BIOGRAPHY: Joseph C. WAKEFIELD, M.D. Cambria County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Lynne Canterbury and Diann Olsen. Portions of this book were transcribed by Clark Creery, Martha Humenik, Betty Mirovich and Sharon Ringler. USGENWEB ARCHIVES (tm) NOTICE All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information are included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cambria/ ____________________________________________________________ From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 386-7 ____________________________________________________________ JOSEPH C. WAKEFIELD, MD., of Vinco, Cambria county, is a son of Thomas P. and Annie (Sides) Wakefield, and was born in West Wheatfield township, Indiana county, Pennsylvania, March 15, 1853. His father was born in the same township and county, where he lived until his death in 1865, at the age of thirty-five years, He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. In 1863 he enlisted in the Second battalion of six months' Pennsylvania volunteers, serving out his term of enlistment, and later serving several months in the quartermaster's department at Nashville, Tennessee, in 1864, when he returned home and died from the effects of the service. The paternal grandfather, David Wakefield, was a native of eastern Pennsylvania, and when a young man moved to Indiana county, and took up a large tract of land. He was a wagon-maker and farmer. He died in 1848, aged fifty-five years. The family history of the Wakefields is interesting. They are supposed to have descended from two Italian priests who espoused the cause of the Reformation and escaped to England, afterward coming to this country and locating at Baltimore. Mother Wakefield was born in West Wheatfield township, Indiana county, and died in 1864 (the summer previous to her husband's death), at the early age of thirty-three years. She also was a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Grandfather Joseph Sides was born in York county, Pennsylvania. He was of Pennsylvania German stock, and one of the early settlers of Indiana county, where he engaged in farming. In religion he was a protestant and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He died in West Wheatfield, Indiana county, in 1873, aged seventy-three years. Dr. Joseph C. Wakefield was reared in his native township, and was educated at the Mechanicsburg academy and the Homer City academy, in Indiana county. After leaving school he decided to fit himself for the practice of medicine, and with that view took a course of study under the preceptorship of Dr. B. F. Tomb, of Mechanicsburg. In 1878 he graduated from the Cleveland Medical college, Cleveland, Ohio, and the same year located at Penn's Run, Indiana county. Six months later he formed a co-partnership with Dr. T. J. Davison, at Strongstown in the same county. This partnership continued for one year, when it was dissolved, and Dr. Wakefield located at Vinco, where he has been in the active practice of medicine ever since. Dr. Wakefield was twice married -- first to Miss Mary J., daughter of David Stewart, of Brush valley, on March 15, 1878. It was a happy union, but was ended in 188o, by the death of Mrs. Wakefield. Two years later, in 1882, the doctor was again married, this time to Miss Sarah Ann, daughter of W. W. Harris, of Vinco. To this union one son has been born, viz.: William W. H. Dr. Wakefield, in addition to his large practice in the line of his profession, is actively interested in matters, pertaining to the public welfare. He has filled very acceptably the office of school-director, and in the spring of 1894 was elected justice of the peace (an office which be now holds) and gives legal as well as medical counsel to his constituents. He is a member of the Royal Arcanum.