San Francisco County
Biographies
JAMES
ALEXANDER JOYCE
JAMES ALEXANDER
JOYCE, importer of dry-goods at Oakland, was born in Headford,
county Galway, Ireland, December 28, 1856, a son of Patrick and Catherine (Kyne) Joyce, both of whom are still living, the father aged
seventy and the mother sixty-four. Of their eleven children, nine are
living, five being residents of the United States; and of these Charles and
John are in the employ of the subject of this sketch. The father has been
for many years clerk of petty sessions in Headford,
and a farmer, and is a man of good education.
James A. Joyce
received a fairly good education in his youth under the tutorship of Mr.
O’Reilly, of Headford, and at the age of fourteen
entered a dry-goods store in the city of Galway, serving an apprenticeship of
four years. At sixteen he came to America, by way of Liverpool and New
York; and after serving three years as a dry-goods clerk in the East, paid a
visit of five months to his native land. Returning to New York in 1877, he
came to Marysville, California, where a maternal aunt, the wife of M. C. Ellis
(a rancher and miller), resided, and there remained over two years as clerk in
a dry-goods store. In 1880 he came to Oakland and served a few years as
clerk in the store of J. T. O’Toole & Co. In December, 1884, at the
age of twenty-eight, after twice seven years’ service in the dry-goods trade he
became an owner, by the purchase, with one of his fellow clerks, of the business
of their deceased employer, Mr. O’Toole. The new firm, Joyce &
McDonald, carried on the business two years; but since 1886 James A. Joyce has
been sole proprietor, and his success as a dry-goods merchant has been
phenomenal. His store has been repeatedly enlarged and remodeled to meet
the ever increasing demand of his business. It comprises a first floor and
basement, 50 x 110 feet, well provided with all conveniences for the display of
goods and transaction of business. Mr. Joyce carries as large a stock as
possible, and keeps incessantly replenishing it, as the best available
substitute for still larger accommodations. Buying direct from the
manufacturers, he can sell at the lowest price possible, according to the
quality of the goods offered. Dealing on the same basis, and with
precisely the same advantages as merchants of San Francisco, he can and does
undersell them for the simple reason that his expenses are not so
great. Hence, it has come to pass that great numbers of Oakland ladies
have learned to buy their goods of Mr. Joyce, being fully satisfied from their
own experience and observation that goods of equal quality can not be bought so
cheaply across the bay. They have ascertained that bargains can be
obtained in his store that could not be had elsewhere without nullifying the
cheapness by the inferiority of the goods. These bargains in good wares
have proved the most effective advertising, being based on the bed-rock of
undeniable merit. It has thus been clearly established in this community that
a piece of goods from his store can not be duplicated at his prices; and ladies
have learned to save themselves the labor of searching further. So it has
become mainly a question of meeting the varied tastes of his numerous patrons
and in catering to these Mr. Joyce is an expert. The remarkable
development of his business can perhaps be best illustrated by the increase in
clerical force, which in seven years has grown from one clerk to fifty; and all
this success has been won on Washington street, which was regarded at the time
when Mr. Joyce began business there as laboring under insurmountable objections
as a location of a dry-goods store. It was said that it could not be made
a business thoroughfare in the lines recognized by ladies; it was not improved;
it was not a through street; it could not draw trade from popular
Broadway. Mr. Joyce has proved that all these drawbacks could be overcome
by the simple process of making it worth while to visit him on Washington street. He had unquestionably much to contend with, and
it is equally undeniable that the combination of personal energy, business
enterprise, good judgment and great industry, that has enabled him to overcome
all these obstacles, and many more that might be enumerated, is as rare in the
mercantile as in any other line of human endeavor. Merchants of this class
contribute largely to the welfare of the community.
Mr. Joyce is a member
of the Y. M. I., and of Pacific Lodge, No. 7, A. O. U. W., of Oakland. He
was married in this city, October 1, 1882, to Miss Ella G. Skaill,
born in Headford, Ireland, August 23, 1863, a
daughter of Derby and Margaret Skaill, both now
deceased–the father in Headford, in 1867, aged
forty-five, and the mother in Oakland, in 1884, aged sixty.
He has had three
children, of whom two are living, namely: Margaret Catherine, born July 17,
1883, and deceased in infancy; Charles Christopher, born January 13, 1885, and
Lillian Frances, born March 16, 1887.
Transcribed
by 10-5-06 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: "The Bay of San
Francisco," Vol. 2, Pages 160-161,
Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
©
2006 Marilyn R. Pankey.