Background
Joseph Hoag was born on April 22, 1762, in Oblong, New York, United States. He was the son of Elijah and Phebe Hoag, of excellent English stock. He was the fifth in descent from John Hoag who settled in Hampton, New Hampshire. The family had for some generations been affiliated with the Society of Friends and Joseph was thus a birthright Quaker.
He was a delicate, sickly boy, shy and peculiar in his ways, and was in early youth subject to vivid dreams and waking visions. He experienced before he was ten years old one striking night-vision which he always believed was later verified in a series of detailed events. He often found himself throughout his youth dropping into a mild trance, what he called a "muse, " and he was obviously psychically disposed to unusual, if not abnormal, experiences.