 Joseph Crocker Sibley, Jr., known to his family and friends as "Joe," was born in Friendship, Allegheny County, New York on February 18, 1850.His father, Joseph Crocker Sibley, Sr., was a medical doctor; his mother, the former Lucy Elvira Babcock, was a school teacher in the years before marriage.His parents instilled a love of reading in him at a young age and he read precociously from the age of 6, quickly tackling books intended for a more advanced readership.