Joseph Grisham was born in Pickens County, South Carolina on May 17, 1789. The son of a Revolutionary War veteran, and a colonel during the War of 1812, he established himself as a wealthy landowner and mill owner in Pickens. In 1835 he signed an affidavit in support of William Guest's application for a veteran's pension. He later became a baptist clergyman and moved to Cherokee County, Georgia, where he died on April 9, 1857.