C. E. K. ROYCE is a native of New Lebanon, Columbia County, New York, and is descended from New England ancestry. His father was born in Connecticut, and his mother was a native of Massachusetts. The paternal ancestors were settlers in Massachusetts in 1634, and in Connecticut as early as 1643, and his paternal ancestors in Rhode Island about the same time. Colonel Royce attended school during his boyhood in the town of his birth, and after completing a preparatory course at Amenia Seminary, in Dutchess County, New York, he entered Williams College, from which institution he was graduated in the year 1859. Immediately thereafter he began a course of reading in law, and afterwards became a student in the law department of Columbia College. He was admitted to the bar in 1861, but upon the breaking out of the civil war he entered the service, enlisting in the Forty-fourth New York Volunteer Infantry, in which he served in the Army of the Potomac as private, Second and First Lieutenant, and was transferred to Sixth United States Colored Troops, and commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel. He was afterward commissioned Colonel of the Twenty-ninth Regiment United States Colored Troops, and as in such occupied the extreme left of the infantry line at the surrender at Appomattox. He participated in a number of battles and skirmishes, and was several times wounded. In the battle of Deep Bottom he received five bullets in his coat, two in his haversack, and the buckle of his vest was shot away; his horse was shot under him, and the percentage of killed and wounded, according to the numbers engaged, recorded as one of the severest fights of the war.
Colonel Royce remained in the service till after the declaration of peace, and was mustered out in November, 1865. He returned to the State of New York, and was a resident of Long Island for a period of two years; he then move to Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he engaged in the practice of law until 1876. It was that year, the Centennial of our Independence, he removed to the Golden State. It was not until 1879 that he resumed the practice of his profession, but since that time he has been steadily occupied with his business, and has secured a profitable patronage.
The Colonel is prominently identified with Grand Army of the Republic, and in 1884 he was elected Commander of the George H. Thomas Post. In his political preference he is a Republican, but he is not an office-seeker.
Source: "The Bay of San Francisco" Volume 1. Lewis Publishing Company 1892. Page 433.
Submitted by: Nancy Pratt Melton.
© 2002 Nancy Pratt Melton