Joseph M. Maitland was born on November 11, 1838, in Ohio to James and Ann Maitland. His father was a farmer and teacher who owned $4,000 of real estate and $350 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Salem, Ohio, and by 1860, he was working as a teacher. His father was a local Democratic politician, and Maitland initially followed his father into the Democratic Party.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on August 8, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company G of the 95^th Ohio Infantry on August 19. He was promoted to corporal on August 19, 1862, and then to sergeant on December 5, 1862. He mustered out on May 31, 1865.

 

He returned to Salem after the war, and he married Arabella Wharton around 1867. They had at least three children: Earl, born around 1869; Grace, born around 1872; and Helen, born around 1881. He worked as a farmer, and by 1870, he owned $1,159 of personal property. They moved to Urbana, Ohio, in the 1870s.

 

He supported the Republican Party, and he served as Clerk of the Court from 1879 until 1885. A local writer praised him as a “man of liberal education and views.” By 1890, he was suffering from rheumatism, and he died of acute Bright’s disease in Urbana on November 23, 1918.

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