Joseph Van Meter Pile was born February 8, 1808 and married first Elizabeth Bland on June 16, 1825 in Washington County, KY. He and his first wife went to what is now Graves Co., KY, near Fancy Farm about 1830 soon after the Jackson Purchase opened to settlement. He married secondly to Mary Phillips on December 3, 1835. He died in Graves County, KY in 1891.