Rev. Joseph S. Scobee, presiding elder of the Owensboro District, Louisville Conference, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, is a native of Kentucky, and was born in Clark County, on the Stone River, Jan 9, 1824. He lived on a farm in Clark County until seven or eight years old, when he moved with his parents to Shelby County, KY., locating seven miles northeast of Shelbyville, where he remained until grown. At the early age of eighteen he was licensed a local preacher, and when twenty-one entred the Transylvania Methodist Episcopal University at Lexington, KY. In the fall of 1846 he joined the Louisville Conference at Hopkinsville. He has filled various circuits, stations and districts up to the present time, and has traveled over the principal part of Louisville Conference. In the fall of 1880 Mr. Scobee was appointed Presiding Elder for the Owensboro District, with headquarters at Owensboro, where he still remains. At the outbreatking of the late Rebellion he was instrumental in raising the Tenth Kentucky Cavalry; went out first as Chaplain; was promoted to Major, and held the office of Chaplain and Major until the close of the war, when he returned home. Mr. Scobee married Fannie Covington, in 1850. She was born in Warren County, KY., and was a daughter of Major Isaac and Martha (Hughes) Covington. They had two children, both dead. Mrs. Scobee died in the fall of 1859. Major Scobee married Mrs. Julia M. Smith, Dec. 12, 1876. She was the widow of T. J. Smith, by whom she had three children - Frank, George G. and Virtner Smith. Mrs. Scobee was a daughter of J. G. Mathers, of Louisville. Mrs. Scobee and all her sons are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Major Scobee is a son, a Knight Templar, and a member of Nelson Lodge, Lexington, KY; also a member of I. O. O. F., Friendship Lodge, Louisville. He is a son of Stephen Scobee, a farmer by occupation, who was born in Loudoun County, VA., where he married Hannah McKee, a native of Virginia. They were both members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. They had a family of five daughters and four sons, three daughters and one son living.