Joseph S. Taylor was born around 1841 in Indiana to Robert Taylor and Nancy Lakey. His father was a farmer who owned $4,500 of real estate and $1,200 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Clear Creek, Indiana, and by 1860, he was working as a farmhand. He enlisted in the Union army on August 15, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company I of the 22nd Indiana Infantry later that day. He died in the Battle of Perryville on October 8, 1862.