Joseph M. Field is said to have descended front the dramatist, Nathaniel Field, Shakespeare’s contemporary. The family came originally from Warwickshire, but subsequently settled in Ireland, and while some chroniclers state that Field was born in England, his probable birthplace was Dublin, where his father, Matthew, was a prominent Catholic. While Joseph was still an infant the family emigrated to Baltimore and then to New York.
His education could not have been extensive, for he appeared at the Trcmont Theatre, Boston, as early as 1827 (Columbian Centinel, Nov. 28, 1827).
Three years later he made his New York début at the Park Theatre, but by 1833 he was playing at New Orleans and soon came to be recognized as one of the leading actors on the southwestern circuit. Under the management of Sol Smith he appeared at Cincinnati, St. Louis, Mobile, and lesser towns.
At this time Field regarded himself as a tragedian, but afterward, in the words of N. M. Ludlow (Dramatic Life as I Found It, 1880, p. 436), under whose management he also served, he “settled down to what he really was clever in, —eccentric comedy. ” In 1837 he married Smith’s leading actress, the beautiful Eliza Riddle, and thereafter the two frequently played together in the southwestern theatres, the season of 1839-40 being spent at New Orleans. During this period Field contributed scores of poems, signed “Straws, ” to the New Orleans Picayune, most of them commenting humorously on current affairs.
In 1840 the Picayune sent him to Europe as a correspondent. Five years later, after further experiences in the theatre, including engagements in New York and Philadelphia, he was associated in the founding of the St. Louis Reveille, a noted newspaper during the six years of its life (William Hyde and H. L. Conard, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, 1899, III, 1638).
During his last years he confined his efforts chiefly to Mobile, and there he died after a lingering illness.
It is known that his Victoria (1838) had as main persons the British queen and James Gordon Bennett; that Family Ties (1846) won a five hundred dollar prize offered by the actor Danforth Marble and was given at the Park Theatre; that Oregon, or the Disputed Territory (1846) dealt with the northwest boundary dispute. His chief published work, The Drama in Pokerville; The Bench and Bar of Jurytown, and Other Stories (1847), is a collection of crudely humorous tales.
In May 1852, after having directed the Mobile Theatre for two years, he opened the handsome new Varieties Theatre at St. Louis. Though his company was one of the best that had yet appeared in that city, he found the enterprise so unprofitable that he abandoned it in the fall of 1853 (Missouri Republican, Nov. 8, 1853, and following issues).
Field was a man of varied abilities, whose very versatility, so his contemporaries thought, was a bar to distinction in any one pursuit.
In 1837 he married Smith’s leading actress, the beautiful Eliza Riddle, and thereafter the two frequently played together in the southwestern theatres, the season of 1839-40 being spent at New Orleans.
He was survived by his wife and daughter, Mary Katherine Keemle who as “Kate Field” became a celebrated lecturer.
