Michael Joyce Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Pages 492-493

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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MICHAEL JOYCE. Few men have better gauged the possibilities of Dakota's 
farming capacity, and few have so ably conducted a business of any 
kind, adapting means to ends with so much foresight, and with such 
unvarying success as has the gentleman whose name heads this article. 
He resides upon his farm, surrounded with the comforts of a rural life, 
and his home, located on section 3 of Whit side township, Beadle 
county, is presided over by his son's wife. the wife of our subject 
having departed this life more than two years since.  

Michael Joyce is a native of Ireland, born in county Clare, September 
12, 1844, the seventh child in order of birth of a family of nine 
children born to Mathias and Margaret (McGrath) Joyce. In his boyhood 
he began clerking in a store, but finding an indoor life distasteful, 
he determined to seek a wider field for his struggles to gain a 
livelihood, and soon embarked for America. Fortune smiled on him from 
the start, for immediately upon landing in this country he met an old 
friend of his father's who procured for him quite a lucrative position 
as time-keeper for the Morris and Essex Railroad, which was then in 
course of construction. He afterward went to Illinois, and located in 
Whiteside county, and engaged in farming. He remained there for about 
nineteen years, and in 1883 removed to Dakota, arriving there in 
February. He took up land, and in improving it and purchasing stock he 
exhausted his ready money, about fifteen hundred dollars. Fortune had 
not forgotten him, however, and again came to his aid with abundant 
harvests. His unerring foresight led him, however, to rely upon stock 
raising rather than grain growing, and he began to acquire large stock 
interests. He has provided numerous conveniences for feeding, watering 
and sheltering his stock, his farm and pastures being intelligently 
divided and provided with buildings! barns, sheds, wind-mills, etc., 
and one of his pastures encloses about one thousand acres of land. 
Notwithstanding these extensive arrangements for the stock business, 
about four hundred acres are devoted annually to wheat growing, two 
hundred acres to other small grains and fodder for his stock in winter. 
Our subject is the business head and manager of this vast enterprise, 
while his son, John W. Joyce, born in Illinois, March 25, 1865, looks 
after the details of the farming operations.  

In political views Mr. Joyce is non-partisan, with perhaps a slight 
inclination to Democratic faith. He opposes equal suffrage, and favors 
high license of the liquor traffic. He takes an active interest in 
local political matters, and has been called upon to serve in various 
public capacities, having been a member of the township board for two 
years, and in 1896 was elected county commissioner from the fifth 
district.  

Mr. Joyce was married in 1863 to Mary Meany, and to them seven children 
were born, named as follows: John W., Kate (deceased); Mollie, now Mrs. 
Dr. H. H. English; Margaret (deceased); James (deceased); Winnifred 
(deceased); Martin (deceased).  

The only living son, John W., as has been previously stated, lives on 
the home farm . and attends to the details of their immense business, 
while the father looks more particularly to the buying and selling, and 
to the investments. John W. Joyce was married June 13, 1893, to Miss 
Etta M. Anderson, and to this- union three children have been born, 
namely: Helen, Kate and Elmer.