Jacob Joseph was born to enslaved parents around 1845 on the Murray Plantation in Walterboro, South Carolina, and DNA genealogy testing from family members determined that his descendants were from West Africa and belonged to the Yoruba Tribe of Nigeria. His original first name is unknown. At age 20 he bought his freedom, and his pride and strong desire to be his own person led him to choose a new name from the Bible, Jacob Joseph, with Joseph noted as a highly respected and common name in the Yoruba Tribe and West Africa. He is believed to have relocated to Kingsland, Georgia, in Camden County around 1865, where he worked for a turpentine company dipping gum from trees. In 1870 he married Isabella Dawson, and they had 14 children, seven boys and seven girls. He later purchased more than 100 acres on Clarks Bluff Road at Catfish Neck, where he and Isabella built their home and raised their children. He became an entrepreneur, farming his land, selling crops in the marketplace in downtown Kingsland, operating a dipping vat used to sanitize livestock from ticks and fleas, and selling turpentine from trees on his land. Knowing the importance of education, he built two school buildings on his property and brought teachers to educate his children and other African American children in the Kingsland area. According to records in the Bryan Lang Library in Woodbine, Georgia, the first organized classes for African American children in Kingsland were held in his home, and he and other parents in the community recognized the need for formal instruction. As enrollment increased, parents moved classes to churches, then purchased land off what is now Orange Edwards Boulevard Northwest, and later bought the land on Highway 17 formerly occupied by O.F. Edwards Elementary School, which was named for Orange Franklin Edwards, a strong supporter of the school. That property is now the City of Kingsland Center for Industry and Commerce at 531 North Lee Street in Kingsland, Georgia. Jacob Joseph's vision and determination inspired many of his heirs to become educators, entrepreneurs, and other professionals.