Garrett Burgess Griffin Royse, better known as Byrd Royse, was born in Adair County, Kentucky on January 31, 1838, to William and Mary Stone Royse. He was the seventh of 14 children.
Mr. Royse was proud of the fact that he served the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He served with the 19th Regiment Missouri Infantry.
Around 1850, Mr. Royse's future grandmother-in-law, Nancy McCasland and her sons bought several tracts of land that were situated in Kaufman County, in 1873 in Rockwall County, and in 1886 became Royse City, Texas.
Byrd Royse married Mrs. McCasland's granddaughter on August 8, 1880. They remained married 48 years, until Mr. Royse's death in 1928. Mrs. Nancy Royse died 7 years later.
Around 1886, Mr. Royse platted the town site and sold the first lot to Alf Reese and his nephew, Albert Royse. About that same time, Mr. Royse was instrumental in getting the MK&T Railroad line brought from Greenville to Dallas through Rockwall County. Family legend has it that Mr. Royse informed the MK&T Railroad people that he would donate the land for a train station if they would call it Royse City.
After the town lots were sold and land in and around Royse City was selling at an amount six times what he paid for it, the Royse family sold their part and in 1893 joined about 100,000 others in the Oklahoma Land Rush.
Mr. Royse got a quite of bit of land in Custer County near Foss, Oklahoma.
Mr. Royse and his wife resided there until their death. They are both buried in the Stafford Cemetery near Foss.
