Greene County MO Archives Biographies.....Yeakley, Thomas November 25, 1829 - May 11, 1914
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/mo/mofiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Albert Scarborough cabletv1@att.net September 9, 2006, 3:42 am

Author: Fairbanks - Tuck, Et. Al.

BIOGRAPHY

Jonathan Fairbanks and Clyde Edwin Tuck
Past and Present of Greene County, Missouri
Early and Recent History and Genealogical Records
of Many of the Representative Citizens 


  Thomas Yeakley. This biographical memoir has to do with a character of 
unusual force and 
eminence, for the late Thomas Yeakley, whose life chapter has been closed by 
the fate that awaits 
us all, was for a long lapse of years one of the prominent citizens of Greene 
county, having come to 
this section in pioneer times, and he assisted in every way possible in 
bringing about the 
transformation of the country from the wild condition found by the first 
settlers to its latter-day 
progress and improvement. While he carried on a special line of work in such a 
manner as to gain 
a handsome competence for himself, ranking for decades among the most extensive 
and progressive 
agriculturists and stock men of this section of the state, he also belonged to 
that class of 
representative citizens who promote the public welfare while advancing 
individual success. There 
were in him sterling traits which commanded uniform confidence and regard, and 
his memory is 
today honored by all who knew him and is enshrined in the hearts of his many 
friends.
  Mr. Yeakley was born in Greene county, Tennessee, November 25, 1809. He was a 
son of John 
and Matilda (Grills) Yeakley. John Yeakley was also a native of Greene county, 
Tennessee, his 
birth occurring there on November 15, 1809. He was a son of Henry Yeakley, of 
Pennsylvania 
Dutch stock. The latter married Susanna McNeece, who was a daughter of Isaac 
McNeece, a 
native of Scotland, and -a weaver by trade. As early as 1804 the Yeakley family 
located in Greene 
county, Tennessee, and there to Henry Yeakley and wife the following children 
were born: 
Samuel, who was a soldier in the War of 1812, and was at the battle of 
Horseshoe, fought by Gen. 
Andrew Jackson; Mary, Henry, Isaiah, Elizabeth, Lydia, Ann, George, John, 
Joseph, Malachi, Jacob 
and Betsey, all of whom lived to reach manhood and womanhood. Henry Yeakley, 
father of the 
above named children, owned and operated a farm, but he was by trade a 
gunsmith. He had 
obtained a practical education in the German language, but also spoke 
intelligent English and was 
a well informed man in every respect. He died at an advanced age and was buried 
in the old Quaker 
church cemetery in Greene county Tennessee. His wife was a little girl when the 
battle of 
Brandywine was fought, in Revolutionary times, was near the field and saw the 
battle, about 
which she frequently related stirring incidents to her children in after years. 
She was a Quaker, 
while Mr. Yeakley was a Lutheran, and both were deeply religious.
  John Yeakley, father of the subject of this memoir, was reared on the old 
homestead in Tennessee 
and when a young man, learned the blacksmith's trade, which he followed as his 
main vocation 
throughout the subsequent years of his active life. He retained until his death 
an old anvil which his 
father took with him from Pennsylvania to Tennessee, now one hundred and ten 
years ago. John 
Yeakley was well acquainted with Azariah Doty, who lived to be over one hundred 
and four years 
old and who was one of General Marion's men during the war for independence. 
When twenty years, 
of age Mr. Yeakley married Matilda Grills, in 1829. She, too, was a resident of 
Greene county, 
Tennessee. To this union six children were born, namely: Thomas, Henry, Rhoda, 
Betsey A., Jane 
and Benjamin, who died when a child. In the fall of 1839.he removed with his 
family to Missouri and 
