Joseph Wardwas born at Perry Centre, N. Y. , the son of Dr. Jabez and Aurilla (Tufts) Ward, and a descendant of William Ward who settled at Sudbury, Massachussets, about 1638. Joseph grew up in a community dominated by New England traditions, and in a home strongly influenced by religion.
After attending the public schools of his locality, he tried his hand at teaching and at farming for a time, and then entered Phillips Academy, Andover, where he was graduated in 1861. That same year he matriculated at Brown University. His college course was interrupted by service in the Union army but sickness intervened and sent him back to his studies, although his summer vacations were spent with the United States Christian Commission. He graduated from Brown in 1865 and then spent three years at Andover Theological Seminary, an institution marked by a missionary spirit which did much to determine Ward's subsequent career.
Accepting a missionary appointment at Yankton, then the capital of Dakota Territory, he was ordained there on March 17, 1869. His activities in behalf of the religious and educational interests of the region were numerous and varied. Under his leadership the Congregational Association of Dakota was formed, and his influence over the Dakota missions was such that he may be regarded as the father of Congregationalism in Dakota. Owing to the fact that Yankton was not then a separate school district and there was no adequate provision for securing funds by taxation, it was practically impossible to maintain common schools. A few years before Ward's arrival, a public school supported by the enterprise of the Yankton women had been started, and to supplement its work Ward opened a private school. It had a larger growth than had been expected and in 1872 was formally converted into the Yankton Academy. Ward continued in charge of it until he began to promote the establishment of a college, at which time the academy was given over to public control and transformed into the Yankton high school, the earliest public high school in Dakota. Yankton College, the first institution of collegiate rank in the upper Mississippi Valley, the founding of which was largely the result of Ward's activities, was chartered August 30, 1881, and the corner stone of its first building laid June 15, 1882. This institution he served as president and professor of mental and moral philosophy until his death. He played a very conspicuous part in keeping the school lands of the Territory out of the hands of Eastern speculators, and the education law of South Dakota was almost wholly his work. Interested in every humanitarian enterprise, he was largely instrumental in securing the establishment in 1879 of the Dakota Hospital for the Insane. In the struggle for statehood, also, he played a large part, especially in the formation of the Citizens' Constitutional Association, which brought about the constitutional convention at Sioux Falls in 1883. This convention, formed by direct authority of the people without authorization from the legislature or enabling act of Congress, framed a worthy organic law for the future state. Spurning all chances for political advancement, Ward in his last years devoted himself to the service of Yankton College. In 1886 he became involved in a theological dispute over the possibility of future probation for those who died ignorant of Christ's teachings. Scornful of "institutional cowardice, " he fought on what he considered the side of liberty, despite the fact that it threatened for a time to wreck the college. The storm soon passed and in 1887 Yankton College graduated its first class. A little more than two years later Ward died, the immediate cause of his death being blood poisoning occasioned by diabetes. He was survived by his wife and five children.
He was instrumental in the founding of Yankton College, the first collegiate-rank institution of the upper Mississippi Valley, and served as its president. He played an important part in keeping school lands out of the control of eastern speculators. He was the first president of the Yankton Board of Education. He also helped establish in 1879 the Dakota Hospital for the Insane.
On August 12, 1868, he married Sarah Frances Wood.
