Background
James Frederick was born on December 2, 1810 at Durham, New Hampshire, United States, son of James and Sarah (Pickering) Joy, and a descendant of Thomas Joy.
James Frederick was born on December 2, 1810 at Durham, New Hampshire, United States, son of James and Sarah (Pickering) Joy, and a descendant of Thomas Joy.
Joy received his early education in his native town, and after a couple of years as clerk in a store, graduated from Dartmouth College in 1833 at the head of his class. He then entered the Harvard Law School. He was compelled to interrupt his studies to teach school, but in 1836 he completed his course.
In 1836 Joy was admitted to the bar. The same year he moved to Detroit, and the following year formed a partnership with George F. Porter. The year 1837 was a momentous one in the history of Michigan, for it witnessed the authorization of a loan of $5, 000, 000 for the construction of three railroads across the state. Of these the state constructed only a few miles of the Michigan Southern Railroad and that part of the Michigan Central Railroad between Detroit and Kalamazoo. The panic of 1837 made it impossible for the state to borrow enough to complete them, and Joy urged their sale to a private company.
In conjunction with John W. Brooks, superintendent of the Auburn & Rochester Railroad, he interested a group of New York and Boston capitalists, headed by John Murray Forbes, in the purchase of the Michigan Central Railroad from the state, and in 1846 drew up the charter under which the sale was made. The new company paid $2, 000, 000 and made Forbes the first president. The road was now extended toward Chicago, but in order to obtain an entrance into that city made an arrangement with the Illinois Central for the use of its tracks.
Joy had charge of the litigation involved, and Abraham Lincoln, employed first by Joy in 1850, assisted him at Springfield. The next problem which was presented was that of extensions west of Chicago. For this purpose the Chicago & Aurora branch railroad was purchased in 1852, of which the following year Joy was made president. In 1856 he combined it with the Central Military Tract Railroad, of which he was president also, and gave them the name of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. In this same year the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad, stretching west from Burlington, received a federal land grant of 350, 000 acres, and after the panic of 1857 Joy was able to purchase this road at a low figure.
By the outbreak of the Civil War he had built the road as far as Ottumwa; in 1866 he was elected president and by 1869 had pushed it on to Council Bluffs on the Missouri. A charter and a federal land grant were obtained for the extension of the road across Nebraska and in 1873 it reached Fort Kearny, where a junction was effected with the Union Pacific. Meanwhile, Joy had acquired the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, which gave control of southern Iowa and northern Missouri. The termini of the two lines were connected by building the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad, of which Joy was president from 1870 to 1874, and branches were constructed to Atchison and Kansas City. Having in mind a possible route to the Gulf, Joy with the aid of his Boston backers, bought the Kansas & Neosho Valley Railroad. This he reorganized under the name of the Missouri River, Fort Scott & Gulf. By 1870 it was completed to the southern boundary of Kansas.
He also acquired the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston, which he built only as far south as Coffeyville, near the southern boundary of the state, obtaining thereby a part of the Kansas land grant. The "Joysystem" was the first important western railroad combination. Sale of control of the Hannibal & St. Joseph, the "key link, " to Jay Gould by Boston interests in 1870, upset Joy's plans for a line to the Pacific over part of the Santa Fé route. The remainder of the roads in the "Joy system" in Kansas were disposed of to other interests or absorbed by the Burlington. In organizing and carrying out these plans Joy was inevitably led into many positions of power and responsibility.
In 1852 he became the counsel general for the Michigan Central and in 1853 for the Illinois Central, serving the latter for only one year. He became president of the former road in 1867 and practically rebuilt it; later he took over the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific, of which he was president from 1884 to 1887, and arranged an eastern connection for it. He was one of the incorporators of the St. Mary's Falls Ship Canal Company, which, under contract with the state of Michigan, built the first ship canal at Sault Ste. Marie (1853 - 55). For a short time he was president of the Detroit Post and Tribune (1881 - 84), and was long a director of the Detroit National Bank. He was a member of the Michigan legislature in 1861-62, and was floor-leader of the House.
He died at his home in Detroit, Michigan, United States.
A Whig in his early politics, Joy later became a Republican, assisting in the election of Lincoln and vigorously defending his policies as president.
Joy was twice married, first, August 12, 1841, to Martha Alger Reed of Yarmouth, Massachussets, by whom he had four children; and second, December 12, 1860, to Mary Bourne of Hartford, Connecticut, by whom he had three children.