after passing the winter in Polk county, came to Greene county in the spring 
and settled on eighty 
acres on which he spent the rest of his life, in west Center township. The 
journey from Tennessee 
was made in a small two-horse wagon. The Ozark region was at that time a wild 
and sparsely 
settled country, a great portion of which was covered with great forests in 
which there was an 
abundance of wild game. Henry Yeakley's farm lay along Big Sac river. This he 
cleared and 
improved into a valuable farm, through much industry, and prospered with 
advancing years, 
becoming an extensive land owner, and he gave each of his sons a good start in 
life. His first 
wife died and he subsequently married Eliza Allen, who also died, and he took 
for his third wife 
Margaret L. Cochran, to whom he was married on November 4, 1880.
  For many years Mr. Yeakley voted the Whig ticket, having cast his first vote 
for Andrew Jackson 
and his last on that ticket for Peter Cooper. In later life he was a 
Republican. In his religious views 
he was always a Methodist, and assisted to build the first Methodist church in 
west Center township, 
called Yeakley Chapel, and when it burned he gave the land for a new church 
which he assisted to 
build and which also took the name of Yeakley Chapel, and he served as steward 
in this church for 
a number of years. His last wife also attended this church and was one of the 
principal teachers in 
the Sunday school, although she held membership in the Presbyterian church in 
Lawrence county. 
During the Civil war Mr. Yeakley remained neutral, and, contrary to the usual 
custom, was left 
unmolested, having only two stands of bees stolen, one by the Federal and one 
by, the Confederate 
soldiers. But both armies took heavy toll from his neighbors.
  Thomas Yeakley, the immediate subject of this sketch, was ten years of age 
when he 
accompanied the family from Tennessee to Missouri, and he grew to manhood in 
Greene county 
and here spent the rest of his life. A complete biographical sketch of this 
unusual man's life would 
be a history of the development and growth of the county. He often recalled the 
incidents of the 
journey across the rough country from his native county to this, the trip 
requiring several weeks. 
In the wagon were his father, mother, and brothers, Henry and Benjamin, and 
sister, Rhoda, 
besides himself. In the party were Henry, Nathan, Ann and Bettie Paulsell, also 
Daniel Delaney 
and family, Jonathan Pickering and family. School opportunities in Greene 
county three-quarters of 
a century ago were meager and not much in the way of "book learning" could be 
had, but while 
young Yeakley did not learn much from text-books he learned how to work in a 
pioneer environment, 
and was naturally intelligent and investigating and he not only prospered with 
advancing years, but 
became a well-informed man on current topics. On July 17, 1851, he married 
Elizabeth M. Young, 
a daughter of George B. and Margaret (Leeper) Young. She was born on August 17, 
1834, in 
Lafayette county, Missouri, and was brought to Greene county when one year old, 
the family 
locating in Republic township, where her father entered land from the 
government and he and 
his wife died here. He was a prosperous farmer and when he died owned several 
hundred acres of 
Greene county land.
  Thomas Yeakley devoted his life to agricultural pursuits and was unusually 
successful, having 
been a man of great industry, sound judgment and wise foresight. In 1854 he 
settled on the land 
where his widow now resides. The place then consisted of but forty acres on the 
edge of Grand 
Prairie, and by industry and thrift he added to it until he became owner of 
about twelve hundred 
acres of as fine land as the county affords. Through it runs Pond creek and Big 
Sac river. It is very 
productive and has been brought up to a high state of cultivation in 
improvement, all of which 
