Joseph S. Foreman was born around 1838 in Ohio to Charles and Margaret Foreman. His father was a farmer who owned $2,000 of real estate and $600 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Augusta, Ohio, and by 1860, he was working as a teacher.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on August 15, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company F of the 126^th Ohio Infantry on September 4. The regiment took part in the Bristoe campaign, the Overland Campaign, and the Shenandoah Valley campaign. He eventually earned a promotion to corporal. He was wounded in the left wrist near Flint Hill, Virginia, on September 21, 1864, and he mustered out on May 15, 1865.

 

He returned to Augusta after the war. He applied for a federal pension in June 1865 and eventually secured one. He married Eleanor A. Hardgrove on September 24, 1861, and they had at least three children: Velma, born around 1868; Maggie, born around 1876; and Mattie, born around 1878. He worked as a carpenter, and by 1870, he owned $700 of personal property. The family moved to Fox, Ohio, in the 1870s. His wife died in the late 1800s, and by 1900, he was living with his two younger daughters in Beech Creek, Indiana. He died sometime after 1900.

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