After not being able to find the baby's parents anywhere he soon became a ward of the state and put into an orphanage until he reached the age of twenty it was difficult to find any job in New York if you didn't have a family member to be your reference. In 1929 with the prohibition in full swing and no jobs available and needing to find a way to survive James made his way to a soup kitchen set up by the same very church where he placed right after birth.
The priest who had found him had a little service and told the group of people who had converged there about a baby he had found in front of his alter several years before. The priest made the comment that he wished he had kept track of that baby and wonder quite often what had happened to him and if he was doing well. After the church service James walked up to him and shook his hand and told him they had previously met. The priest looked a little confused . He knew he had never seen this young man before until James introduced himself as the baby left at his alter.
They sat for the longest time talking. James told him that he didn't feel so alone anymore and promised to keep in touch with him.. After hearing about Irish towns in the Midwest who was needing farm help, James decided to relocate to Walshbury to find farm work. He met a group of young men in hoping to get a seat free on the next train out. he showed the conductor the letter the priest had written for him.
He took one of the first seats on the train. The soup kitchen had made him three sandwiches and a canteen of water to drink on his journey west. he arrived in Walshbury the next day. He went to another catholic church and showed the priest another letter that the priest on Long Island had written. The priest gave him shelter for the night then took him to a nearby farm to work. The farm was owned by the church.
Farming was still hard work even though they had oxen driven plows and other newer tools to use. The church had bunk houses for the single men and women to sleep in and one room log cabins for the families that worked on the farm. All of the women took turns cooking for the entire bunch of farm workers which escalated to around fifty or so during harvest time.
James met this young beautiful 100 percent Cherokee maiden named Viola Sagebrush. The church held their wedding after harvest close to the full moon. They moved into one of the one room log cabins on the farm. They had three sons. They agreed if they had boys their names would be Irish and if they had girls they would have Indian names.