Joseph Knowland (October 8, 1833 – November 13, 1912) was an American businessman active in the San Francisco Bay Area.

His son, Joseph Russell Knowland, wrote: "his father's parents died when he was a small boy and [he] recalled little or nothing of them".

As a young man, Joseph Knowland traveled west to seek his fortune in the California gold fields.

He left Southampton, Long Island, New York, on the S.S. George Law to Aspinwall, the Port of the Isthmus of Panama, on the Atlantic side.

Joseph Knowland worked as a laborer, with the firm of George H. Moore and Francis B. Folger, which handled clipper ship service between New York and San Francisco.

Shortly after his marriage, Joseph Knowland was elevated to bookkeeper at Henry Blythe's Lumber Yard.

Sadie and Lucy attended the private Snell Seminary School for Women and JR went to Hopkins Academy and University of the Pacific.

Joseph R. Knowland wrote of his mother, "she was known as a warm, confident person who got things done, with a minimum of histrionics and a maximum of effectiveness.... having the rock-ribbed benevolence of a native of Maine".

Investing with Egbert Judson, former California governor, Frederick Low and other prominent men in mining interests in Tombstone, Arizona Territory.

The afternoon of November 13, 1912, Knowland died at his Alameda home, surrounded by his wife, son and daughter.

At Chapel of Memories in Oakland, California, his remains are in Verbena Section, Tier 2 Number 6 along with wife, Hannah and daughter, Lucille Knowland Hill.