Joseph L. Vaught, son of John S. and Rebecca (Shoun) Vaught, was born in Johnson county, Tennessee, March 4, 1838. At the outbreak of the Civil war he joined the Federal army, serving as sergeant in Company M, Thirteenth Tennessee Cavalry, and when victory had crowned the Union arms he resumed his agricultural pursuits in Johnson county. He also manufactured wagons, farming tools and implements, supplying the people of his community and surrounding districts. He served as justice of the peace and was on the school board for a number of years. He belonged to the Masonic and Odd Fellows fraternities and he took an active interest in the welfare and upbuilding of the community, while of the Pleasant Grove Baptist church he was a faithful and devoted member from December 24, 1853, until his death. He is survived by his widow, who is living, at the age of eighty-five years, in Vaughtsville, Tennessee, a place named in his honor. It was on the 29th of December, 1855, that he wedded Louise Mast, who was born in Johnson county, January 20, 1838, a daughter of Joseph C. and Celia (Campbell) Mast. She traces her ancestry in direct line back to John and Barbara Mast. The former was born in Switzerland in 1740 and came to America with his uncle, four sisters and his elder brother, Jacob Mast, who later became a bishop in the Amish Mennonite church. The party sailed from Rotterdam in the ship “Brotherhood,” John Thompson, captain, and landed at Philadelphia, March 3, 1750. Soon after reaching the age of twenty John Mast left his brother Jacob, then married and living near Elverson, Pennsylvania, and started out to find a suitable location. He wandered as a pedestrian through lonely forests and at length settled in Randolph county, North Carolina, in 1764. Tradition says that he never communicated with his relatives and it was not until 1898 that the relationship between the Masts of Pennsylvania and North Carolina was established. The North Carolina branch constitutes a large, substantial and progressive citizenship in that state and this is equally true of the Pennsylvania and Ohio branches.

Transcribed from: Tennessee, The Volunteer State, 1796-1923 by John Trotwood Moore and Austin P. Foster published by S.J Clarke Publishing Co., 1923.