A New England native (born in Foxboro, Massachusetts) who moved to Newark, New Jersey, Boyden perfected the process for making patent leather, created malleable iron, invented a nail-making machine, and built his own steamboat.
Boyden never profited from his inventions, he never bothered patenting anything, and refused honors from the leather makers and City of Newark. When he died he lived in near poverty and was at work on a kind of giant strawberry.