Joe was born in Carroll County, Iowa in 1896. At that time, his older brothers and sisters were beginning to have lives of their own and moving westward. His grandfather would die within a few years. Joe's parents and their younger children moved to Willowdale, Kansas, a German Catholic community, when Joe was eight. When he began schooling at that age, his family had spoken only German at home, so when he began lessons he faced the additional challenge of a foreign language.

Like other young men around him, Joe went to work on the farm early, after completing the sixth grade of elementary school24. Around 1919 Joe and his father bought land in St. Leo, a nearby German Catholic community.

The history of St. Leo is of interest and available online.31

Joe and his father planned and built the family house there, reportedly drawing on Johann Bernard's work in Iowa. About this time Joe's father's health began to fail and he became bedridden with severe arthritis, and no doubt other ailments. Joe's younger sister Pauline helped Joe to care for their father. Their mother Wilhelmina died in 1921, their father in 1923.

Joe and Pauline spent some time traveling together after their father's death. On this trip, Joe met Connie Bartley, whom he married in January 1926. (Pauline had married not long before.) Joe’s and Connie's first child, Beverly, was born in September.

Joe was not a man to use two words when one – or none – would do. My parents report that one time when he was hanging a picture, he misstruck with the hammer, slicing quite a gash in his hand. Remarking only, "Damn," he left the room, after a while reappearing with a great rag bandage around his hand. Without further comment, he resumed hanging the picture.