JAMES JOYCE

JAMES JOYCE. Aside from the Spanish-Mexicans, one of the first settlers at San Francisco was JAMES JOYCE, a native of Scotland. He was a man of much enterprise, and as a contractor did much to develop some sections of the early city.

As a young man he moved with his family to County Mayo, Ireland, where he met and married in 1846 Mary Noland. He was then thirteen years of age. In 1847 they sailed from Liverpool to San Francisco. The voyage was one requiring more than nine months. Their first child, James, was born on the ship in mid-Atlantic. Many times during the voyage those on board gave themselves up as lost, and the provisions ran out before the ship landed.

JAMES JOYCE was a carpenter by trade. From Liverpool on the ship he brought two frame buildings, which he set up at Monterey, California. He soon afterward entered the sand grading business. He was a contractor who filled in what is now Kearney and Market streets. His equipment consisted of a large number of the Missouri mules and the Union-forever wagons. He also employed a large force of men, paying them in fifty-dollar gold slugs. He and his family lived in a little wooden shack on the water front, and after his arrival in San Francisco two other children were born, William and Mary Jane. The oldest son, James, at an early age was stricken blind, but at that became a clever man.

JAMES JOYCE lived in San Francisco about fifteen years. When he died he left considerable stock and money and property on the water front. His widow subsequently married Timothy Dillon, who proved of great assistance to her in preventing other people from despoiling her of her property. Later they moved to San Jose, where they lived for nine years. Mr. Dillon had some land in Santa Clara Valley, which proved to be a successful investment. Later he entered the butcher business, and at San Luis Obispo established the first restaurant, boarding the local prisoners. He also shipped cheese to San Francisco, of a quality for which San Luis Obispo was noted in those days. The Dillon children were John, Sarah and Timothy. Timothy Dillon, at one time requiring a large sum of money, ordered it from San Francisco, but before it arrived he dropped dead while on his way to work. The money was lost and never recovered, and there was long a suspicion that he was poisoned.

Mrs. Dillon later moved to San Luis Obispo, where another child, Alfred, was born following his father’s death. She had many hardships and misfortunes, due to a heavy flood and also a smallpox epidemic, of which three of her children were victims. The oldest daughter, Mary Joyce, lived with the family of the governor, Pacho, until her death at the age of thirteen. The daughter Sarah Dillon was taken by Father Moro to the Sisters School at Los Angeles, remained there a number of years and in 1874 was married to Daniel Walsh, of Washington, D.C. They had a daughter, Katherine, who married Alfred Wilson, of Lordsburg, New Mexico, and became the mother of a son, Elmer. Sarah Dillon Walsh still resides at Lords Brig, New Mexico.

 

Transcribed by Elaine Sturdevant