Joseph Theodore Threadgill was born March 12, 1888, in Ansonville, North Carolina. Threadgill was a student at the Negro Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina when he registered for the draft (World War I) in June 1917. In March 1918, he was drafted into the service and assigned to Company A of the 444 Reserve Labor Battalion, with which unit he remained attached until his honorable discharge from the service in February 1919.