Yolo County Biographies


This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
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Mrs. Halcyon JOYCE
 
One of the comparatively few women as yet holding public office in California, 
Mrs. Halcyon (Williams) Joyce has had a career which in some of its aspects is 
of more than usual interest.  Halcyon Williams was born near Carthage, Ill., a 
daughter of Rolla T. and Mollie (Irwin) Williams.  Her father was born near 
Urbana, Champaign county, Ohio, and in 1862, enlisted in the Twenty-sixth 
Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which organization he did gallant 
service as a soldier until the close of the Civil war.  Returning to his home, 
he soon moved to Illinois, and settling near Carthage, engaged in farming.  
There he remained till in 1877, when, with his family, he came to California and 
located in Yolo county, where he resumed farming and was thus employed until, 
retiring from active life, he made his home in Woodland.  His wife was a native 
of Lexington, Ky., and a member of the family of Breckinridge long prominent in 
our national history.  Halcyon Joyce is their only child.
 
Mrs. Joyce was educated in the schools of Woodland and at the Woodland Business 
College.  Soon after her graduation from the institution just named she was 
appointed official reporter of the Superior court of Yolo county.  From 1897 
until the present time she has held that office by repeated appointment except 
during eighteen months.  She has won much praise from high sources for the 
accuracy with which her work has been done as well as for her devotion to the 
duties of an exacting office.  Among stenographers she is widely and favorably 
known because of her prominence in the state and also for her activity in the 
California Short Hand Reporters� Association, of which she has long been a 
member.
 
At Buffalo, N. Y., July 29, 1905, Miss Williams married William Allen Joyce, M. 
D., a native of New York city and a graduate of the Baltimore Medical College, 
who has been in the practice of medicine and surgery in Woodland since 1903 and 
has attained much prominence in his profession in Yolo and nearby counties.
 
Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source:  �History of Yolo County, California� by Tom Gregory.  Published by the 
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 699 � 700.