Introduction

Biography

Joseph was the son of Hen­ry Funck and Bar­ba­ra Sho­wal­ter. He mar­ried twice, to Eli­za­beth Bren­ne­man Rhodes and Ra­chel Brit­ton.

He es­tab­lished the first Men­non­ite print­ing bu­si­ness in Am­eri­ca. He spent most of his life in Rock­ing­ham Coun­ty, Vir­gin­ia, and was well known as a col­lect­or of song books, re­vis­er and up­dat­er of hymn tunes, and sing­ing school lead­er.

Works

• Choral Mu­sic (Har­ris­on­burg, Vir­gin­ia: 1816)
• A Com­pi­la­tion of Genu­ine Church Mu­sic (Win­che­ster, Vir­gin­ia: J. W. Hol­lis, 1832). Af­ter the fourth edi­tion, be­came known as the Har­mon­ia Sac­ra.
• The Con­fess­ion of Faith (Win­che­ster, Vir­gin­ia: 1837)
• A Col­lect­ion of Psalms, Hymns, and Spir­it­ual Songs (Win­che­ster, Vir­gin­ia: 1847)
• The Re­view­er Re­viewed (Mount­ain Val­ley, Vir­gin­ia: 1857)
• The South­ern Mu­sic­al Ad­vo­cate and Sing­er’s Friend, a month­ly pe­ri­od­ic­al (Mount­ain Val­ley, Vir­gin­ia: 1859–61)