Joseph Skelton Longshore, state oil inspector, Topeka, was born at Woodbury, Gloucester county, New Jersey, April 25, 1880. His parents are Alfred A. and Mary J. (Curley) Longshore, both natives of Pennsylvania, where the former was born in Bucks county and the latter at Lancaster. They came to Kansas in 1885, and resided for a time on a farm in Shawnee county, but they are now residents of Philadelphia, Pa. Alfred A. Longshore is a son of Isaac S. and Mary (Burgess) Longshore, both natives of Pennsylvania.

In 1885 Joseph Skelton Longshore came to Shawnee county, Kansas, with his parents, who remained there but a short time, however, and then returned east to New Jersey. In 1893 they returned to Kansas, locating on a farm near Pauline, Shawnee county, where Joseph spent the remainder of his youth. His common school education, which was obtained in New Jersey and in Shawnee county, Kansas, was supplemented later by a business course in Philadelphia, Pa. At the age of twenty he entered commercial life, and spent several years as a traveling salesman in the employ of the Bell Telephone Company, in various capacities. On April 7, 1909, he took charge of his present office, that of state oil inspector, to which he had been appointed by Gov. Walter R. Stubbs.

Mr. Longshore was married Sept. 6, 1905, to Miss Florence M. Brown, of Wakarusa, Kan., who was born at Oberlin, Ohio, June 4, 1877. They have three children: Dorothy K., born June 26, 1907; Mary Ella, born March 12, 1908; and Alfred A., born Aug. 17, 1909. Mr. Longshore is a Republican in politics, and in religion he is a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers). He is a Fourteenth degree Scottish Rite Mason, and is a member of the Young Men's Christian Association and of the Improved Order of Red Men. He is a director of the Home Mutual Life Insurance Company of Topeka.