Born: April 29, 1834, Boston, Massachusetts.
Died: July 23, 1918, Rochester, New York.
Buried: Mount Hope Cemetery, Rochester, New York.
Joseph was the son of New Hampshire Governor Joseph Albree Gilmore and Ann Whipple. He married twice: to Mary Josephine Parkhurst (November 21, 1861, Natick, Massachusetts) and Lucy Brown (September 21, 1865, Concord, New Hampshire).
He graduated in arts from Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, and in theology from Newton Theological Institution, Newton, Massachusetts (where he later taught Hebrew).
From 1863–64, he was his father’s assistant while he was governor. During that period, he also edited the Concord, New Hampshire, Daily Monitor.
In 1865, Gilmore became pastor at the Second Baptist Church in Rochester, New York. In 1867, he became professor of English Language and Literature at Rochester University. He later pastored in Fisherville, New Hampshire.