Contra Costa-Tuolumne-Napa County CA Archives Biographies.....Tormey, John 1825 - 1877
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Author: W. A. Slocum & Co., Publishers (1882)

JOHN TORMEY, (deceased).—This gentleman was born in Westmeath, Ireland, in the
year 1825, and there resided until 1849, when, in company with his sister, Ann
Tormey, he sailed for the United States, arriving in New York in the month of
April. He almost immediately proceeded to Peoria, Illinois, where he remained
about ten months. He then, it being the Spring of 1850, with his brother-in-law,
Peter Fagan, and a cousin, started with ox-teams to face the hardships of a
journey across the plains to California. On arrival in the Golden State, he
first turned his attention to mining in Tuolumne county, an occupation he
followed until the Fall of 1852, when he returned to New York. Subsequently, Mr.
Tormey went to the Western States, and there purchasing a band of cattle drove
them to California, to Suscol, Napa county, where he arrived in the Fall of
1853. A year later, there being associated with him in the transaction Peter
Fagan and Isaac Lancashire, he purchased a tract of three thousand acres of land
in Suscol, and there followed farming and stock-raising until 1865, in which
year he came to Contra Costa county, and bought the interest of one of the
Martinez heirs in a two-thousand-acre tract of the Pinole Grant, still, however,
retaining his interest in Napa county. Mr. Tormey now embarked in farming and
stock-raising on his newly acquired property, and, in 1867, in partnership with
his brother, Patrick Tormey, purchased four and one-third elevenths of the
Pinole Grant, consisting of seven thousand acres, on which he resided until his
death on July 21, 1877. In the Fall of 1866, John Tormey was elected to the
Board of Supervisors of Contra Costa county from Township Number One, and was
four times re-elected to the like position, continuing to perform the functions
of the office until the period of his demise. John Tormey was a man of generous,
noble, kind and liberal instincts, a spirit which was displayed on many
occasions, not only in assisting his own relatives, but others not of kin. Few
men had so large a number of attached friends, and the attendance at his funeral
was the largest ever seen in Martinez, many of those present having come from
abroad and from other portions of the county, and the train of carriages
following the remains from the family residence, over eight miles of dusty road,
numbered upwards of a hundred and twenty. He was buried in the Martinez
Cemetery, in the family plot upon the hill-top, which looks out over the waters
of the Straits of Carquinez and Suisun Bay, to the far-off snowy Sierras. His
remains were reverently laid away with the last attentions of affection and the
impressive ceremonies of religion. The spot is marked by a monument graceful in
design and elegant in form, of rare beauty and excellent workmanship. Mr. Tormey
married in Stockton, November, 1859, Miss Anna Waterhouse, a native of Missouri,
by which union there were nine children, five of whom are now living, viz:
Thomas L., John V., Philip J., Mary T. and Ida M.

Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY,
CALIFORNIA,
INCLUDING ITS GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, TOPOGRAPHY, CLIMATOGRAPHY AND DESCRIPTION;
TOGETHER WITH A RECORD OF THE MEXICAN GRANTS; THE BEAR FLAG WAR; THE MOUNT
DIABLO COAL FIELDS; THE EARLY HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT, COMPILED FROM THE MOST
AUTHENTIC SOURCES; THE NAMES OF ORIGINAL SPANISH AND MEXICAN PIONEERS; FULL
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF THE COUNTY; SEPARATE HISTORY OF EACH TOWNSHIP, SHOWING
THE ADVANCE IN POPULATION AND AGRICULTURE;
ALSO,
Incidents of Pioneer Life; and Biographical Sketches
OF EARLY AND PROMINENT SETTLERS AND REPRESENTATIVE MEN;
AMD OF ITS TOWNS, VILLAGES, CHURCHES, SECRET SOCIETIES, ETC.
ILLUSTRATED.
SAN FRANCISCO: W. A. SLOCUM & CO., PUBLISHERS
1882.



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