Corcoran, James

James Corcoran (1821-1894), born in Ireland, came to California in 1849, and to Santa Cruz County in the 1850s. With his gold-mining earnings, he bought farmland near the coastal estuary now known as Corcoran Lagoon. His wife Mary (also Ireland-born) and their six children are all buried in the same cemetery plot. Only two of the six children died in Santa Cruz. A drawing of the Corcoran farm appears in Elliott. A brief biography by Phil Reader appears in History Journal Issue 4, in "The Missing Pioneers".

James does not appear to be related to Thomas Corcoran.