Joshua B. Tufts married Mary Ann Kingsland in New York City on April 24, 1849. The next day, they embarked for California. After living in San Francisco and Sacramento, they settled in Yolo County. Tufts successfully invested in real estate, toll roads, orchards, truckyards. In 1855, he spent $850 to purchase five hundred acres on the Putah Creek near the Vaca-Peña Mexican land grant.

In 1888, aged 64, he sold his properties in Solano County and retired to Davis where he built this Stick/Eastlake home for his family. He lived here until the beginning of World War I, devoting himself to community service and the Presbyterian Church.

He died in 1914 at the age of ninety while cording wood.