David Joyce

David Joyce (26 February 1825 – 4 December 1904) was an American "lumber baron" and industrialist. His fortune was eventually inherited by Beatrice Joyce Kean who used it to establish the Joyce Foundation in 1948.

Early life

David Joyce was born at Mt. Washington in the town of Sheffield, Massachusetts on February 26, 1825. His father John D. Joyce operated a blast furnace machine shop and foundry in Berkshire county (moved to Salisbury, Connecticut in 1844). John Joyce gave his son such moderate education as was afforded by the common school, until, at the age of twelve years, David Joyce was hired as the driver of one of his father’s teams. Desirous of learning and of aspiring disposition, he developed a taste for mathematics and for mechanic arts. By working for his father, he not only acquired a knowledge of machinery and the foundry business, but also became a practical civil engineer and surveyor, making the instruments of this profession with his own hands. He continued to work for his father until 1848, when, at the age of thirty years, he started his own mercantile business, assuming full control of two general stores.

Business in Clinton, Iowa (Lyons)

Joyce left his home in Sheffield, Massachusetts, in 1854 to see the developing frontier country that then was Iowa. He spent two years in Lyons, Iowa, engaged in the livestock and agricultural product business, before returning to his general stores in Massachusetts. He enlarged his...
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