Born in Jacksonville, Illinois on December 11, 1849, Joy attended the public schools.

[1][2] He studied law, and was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in St. Louis, Missouri in 1876.

He was presented credentials as a Republican Member-elect to the Fifty-third Congress and served until April 3, 1894, when he was succeeded by John J. O'Neill, who contested the election.

She descended from the Grants and Lennoxes of England, and spent the greater part of her girlhood abroad, returning to Boston in 1872.

Since 1889 her family resided in California, where, on May 11, 1895, she and Charles F. Joy were married in San Mateo.