Hartley, Joseph W.

Joseph Hartley was born in Nelson County, Kentucky, on February 28, 1800. Hartley married Mary (called Polly) Singleton in 1821, and the couple were baptized into the Predestinarian Baptist Church in 1822. Hartley soon began preaching in the church and became an Elder. He later helped found the Little Flock, Sinking Creek, and New Hope congregations in Kentucky, as well as the Regular Baptist Church in Illinois with Louis Duncan, Louis Williams, John Maddox, William Davis, and Achelius Coffey. Hartley lived in Hardin County, Kentucky, until 1841, when he and his family moved to Jefferson, Illinois, in search of better living conditions. Following Polly's death in 1860, Hartley married a widow named M'Kee.