Joseph L. Carrigg was born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania; three of his grandparents were Irish immigrants.

[2] He graduated from Niagara University in Niagara Falls, New York in 1922, Albany Law School in Albany, New York in 1924, and Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1925.

Carrigg was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity while at Albany.

Carrigg was elected as a Republican to the 82nd Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Wilson D. Gillette.

After his time in Congress, he served as the Director of Practice for the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, D.C., from 1959 to 1960.