My Genealogy Hound

Joseph Soph, farmer of Boeuf Township, and a native of St. Louis, Mo., born in 1847, is the son of William Valentine and Mary T. (Fix) Soph, natives of Germany, where they were reared and married. They came to the United States about 1846, located at St. Louis, where the father worked at his trade, bricklaying, until he died in 1851, aged about thirty-five. The mother died in 1884, aged sixty-three; she was married twice. Joseph Soph was reared in St. Louis, and educated in the public schools. At the age of seventeen he enlisted in Company E, Fortieth Missouri Volunteer Infantry, United States army, and operated in Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Missouri; was in the second Nashville (Tenn.) fight, was in the battles at Franklin, Tenn., Mobile, Ala., Spring Hill, Miss., and a great many minor engagements. He served until the close of the war, and was honorably discharged at St. Louis, in August, 1865. He then came home and worked on a farm until 1870, when he married Miss Wilhelmina Heorlsher, a native of Boeuf Township, Franklin Co., Mo. Four children were born to this union: Henry, Clara, Orlinda and Edward. Since his marriage Mr. Soph has resided in the vicinity of his present home, which consists of sixty acres under a good state of cultivation. He is a Republican in his political views, and his first presidential vote was cast for Gen. Grant in 1868. He and wife are members of the Evangelical Church, and he is a member of the G. A. R.