When Joseph Butcher was born in December 1851, in Ohio, United States, his father, John Butcher, was 35 and his mother, Phebe Wise, was 24. He married Flora A. Keyes Butcher on 13 January 1876. They were the parents of at least 2 sons and 1 daughter. He lived in Cedarville, Greene, Ohio, United States in 1880 and Madison Township, Clark, Ohio, United States in 1900. He died after 1920, at the age of 70.