IA-IRISH-L Archives

From: "Cathy Joynt Labath" <>
Subject: Bio of Thomas Hunt Joyce
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 17:42:06 -0500

Harlan, Edgar Rubey. A Narrative History of the People of Iowa. Vol IV. Chicago:
American Historical Society, 1931
p. 49

THOMAS HUNT JOYCE, although born in Ireland, has been an Iowan since his
earliest years, and is extremely loyal to his home state and is always
interested in promoting any enterprise that will further the growth or
betterment of his home town of Keokuk and Iowa. His life work has not been
confined to Iowa alone. Mr. Joyce is head of a group of contracting firms whose
activities in railroad building and highway construction radiates over half a
dozen midwestern states.
Mr. Joyce was born in County Galway, Ireland, May 24, 1867. In 1870, when he
was three years old, he came with his parents, Patrick and Mary Hunt Joyce, to
the United States, landing in New York and going directly to Keokuk. His father
chose to settle in Keokuk because at that time the Government was building a
large canal between Nashville (now Galland) and Keokuk, and he was to be
employed by contractors in the construction work there. This canal was in later
years submerged when the Mississippi River Power Company built the dam between
Keokuk, Iowa and Hamilton, Illinois. When the canal was completed his family
moved to a farm near Breckenridge, Illinois, where they remained four years. His
father on leaving he farm took up work with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe
Railway Company during the construction of the Santa Fe line between Chicago and
Kansas City. When this work had been completed Patrick Joyce, with his family,
returned to Keokuk and for an umber of years was engaged in the teaming and
contracting business, until his death, September 1, 1901. His wife died in 1877.
In the meantime Thomas Joyce was acquiring a common school and practical
education, and was from boyhood in touch with the great work of railway
construction. He attended the Beggs School at Galland and schools in Keokuk
until he was fourteen and in after years he made up for some of his deficiencies
of his earlier training by attending night school classes in Keokuk. While
working with his father on the construction of the Santa Fe line between Chicago
and Kansas City he gained the inspiration to become a contractor. From the age
of twenty-one to twenty-five he was employed by different contracting companies
in Iowa and nearby states.
In 1893 he became superintendent for the contracting firm of Cameron &
McManus of Keokuk, while they had the contract for the building of a terminal
and switching yards around Keokuk. In August of the same year he was taken into
the partnership and the firm's name changed to Cameron, McManus & Joyce. This
partnership existed for nineteen years, until the death of Mr. James Cameron in
October, 1912, and Mr. Thomas F. McManus in February of 1913. The business was
then reorganized by Mr. Joyce and the new partnership was called Cameron, Joyce
& Company. In the new partnership the members in addition to Mr. Joyce were
James Cameron, oldest son of the former partner, George E. Smith and Robert E.
O'Brien. In 1918, after Mr. O'Brien severed his connection with the partnership,
the company was incorporated by the following: Thomas H. Joyce, James Cameron,
George E. Smith, and James M. Joyce.
The contracting companies with which Mr. Joyce has been associated have been
leaders in the contracting work for the Santa Fe, and have done work for them
continuously since 1894. The grading contracts awarded to the companies with
which Mr. Joyce has been associated have extended from Chicago to Kansas and
through the far West.
About eighty miles of the grading done preparatory to the laying of the
double track between Chicago and Kansas City was done by Cameron, McManus &
Joyce. At the time of the World's Fair in Saint Louis, the Cameron, Joyce &
Company partnership did the heavy grading on the Mexico-Old Road. Another
interesting contract awarded the partnership was a pipe line job for the Santa
Fe, involving the handling and laying of pipe which was hauled fourteen miles
from Flagstaff, Arizona, in wagons and distributed around the mountainside and
then packed up by burros up the mountains a distance of from one and one-half to
three miles.
In 1926 Cameron, Joyce & Company, of which Mr. Joyce is now president, was
awarded a large contract by the Santa Fe on a cut off near Mulvane, Kansas. This
work involved about seven hundred thousand yards of grading. The company,
together with its subsidiary companies, have also handled a number of grading
jobs for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy,
the Illinois Central and the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway Companies.
In recent years these contracting companies have taken up highway paving,
and have had contracts that included grading, culverts, bridge construction, and
the laying of the slab in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri and Minnesota. In 1928,
approximately one hundred miles of eighteen foot slab was laid, and in the
construction of these highways five hundred men were employed by Cameron, Joyce
Companies, as well as twenty subcontractors, who employed about thirty men each.
In coming to a high place in the business world Mr. Joyce has brought with
him and promoted the success of many others. Mr. Joyce is always interested in
ambitious men, and puts opportunities in their way and has that broad and
tolerant spirit which overlooks some of the ways of youth and endeavors to
inspire them with high ideas and ideals. Love of work, natural leadership among
men and a determination to succeed account for his record of successful
achievements in business. He has been persevering, has weighed well the
circumstances in connection with his undertakings, and has regarded the
essentials of accomplishment above personal advantage and personal comfort.
As a result of Mr. Joyce's steady advance in the business world he finds
himself at present the president of Cameron, Joyce, & Company, Cameron, Joyce,
Smith, Elder Company, Cameron, Joyce Steam Shovel Company, Hamilton Contracting
Company; president and treasurer of the Scott-Edwards Printing Company;
treasurer of the Tri State Roofing Company; partner in J. Burk-Coco Cola
Bottling Company; director of the Keokuk National Bank, Purity Oats Company and
the Southwest Box Company; chairman of the board of directors of the Super Oil
Company; member of the American General Contractors Association. At the time
final arrangements were being made for the building of the Keokuk and Hamilton
Dam he was a director of the Industrial Association, now known as the Chamber of
Commerce, and helped in the raising of $60,000 for the betterment and
advertisement of Keokuk.
Mr. Joyce is a Roman Catholic. He is affiliated with the Knights of
Columbus, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Fraternal Order of
Eagles, the Keokuk Country Club, The Keokuk Club, the Hancock County Automobile
Club, the Rotary Club, and has been interested in a number of campaigns in
behalf of the Democratic candidates.
Mr. Joyce was married, November 26, 1885, to Ella Croughan, daughter of a
retired farmer of Clark County, Missouri. Their marriage was solemnized by the
Rev. Thomas O'Reilly, pastor of Saint Peter's Catholic Church of Keokuk, Iowa.
Having often felt the disadvantage of not attending school as a boy, Mr.
Joyce has generously offered to his six children the advantage of a college
education. His oldest daughter, Marybel, attended Saint Mary's Notre Dame and
the University of Iowa. After finishing two years of college she was married to
David L. Hassett in June, 1923. They now have three children, Joyce, Sallyann
and Ruth. His second daughter, Ann, received her A.B. degree from Trinity
College, Washington, D.C. His son Thomas received his A.B. degree from the
University of Iowa. James finished two years' work at the University and then
accepted a position as manager of the Super Oil Company. James also manages the
farming of about five hundred acres of farm land for his father. Mr. Joyce has
carried over from his childhood a great love of the farm, and his hobby is
overseeing and helping his son with the farm management. Helen and John are now
attending the University of Iowa.

Cathy Joynt Labath
Irish in Iowa
http://www.celticcousins.net/irishiniowa/index.htm

This thread:

• Bio of Thomas Hunt Joyce by "Cathy Joynt Labath" <>