Born in Londonderry, Ireland about 1844, my third great grandfather, James Boyce, was brought over to America as an infant. Starting around the age of 16, I can place him in Wheeling, Ohio County, Virginia, when he enlisted in the Union Army at the start of the U.S. Civil War. Military pension records describe him as being of light complexion with grey eyes and brown hair and standing at 5 feet 5 inches high.
In March 1864 he deserted the army. Later that year he signed up to be a Landsman in the U.S. Navy in New York under the alias James Bradley. At this time, he was described as having a dark complexion, grey eyes, dark hair, a height of 5' 7" and vaccine marks on his arms. He was given an honorable discharge in June 1865 following the war's end, however, in his later years, he was denied a pension when the government learned of his desertion charge. In any case, James Boyce was not destined to remain a military man.
His true calling was in the mill industry. Whether he enjoyed this grueling line of work or not can't be known, but his profession remained in this vein throughout his life. Following the war, the first records in which we find James are in church and civil records for his marriage to my third great grandmother, Margaret Murphy (formerly Keeffe).
A witness to their union, Mark Hopkins, was a boiler man in Wheeling so likely a coworker of James', perhaps at the Wheeling Rolling Mill in which James was employed at in the 1870 U.S. federal census. The 1872 Wheeling Directory specifies James' role as a boiler.
Wheeling, West Virginia and its surrounding communities became a titan in the iron and steel industries. It was first nicknamed "Nail City" due to its high production of wrought iron nails, but then in 1884, the state's first Bessemer converter began operation at the Riverside Iron Works, and its massive steel industry was born. In both types of mills, boilermen were in for many hazards on the job. Not only were the boiler rooms running at extreme temperatures, but they were also known to explode.
Surprisingly, this did not dissuade Boyce from continuing on in the city's milling industries. He turned to puddling iron. Puddling was the process of converting pig iron to wrought iron in a furnace. Puddled iron would soon be the spark that ignited the start of the Industrial Revolution (the Eiffel Tower and Statue of Liberty were both manufactured with puddled iron).
It still remained a very strenuous job that could not be automated. Due to the heat and fumes, the life expectancy of a puddler was cut very short -- most said to meet their end in their 30's. James appeared to beat the odds, at least by a few years, and lived until 55, when tuberculosis took him.
He had retired about a year prior to his death, likely already succumbing to the effects of poor health brought on by hazardous work conditions in the mills. His application for a pension in 1897 purported he was unable to garner wages due to rheumatism, a condition known for inflicting joint and muscle pain.
What remains to honor him is a well-chiseled gravestone to match that of his wife's in Mt. Calvary Cemetery in Wheeling, West Virginia.
Sources:
https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/586
https://www.ohiocountylibrary.org/history/iron-and-steel-industries-in-wheeling/5196
https://www.ohiocountylibrary.org/history/3040
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puddling_(metallurgy)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ohiocountypubliclibrary/50323590992/in/album-72157715902353626/
https://www.fold3.com/image/287343556?terms=james,war,civil,union,boyce
https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/2869533/person/-1806090939/facts
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/126366786/james-boyce
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