improvements our subject himself made and planned, and which do much credit to 
his intelligence 
and progressiveness. He carried on general farming and stock raising on an 
extensive scale and 
was a leader in his line of endeavor.
  Politically, Mr. Yeakley was a Democrat, but never sought to become a public 
man. He was 
always interested in the cause of education and assisted to build up fully one-
half of the first 
school houses in his district, in fact, no man ever did more for the locality 
in which our subject 
spent the major portion of his long, useful and honored life.
  To Thomas Yeakley and wife six children were born, namely: John, who died in 
early life; James 
also died young; George, who is a successful and widely known farmer and stock 
man of the 
vicinity of Republic, married Celestia J. Redfern, and a full sketch of them is 
to be found on another 
page of this work; Henry is deceased; Margaret M. (known to her friends as 
Maggie), was married 
on March 22, 1887, to Dr. Edwin B. Robinson, of Bois D'Arc, this county who 
died several months 
after their marriage; he was a graduate of the Missouri Medical College of St. 
Louis, of the class 
of 1879, and in 1882 was graduated from Bellevue Hospital, New York City, after 
which he 
practiced in that institution for three months and then at Bois D'Arc, where he 
built up a good 
practice; Mrs. Robinson subsequently became the wife of W. E. Drum, for many 
years a 
successful merchant of Bois D'Arc, where he died several years ago and his 
widow is a 
resident of Springfield. Rebecca, youngest child of our subject, is deceased.
  The mother of these children is a devout member of the Methodist church and 
is a 
broad-minded, neighborly and charitably inclined lady who numbers her friends 
only by the 
limits of her acquaintance.
  During the Civil war Thomas Yeakley had several narrow escapes from death. He 
did not take 
active part in the strife, remaining at home as a secret service agent in the 
employ of the 
government. He was on several occasions attacked at night and in one encounter 
was slightly 
wounded by a bullet which passed through the house in which he was living. Upon 
being called 
to the door one night and commanded to light a match, Mr. Yeakley responded by 
firing at his 
unwelcome visitors. They retreated, bearing away a badly wounded companion, 
their trail being 
marked with blood. That he had frustrated an attempt at murder was shown in 
subsequent 
developments. On the day of the battle of Wilson's Creek, August 10, 1861, he 
visited the 
battlefield with some of his neighbors, mixed with the soldiers and saw the 
dead and wounded 
the next day.
  Mr. Yeakley, who was reputed to be one of southwest Missouri's wealthiest and 
most influential 
men and who had lived on the same farm for the unusual period of sixty years, 
was summoned 
to his eternal rest off May 11, 1914, at the advanced age of eighty-four years. 
Rev. J. B. Ellis, 
formerly president of Morrisville College, now living retired at his home in 
the suburbs of Springfield 
and for many years a presiding elder in the Methodist Episcopal church, South, 
in this state, 
conducted the funeral at Yeakley Chapel, and he had the following to say 
concerning Mr. 
Yeakley's religious life and church relations, in part: "Thomas Yeakley united 
with the Methodist. 
Episcopal church, South, some years after the Civil War, at a small church a 
few miles 
northwest of Republic. About 1875 he set about a parcel of ground four miles 
south of Bois D'Arc 
for church and cemetery purposes. A substantial building was erected and he 
became a charter 
member of this class. He was a liberal supporter of his own church, and 
likewise of other churches, 
having assisted in the erection of many churches in Greene and other counties. 
He was interested 
in the general welfare and contributed to various enterprises and benevolences."

