Joseph Schofield was born on November 11, 1893 to Edward and Sarah Frances Schofield - their oldest child.  He married Luscinda/Lucinda George Casey (1888-1935), the daughter of Rex Jaynes and Nancy Casey, on May 3, 1917 in York County. Nancy Casey later remarried to James Edward Lee, who was Lucinda's step-father.

Lucinda had been previously married to Essex Washington on October 13, 1907. Together, they had four children, two of whom died as infants: Dennis George Washington (1907 - 1941); Mildred Ann Washington (1912 - 1912); Sadie Elizabeth Washington (1915 - 1986); and Arthur Washington (1917- 1917). Mildred Ann and Arthur Washington were buried at Cheesecake Cemetery in the Reservation.

As the family rebuilt their lives, they experienced a tragedy, Lucinda passed away on April 27, 1935 from complications following influenza at the age of 43. 

In the 1940s, three of Joseph Sr. and Lucinda's children, Floyd, Edward, and Joseph Jr., worked at the Yorktown Navy Mine Depot that stood where the Reservation community once thrived. Edward and Joseph Jr. worked in the Ordnance Department of the Naval Weapons Station - a very dangerous job involving the production of warheads. Their brother-in-law, Raymond Parsons, worked in the Maintenance Department. Joseph Jr. also worked for a time at the College of William & Mary. 

A few years later in 1954, the family again experienced tragedy. Joseph and Lucinda's son, Floyd Schofield, died of drowning at the age of just 31.