Dr. Joseph William James, who is engaged in the practice of medicine in Sacramento, was born in Cornwall, England, on the 1st of January, 1876. His father, Thomas James, also a native of England, was a miner in that country and is now living in Sacramento. He traces his ancestry back through many generations, with several family members having been soldiers in the Crimean War. Thomas James crossed the Atlantic to America in 1880, and for four years was a resident of Michigan, after which he came to California. He is now employed in the state gardens and has attained considerable prominence in political circles in Sacramento. He wedded Miss Mary E. Carpenter, also a native of England and a daughter of Captain John Carpenter, who was a mine operator and superintendent in Cornwall, England, where he met his death while perfecting a furnace for refining tin, the immediate cause of his demise being arsenic poisoning. His daughter, Mrs. James, is now living in Sacramento. One son, John James, is a druggist in Sacramento connected with the Willis Martin Company, incorporated.
Dr. James was a student in the public and private schools of San Francisco and Sacramento in his early boyhood days. After completing the work of the grammar schools, he entered a private school and thus mastered the literary branches prior to entering upon preparation for his chosen profession. It was in 1896 that he matriculated in Cooper Medical College, in which he was graduated in 1900 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In that year, he accepted an internship in the Sacramento County Hospital, where he remained for eight months. He was then house physician at the Southern Pacific Railroad Hospital at Sacramento for four months, and at the end of that time entered upon the private practice of his profession, opening an office opposite the post office on K Street. A year later, he removed to his present location on Tenth and K Streets, where he has remained since August 1902. He was associated in this office with Dr. T. J. Cox, who is represented on another page of this work. Dr. James has built up a good private practice and is now medical examiner for the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company and for Union Lodge, A. O. U. W. He is a member of the American Medical Association and the Sacramento Society for Medical Improvement, being secretary of the latter as well as a member of the board of medical directors. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party, and he has recently been appointed a member of the city board of health to do sanitation work during the smallpox epidemic. He has taken a very active interest in the subject of sanitation and his views upon this question have contributed in no small degree to the improvement of sanitary conditions in Sacramento.
Source: Leigh H. Irvine; A History of the New California Its Resources and People, 2 Volumes; New York and Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1903.