William Thomas Joyce Dead.
March 18, 1909 Manning Monitor

William Thomas Joyce was born January 2, 1860, at Salsbury, Connecticut. Died at his home in Chicago, Thursday, March 4, 1909, after an illness of about four months, the immediate cause of his death being malignant endo carditis. His parents, of old New England Puritan sect, came west in his infancy and located at Lyons, Iowa, now a part of Clinton, where the son had the advantage of an education in the Lyons schools, which was supplemented later by a course in the Shattuck school at Faribault, Minnesota, and an academic training in Chicago.

In the meantime David Joyce, the father, and one of the foremost of northern lumber pioneers, became interested in lumber manufacture in Lyons, and after leaving school in 1880, W.T. Joyce entered his father's service in the mill office in Lyons.

Here began a training under one feature of which, perhaps, the son became restive, but which in reality was tantamount later to a valuable asset, for while his material needs were well cared for, he had absolutely no fixed salary and so was well-instructed perforce in the value of money.

Mr. Joyce was president of four railroads, viz.: the Maistee & Grand Rapids Ry. Co., Minneapolis & Rainy River R.R., the Tremont & Gulf R.R. and the Groveton & Lumpkin & Northern Ry. He was also president of the following Southern Companies: Southern Investment Co., Tremont Lumber Co., Winn Parish Lumber Co., Louisiana Lumber Company, Limited, all operating in Louisiana, and the Trinity Lumber Co., operating in Texas. In the north he was president of the Northern Investment Co., W.T. Joyce Co., The Joyce-Watkins Co., doing a telegraph and telephone pole business, and the Joyce Lumber Co., of Clinton, Iowa, engaged in the wholesale business.

He was also president of the Garland Hotel Company, which owns and operates the Park Hotel at Hot Springs, Arkansas. In addition to these concerns he was also connected with the Victoria Lumber Co., of Victoria, British Columbia; the Mississippi Logging Co., the St. Paul Boom Company; stockholder in the Corn Exchange National Bank and Illinois Trust & Savings Bank, of New Orleans, and a number of other institutions. The yellow pine mills which Mr. Joyce controlled are capable of a combined capacity of 150,000,000 feet per year. The timber output of the Finnerty Lumber Company's mill alone amounts to over 500,000,000 feet. His headquarters was established in Chicago in 1897. He had twenty-nine line yards, 10 of which were here in Carroll County.

In 1884 Mr. Joyce married Miss Clotilde Gage, of a well-known Lyons family, who with their two sons, Mr. David G. and James Stanley, survive him. A property of estimated valuations of twenty millions of dollars he leaves his family of wife and two sons.

Mr. Joyce's body was brought to Lyons from Chicago in a train of six parlor cars and dining car, accompanied by about one hundred prominent lumbermen and personal friends.

The services were held in Grace Episcopal Church, with burial rites at the grave conducted by DeMolay Consistory Scottish Rite Masons. Mr. and Mrs. E.C. Spurr, of this city, attended the funeral, which was held Sunday, March 7th.


Note:There was a Joyce Lumber Company along South Main Street located near the city park location in 2011.