Joseph McCormick was born in 1814 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the only child of Adam McCormick and his wife Margaret Ellison. He lived as a child in Cincinnati and West Union. He may have attended Marietta College of Ohio. In 1831 and 1832, he was in Pine Grove Furnace, Ohio as a storekeeper. He studied law under Nelson Barrere and was admitted to the bar in 1835. He located in Portsmouth for a few months, and then in Cincinnati until 1838.
