meharry,as Dr. Boyd became professor of gynecology and clinical medicine there in 1893.Central Tennessee College had not secured funds for a teaching hospital,when the city opened a hospital close to the school,students privileges there. African American constituted almost half  of the patient population.For a time,the wards and clinics were open to Meharry Students,and then the city unexpectedly suspended the permission.This lost opportunity fired up the resources of  Dr.Boyd,who opened Mercy Hospital in 1900,located at 811 South Cherry Street.Ten African Americans physicians organized  a national fraternity of  African American doctors of  which Dr.Boyd was president was elected president.This group was the Society of  Colored  of  Colored Physcians and Surgeons,which later became the National Medical  Association.


In the 1890s,he purchased  a three-story  brick house  on Cedar Street  for $14,000 (at the time)  reportedly the largest  transfer  of real estate  to a person of African descent  in  Tennessee.When Nashville's second  Afro-American bank,People's Savings  Bank and Trust Company was organized in 1909,Dr.Boyd  was elected its president.

Death came early  to Dr.Boyd ,following  an "attack  of acute  indigestion." His mama ,Maria Coffey survived him.