San Diego County Biographies
 
JOSEPH Le CYR

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


was born in Aroostook County, Maine, August 8, 1847. His father, Vilas Le Cyr, 
was a native of the same place. His grandfather, David Le Cyr, came from France 
and settled in Maine. His mother, Mary (Lisotte) Cyr, was also a native of 
Aroostook. His grandmother had twenty-two children and was the mother of five 
pair of twins, and sixteen of them have been married and had families. She lived 
to be eighty-seven years of age, and retained her eyesight unimpaired. She was a 
very smart woman to the close of her life. Mr. Le Cyr's parents had six 
children, of whom he was the second. When a child he was sent to a French school 
in Maine, and later he went to Houlton Academy. When sixteen years of age he 
offered his services to his country in its great struggle for national life. He 
enlisted in Company C, Sixteenth Volunteer Infantry, Maine, and served to the 
close of the war. He was in the victorious army of the Potomac and participated 
in several of the hardest fought battles of the war, and was present when 
General Lee surrendered. At the close of the war he was discharged. He then took 
a course at the Bryant & Stratton Business College, Missouri. He then took a 
clerkship in a commission house in St. Joseph, Missouri. After this he went to 
Montana, where he engaged in mining. In 1867 he came to White Pine, Eureka 
County, Nevada, and settled there. He was a pioneer there, and kept a livery 
stable and hauled ore for six years. He then came to Inyo County, California, 
where he continued his livery business and teaming for fifteen years. He then 
removed to Daggett, and while there was engaged in teaming and blacksmithing, 
also held the office of deputy sheriff. Then he sold out and came to San Jacinto 
in 1886, where he purchased 200 acres of land in and about the valley of San 
Jacinto, on a tract of which he built a good house and several barns, and 
planted a variety of fruit trees, including orange trees, and is farming on a 
large scale. He is sowing this year 1,200 acres of wheat, barley and oats. He 
has also four acres of vineyard, and everything about the property has the 
appearance of business and thrift. The trees are making a fine growth. He is 
also raising some good blooded horses of the Norfolk stock and English Shire, 
and mules. He was married in 1877 to Miss Emma Holland, born in Missouri May 2, 
1861. She was the daughter of Mr. David Holland, of Manchester, England. They 
have two sons:�Joseph R., born in Daggett, California, January 21, 1885, and 
Ferdinand, born May 9, 1887, in San Jacinto. Mr. Le Cyr is a member of the G. A. 
R., J. A. Addison Post, No. 121, San Jacinto, and is an energetic business man 
of good ability,
 
SOURCE:  An Illustrated History of Southern California:  Embracing the Counties 
of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower 
California� Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.  p.-  156