[1482-1486]

Reference:
Past and present of Greene County Missouri ; early and recent history and 
genealogical 
records of many of the representative citizens / by Jonathan Fairbanks and 
Clyde Edwin Tuck.  
Fairbanks, Jonathan, 1828-
Indianapolis, Ind. : A. W. Bowen, 1915.
2 v. : ill., ports., maps ; 28 cm.

Repository: Springfield-Greene County Library.
4653 S. Campbell
P.O. Box 760, Springfield, Missouri 65801-0760
Phone (417) 874-8120, ext. 5 Fax (417) 874-8121
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pictorial and Genealogical Record of Greene County, Missouri
Together with Bibliographies of Prominent Men of Other Portions of the State, 
Both Living and Dead

Thomas Yeakley. The subject of this sketch is one of the largest farmers and 
landholders in 
Greene County, and as he has passed his entire life here he is well-known but 
naught has ever 
been said derogatory to his honor. His father, John Yeakley, one of the 
original settlers of this 
section, was born in Greene County, Tenn., November 15, 1809, his father being 
Henry Yeakley, 
of Pennsylvania Dutch stock. He was married to Susannah McNeece, daughter of 
Isaac McNeece, 
a Scotchman by birth and a weaver by trade. About 1804, the Yeakleys moved to 
Greene County, 
Tenn., and there a family of fourteen children were born to them: Samuel, who 
was a soldier in 
the War of 1812, and was at the battle of Horse Shoe, fought by Jackson; Mary, 
Henry, Isaiah, 
Elizabeth, Lydia, Ann, George, John, Joseph, Malachi, Jacob and Betsey, all of 
whom lived to grow 
up. Henry Yeakley was a gunsmith by trade but owned and worked a farm. He had 
obtained a 
practical education in the German tongue, but spoke intelligible English and 
was well-posted on the 
current affairs of his day. He was buried in the graveyard at the old Quaker 
church in Greene County, 
Tenn. His wife was a little girl when the battle of Brandywine was fought, in 
Revolutionary times, was 
near the field and saw the battle, about which she often told her children. Mr. 
Yeakley was a member 
of the Lutheran Church while his wife a most excellent woman and deeply 
religious, was a Quaker. 
John Yeakley was reared a farmer and learned the blacksmith's trade which he 
has followed more 
or less all his life. He owns an old anvil which his father took with him from 
Pennsylvania to 
Tennessee and which is over one hundred years old. He quite well remembers of 
talking with 
Azariah Doty, who lived to be over one hundred and four years old and who was 
one of Gen. 
Marion's men during the war of the Revolution. At the age of twenty years Mr. 
Yeakley married 
Matilda Grills, of Greene County, Tenn., (in 1829) by whom he became the father 
of six children: 
Thomas, Henry, Rhoda, Betsey A., Jane and Benjamin, who died when a child. In 
the fall of 1839, 
he came with his family to Missouri and after passing the winter in Polk 
County, came to Greene 
County in the spring and settled on the eighty acres on which he now lives, 
upon which he erected 
a log cabin which is still standing. He made the journey from Tennessee in a 
small two-horse wagon 
and found Missouri to be in a wild and unsettled state, a great portion of 
which was covered with 
large forest trees in which deer and other wild game abounded. He entered a 
large body of land 
eighty acres deep and one mile in length on the Big Sac River. Of this he made 
a valuable farm, 
through much industry, and gave each of his sons a good start in life. His 
first wife died and he 
afterward married Eliza Allen, who also died, and he took for his third wife 
Margaret L. Cochran, 
their union occurring on November 4,1880, with whom he is now living and who is 
now postmistress 
of Yeakley. Mr. Yeakley has always been a Methodist in his religious views and 
assisted to build 
the first Methodist Church in West Center Township, called Yeakley Chapel, and 
when it burned 
down he gave the land for a new church which he assisted to build and which 
also took the name 
of Yeakley Chapel. He is a steward in this church and attends services every 
Sunday. His wife is 
a member of the old Presbyterian Church of Lawrence County, but attends the 
Methodist Church 
and is one of the principal teachers in the Sunday-school. For many years Mr. 
Yeakley voted the 
old Whig ticket, cast his first vote for Gen. Jackson and his last one for 
Peter Cooper. During the 
great evil strife he remained neutral, and contrary to usual custom was left 
unmolested, having only 
two stands of bees stolen, one by the Federal and one by the Confederate 
soldiers. He and his wife 
are residing in comfort on a fine farm of 100 acres and are surrounded by many 
