M. N. Joseph, a Kansas pioneer and early settler of Butler county, is a native of Virginia and comes from an honorable line of Colonial ancestors. He was born in Tyler county, Virginia, November 22, 1839, and is a son of Waitman and Sarah (Cox) Joseph. When Lord Baltimore came to Maryland with his colony, Jessup Joseph, his wife and brother were members of that colony, and that was the beginning of the branch of the Joseph family in America of whom M. N. Joseph is a descendant. One of the descendants of Jessup Joseph, William Joseph, was the great grandfather of M. N. Joseph. William Joseph migrated from Maryland to Morgantown, Va., some time prior to the Revolutionary war, and many of his descendants now live in Virginia. Waitman Joseph, father of M. N.. was born in Tyler county, Virginia, in 1808. He was a son of Nathan and Margaret (Furby) Joseph, the former being a son of William Joseph, the founder of the Virginia branch of the Joseph family. Margaret Furby was of Scotch descent. Waitman Joseph and his wife, Sarah Cox, were the parents of eight children, of whom M. N. was the third in order of birth. Three sons of this family were early settlers in Kansas: M. N. and William I. and James, further mention of whom are made in this volume. Waitman Joseph died in February, 1895, and his wife died the same year.

When the Civil war broke out, M. N. Joseph cast his lot with the lost cause, and did his duty as he saw it, remaining loyal to his native

State, Virginia. He enlisted in Company A, Thirty-first regiment, Virginia infantry, and served under Gen. Robert E. Lee in the army of Virginia until the end of that great struggle, and was in the ranks of that great military chieftain on the final day at Appomatox Court House, April 9, 1865, when the curtain fell on that tragedy, and the Confederate States of America became a matter of history.

Mr. Joseph was married in 1862 to Miss Mary Jones, a daughter of William and Jemima (Smith) Jones, early settlers of Marietta, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph remained in Virginia after the war, until 1868, when they with their two children, came to Kansas, locating near Topeka. In the fall of the same year they went to Osage county where Mr. Joseph bought 320 acres of land. In 1875 they removed to Butler county and bought 160 acres of land on the Whitewater river in Plum Grove township. Here Mr. Joseph proceeded to make his future home in Butler county. He built a small log cabin and proceeded to improve his place. Later he bought 320 acres, and soon became one of the prosperous farmers and stockmen of that vicinity, and for forty-one years has been an active factor in the development and upbuilding of Butler county. To Mr. and Mrs. Joseph have been born the following children: Orma S., deceased; Ida S., deceased; Abraham; Furby, deceased; Francis M.; S. R.; Sadie, married Warren Poffinbarger; Maude, married Ozza Ralph, Butler county. Mrs. Joseph died March 12, 1904, and Mr. Joseph resides with his son, S. R., not far from the site of his first log cabin in Butler county. He is a member of the Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, Whitewater Lodge, No. 280, and is active and well known in Masonic circles. Politically he is a Democrat.

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