James Martin was born in the hamlet of Foundry, in the parish of
Stithians,
Cornwall, in straitened circumstances, the seventh child of a woman whose husband had died a few months previously. He had little schooling, and after starting to earn his own money, he enrolled in night classes. He worked at the local factory making steel shovels, as a millwright in
Truro's flour mills, and as a fitter in the
Tresavean copper mine, where he was involved in the installation of a large mine pump and a prototype of
Michael Loam's "man engine", all the time gaining practical engineering knowledge. He served as a maintenance worker at a woollens factory at
Ponsanooth, where an older brother was manager. He suffered from
asthma, which was exacerbated by Cornwall's climate and the atmosphere of these workplaces, and decided for his health's sake to try his luck in South Australia, and emigrated on
La Belle Alliance, arriving in July 1847. He found work at
Hindmarsh with
John Ridley, erecting a flour mill. Determined to work for himself, he moved to
Gawler on 15 June 1848, a fact that was celebrated there exactly 50 years later. Although then a tiny village, Gawler seemed a likely spot for development as a waypoint between Adelaide and the mines of
Burra, the farms of the
Barossa Valley, the
River Murray and the incipient wheatfields of the Lower North. He rented a blacksmith's shop from John Calton and began building bullock drays. He built a lathe, press and workbenches from local timber. With hard work, attention to detail, and by accepting any job, business grew. He started working on a farm of his own, "Trevue", where he developed implements that were manufactured by his "Phoenix Foundry" (founded around 1859). Martin & Co. became a major employer in the town. He took on Thomas Flett Loutit (ca.1832 – 20 September 1873) as a partner. It has been claimed that the first
stump-jump plough was made by Martin & Co. The copper mines at Burra presented the next opportunity, and soon the Phoenix Foundry was manufacturing all kinds of engines, pumps, crushing and winding gear. A premium was placed on prompt supply, and the company profited. The next step in the company's evolution was the manufacture of railway engines and rolling stock to meet the colony's burgeoning railway system. Altogether, some 150 locomotives were built; some being sent interstate. By 1898 they had 700 employees. ==Politics==