Captain Josephus C. Tyson was born in Georgia in 1833. He was an early pioneer of Miller County, Arkansas, where he settled as a young man to become a prosperous farmer. In 1861, shortly after his marriage to Sarah “Sallie” Mays, Arkansas seceded from the Union and joined with the Confederate States of America. Joseph Tyson led a group of seventy-three local men across the state of Arkansas to southern Missouri, where they were sworn into the Confederacy. There, on august 17th, 1861 they were assigned as Company D of the 4th Arkansas infantry, also known as the “Bright Star Rifles”, with Josephus Tyson elected as captain. 

   Captain Joe served his Company during many battles and skirmishes, including the largest civil war engagement west of the Mississippi river know as the Battle of Pea Ridge. In a letter to General D.H. Maury from Colonel McNair describing the battle, McNair states he observed many noble and brave men whose actions he had noted. 

   One man he observed was Captain Josephus C. Tyson who charged the enemy’s battery at the cannons mouth and upon leading his men, fell severely wounded in both legs a few paces from the cannon. After two years of fighting, the fourth Arkansas infantry consolidated with other forces, where Captain Joe enlisted with Crawford’s First Arkansas Calvary. There he was elected third lieutenant. After many more engagements, Captain Joe returned home at the end of the war to his family and farm near Bright Star, Arkansas. He spent the remainder of his life as a farmer, a father of five, and a dignified man of the community. 

   He was a member of the Olive Branch Masonic Lodge, a public notary, a state representative for Miller County from 1879 to 1883, and a Methodist minister. Josephus C. Tyson passed away February 20th of 1889 and was laid to rest in Sulphur Fork Cemetery in Miller County, Arkansas.