friends whom they 
have gathered about them by a correct mode of living. His children are 
established in life as follows: 
Thomas, is a prosperous farmer and large landowner in West Center Township, one 
mile south of 
the old homestead. He is married to Lizzie or Elizabeth Young, and has four 
children; Henry, resides 
on a part of the old homestead in West Center Township, is well-to-do, is 
married and has three 
children; Rhoda, married Aaron Helton, is a widow with eight children, lives 
two miles south of the 
old homestead and is in good circumstances; Betsy A., married David Likins, by 
whom she has 
four children; Janie, married Lewis Whinrey, of West Center Township, is well 
supplied with worldly 
goods and has one child; and Thomas, whose name heads this sketch, and who was 
born November 
25, 1829, in Greene County, Tenn. He has been a resident of Greene County, Mo., 
ever since he was 
ten years of age, and well remembers the journey thither, which occupied seven 
weeks. In the 
wagon was his father, mother and brothers Henry and Benjamin and sister Rhoda, 
besides himself. 
In the party were Henry, Nathan, Ann and Bettie Paulsell, also Daniel Delaney 
and family, Jonathan 
Pickering and family. Young Yeakley had but few opportunities of acquiring an 
education as he 
was brought up in a pioneer country, but he learned to labor and was naturally 
intelligent and 
investigating. July 17, 1851, he married Elizabeth M, daughter of George B. and 
Margaret (Leeper) 
Young, and to them four children were born: James, George, Margaret M., and 
Rebecca J. In 1854, 
Mr. Yeakley settled on the land where be now lives, then consisting of forty 
acres on the edge of 
Grand Prairie, and by industry and thrift he added to it until be now owns 
about 1,200 acres, half of 
which is on Grand Prairie and constitutes one of the most magnificent farms in 
Greene County, 
being well-watered by Pond Creek and Big Sac River. All the improvements on 
this place have been 
made by himself and planned by his own fertile and original brain, and do 
credit to his intelligence. 
He and his wife are members of the Methodist Church South and politically he is 
a Democrat. He 
has always been interested in the cause of education and assisted to build up 
fully one-half of the 
first school houses in his district. He is one of the most successful farmers 
in Greene County , and 
has prospered through energy and good management. George Yeakley, the son of 
Thomas, married 
Celesta J. Redfearn, December 27,1877, by whom he has three children: Minnie 
H., Georgia L., and
Bessie M. His daughter, Margaret M., was married at her home, March 22, 1887, 
to Dr. Edwin D. 
Robinson, of Bois D'Arc, who died seven months after their marriage, October 
31, 1887. He was a 
graduate of the Missouri Medical College of St. Louis, in 1879, and in 1882 
graduated from Bellevue 
Hospital, New York, after which he practiced in that institution for three 
months and then at Bois D'Arc, 
where he met with good success and built up a large practice. His widow is now 
the wife of W. E. 
Drum, a successful merchant and prominent citizen of Bois D'Arc, their marriage 
occurring May 13, 
1891. During the Civil War Thomas Yeakley had several narrow escapes from 
death. He remained at 
home and did some work for the United States government, being supplied with 
arms for his defense
by the Federal officers. He was several times attacked at night and in one 
encounter was slightly 
wounded by a bullet which first passed through the side of the house. On 
another occasion, being 
called to the door at night and commanded to strike a light he replied with a 
well-aimed shot and 
the intruders retreated, bearing away a badly wounded companion, their trail 
being freely marked
with blood. On the day of the battle of Wilson's Creek, he, visited the 
battlefield with some of his 
neighbors, mixed with the soldiers and saw the dead and wounded the next day, 
and describes
the scene as terrible for many of the bodies were stripped of their clothing by 
vandals.

[189-192]

Reference: Pictorial and genealogical record of Greene County, Missouri: 
together with biographies 
of prominent men of other portions of the state, both living and dead. 
Publisher Chicago, Ill. : Goodspeed Brothers, 1893.

Repository: Springfield-Greene County Library.
4653 S. Campbell
P.O. Box 760, Springfield, Missouri 65801-0760
Phone (417) 874-8120, ext. 5 Fax (417) 874-8121

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mo/greene/bios/yeakley64gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mofiles/

File size: 21.3 Kb