Marin County Biographies

JAMES TUNSTEAD

Transcribed by Betty Wilson

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


              The subject of this sketch is the son of Thomas and 
Deborah Tunstead, and was born in county Carlow, Ireland, January 18, 1842.  In 
the Spring of 1849 he accompanies his parents to America, and with them settled 
in Newark, New Jersey, where he attended school.  There he resided until the 
year 1856, when he shipped before the mast on board the ship �Robin Hood,� 
Captain, M. Ginley, following a sailor�s life until March 21, 1861, the date on 
which he left for California on board the clipper ship �Galatea,� and arrived in 
San Francisco August 10th of that year.  Mr. Tunstead early showed that 
determination of character which, in after life, has stood him in such good 
stead; he lost no time but at once commenced teaming in San Francisco, and the 
better to increase his stock of knowledge he was a regular attendant at the nigh 
schools.  In that city he sojourned until 1862, the time of the gold excitement 
in Cariboo, whither he went and engaged in prospecting and mining, enduring many 
hardships until obliged to work his passage back to San Francisco in the steamer 
�Hermann,� in the Fall of that year.  Once more in San Francisco, Mr. Tunstead 
reverted to his old occupation of teaming, being successively employed by Mr. 
Martin and Horace Davis, of the Golden Gate Flouring Mill, with whom he remained 
until coming to Marin county in October, 1866.  At this period he served in the 
McMahon and National Guards of the State Militia.  On his arrival in Marin, he 
rented a farm from James Black, on the Pacheco Rancho, and there pursued his 
farming operations until September, 1875, when he was nominated for the office 
of County Sheriff on the Independent ticket, and was elected by the handsome 
majority of two hundred votes.  He was nominated for a second term in 1877, on 
this occasion on the Democratic ticket, and being again elected, held the office 
until March, 1880.  He did not accept re-nomination.  It is no fulsome flattery 
so say that few more able, keen-sighted or efficient officers have ever been 
found on the roll of officials, while a more popular citizen does not exist than 
James Tunstead.
 
History of Marin County, California; Including Its Geography, Geology, 
Topography and Climatology; by J. P. Munro-Fraser, Historian; Alley, Bowen & 
Co., Publishers, San Francisco, California, 1880