Eighth of the Ten Brothers. According to John F. Shields, had a small
family.
Fulton County Illinois Heritage, published 1988, says Joseph, his wife
Martha and Benjamin Shields' widow put their families and belongings on a
flatboat in Harrison County, Indiana in the mid-1830s and floated down
the Ohio to the Mississippi, went upstream to the Mississippi, up the
Illinois to the Spoon River to Woodland Township, Fulton County,
Illinois. Says the Robert Shields family (the Ten Brothers) settled on
the eastern slope of the Smokies on what is now Shields Mountain near
Pigeon Forge in Sevier County, Tennessee. Some members of the family were
already married and had families of their own. They built a fort. Indians
killed Thomas. Says members of the Veatch and Onion (O'Nion) families,
which had married into the family, made the trip as well.
Judge Littell says Joseph was severely wounded by a party of Cherokees
near Sevierville, Tennessee 18 April 1793, at the time his brother-in-law
Joshua Tipton was killed. He lived in Sevier County until 1808, at which
time he and his brothers moved to Indiana. He later settled in Harrison
County, Indiana.
According to John A. Tipton, Joseph and Joshua Tipton were on their way
to join the militia, which had been summoned to repel hostile Indians.
Two shots rang out from a thicket, and both men fell to the ground.
Tipton was dead. Joseph's gun had fallen a few feet away from where he
fell, but he was afraid to move for fear the Indians would shoot him.
Thinking the two were dead, the Indians rushed in with scalping knives.
Joseph sprang up and killed the Indian who was about to scalp him and
then shot the other Indian before he could escape.
Joseph settled in Corydon, Indiana in 1810.
Christine Brown lists Joseph's children as Nathan V., Kinzie (m. Katie),
Joseph Jr. (b. 1814 Harrison County, Indiana, m. 11 February 1836 Rebecca
Miner), Asa L. (m. 1. Mary Minor, daughter of John and Mary Minor and 2.
1860 Rachel Seehorn), Hiram, David and Jesse.