Sutter-Yuba County Biographies


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



 
JAMES THOMAS SULLIVAN
 
An experienced, tactful and ever sympathetic and affable executive, who has an 
exceptional opportunity, while discharging his official duties, to be of real 
service to his fellow-men, is James Thomas Sullivan, the efficient 
superintendent of the Roman Catholic Cemetery at Marysville.  He was born in 
Cork, Ireland, on September 22, 1872, the son of Thomas and Catherine (Dorgan) 
Sullivan, highly esteemed residents of that old Irish town, who lived and died 
there, lamented in their demise by all who knew them.  They were the sort of 
folk of whom Ireland may well be proud, and who, had they crossed the Atlantic, 
as did so many of their countrymen, would have nobly borne their part in the 
young republic in the New World. Those of the family who did come to the United 
States number among them an uncle of our subject, James Sullivan, who served in 
the Union Army under General Sheridan, in the Engineer Corps; he spent his last 
days in Galveston, Texas.  Another uncle, Patrick, was in New Orleans when the 
Civil War broke out, and was forced into service in the Confederate Army; his 
death occurred in New Orleans, and his son, James, was chief dispatcher for the 
Illinois Central Railway until he died of yellow fever.  Another uncle was John 
Sullivan, who was for many years superintendent of construction for the Southern 
Pacific Railway at Marysville, and afterwards held the same position with the 
United Railroad; he now lives in San Francisco.  Mr. Sullivan also had two aunts 
(sisters of his father).  Mary Sullivan married John Every, an Englishman, who 
was a seafaring man and the owner of two boats trading at the different seaport 
towns on the Gulf of Mexico.  She died in New Orleans.  Hannah Sullivan became 
the wife of William Singleton, a business man in New Orleans, where she resided 
until her death.
James Thomas Sullivan went to the excellent national schools in Ireland, and 
continued his schooling at the Lincoln and Washington evening schools in San 
Francisco; for he had come out to California and the Bay City as a boy of 
seventeen years.  For sixteen and one-half years he was with the Presidio and 
Ferry Railroad; and at the time of the great earthquake, he went into the 
service of the Debris Department and rendered aid in restoring order and 
guaranteeing the safety of the afflicted.  Then he was engaged by the management 
of the Holy Cross Cemetery for three and one-half years, and later became an 
erecting and stationary engineer and was with the Union Iron Works as second 
engineer.  Leaving there, he took a position with the Northern Electric in 
Marysville, in 1913.  On leaving them, the same year, he accepted employment 
with the Yuba Construction Company, with whom he remained for six years, 
becoming floor foreman in the erecting department.  Then he was with the 
Marysville Water Company as assistant superintendent, and as engineer and 
mechanic, for three years; and thereafter he entered upon his responsible duties 
as superintendent of St. Joseph�s Cemetery.
Mr. Sullivan has been twice married, and both of his devoted wives are deceased. 
 By his first marriage he had four children.  One of these, Harold James, a 
machinist, grew up and is living.  When Congress declared war on Germany, he 
enlisted in the Aviation Section of the United States Army, 821st Aviation 
Corps, was sent over seas, and was a sergeant at Stamford, England, with orders 
to go to the front when the armistice was signed.  He returned to California and 
was mustered out at Camp Kearney in 1919.  He is now an engineer, residing in 
Oakland.  Mr. Sullivan�s second wife, Mary McCartney, who was born in 
Philadelphia, was a daughter of Michael and Mathilda (Gallagher) McCartney, 
natives of County Armaugh, Ireland, who immigrated to Philadelphia.  Mr. 
McCartney served in the Civil War under General Phil Sheridan until the close of 
the conflict; he died soon after being mustered out, and the mother and daughter 
came out to California, whither three uncles, Patrick, James and Peter 
Gallagher, had come in the early gold days, and were residing at Smartsville.  
Mrs. Sullivan was educated St. Vincent�s Convent in San Francisco.  Leaving home 
at the age of sixteen and one-half years, and then helping himself onward by 
taking the course of the International Correspondence Schools in electrical and 
steam engineering, Mr. Sullivan has attained to something worth while.  He owns 
a ranch of two hundred acres adjoining Hammonton, and takes a lively interest in 
all matters pertaining to the growth of his city and county.  He is a Knight of 
Columbus of the third degree, and belongs to the Maccabees.  In religious 
matters he is a devoted member of St. Joseph�s Catholic Church; and in politics 
he is a Republican.
 
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 845