Bucks County PA Archives Biographies.....Yardley, Robert M.
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joe Patterson, Patricia Bastik & Susan Walters Dec 2009

Source: History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania; edited by 
J.H. Battle; A. Warner & Co.; 1887
Doylestown M-Z


ROBERT M. YARDLEY attorney-at-law, P.O. Doylestown, was born 
in Yardley, Bucks county, October 9, 1850, and is a son of 
John and Ann (Van Horn) Yardley, both natives of Bucks 
county, and of English descent.  His 
great-great-grandfather, Thomas Yardley, emigrated to this 
country at an early date and settled in what is now Lower 
Makefield township, and Yardleyville was named after him.  
His grandfather, Mahlon, was a farmer all his life.  Our 
subject's father was also a farmer and a coal and lumber 
merchant at Yardleyville all his life.  He was elected a 
member of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania and 
served one term.  He also held the office of justice of the 
peace for twenty-five years.  He was one of the prominent 
men of the county, and had a host of friends.  He died in 
1873.  His mother died in 1883.  Our subject, Robert M., was 
reared in the village of Yardley and engaged in the coal and 
lumber business with his father.   He received an academic 
education, and at the age of 18 commenced reading law under 
his brother Mahlon, with whom he remained three years.  In 
1872 he was admitted to the bar and began practice in 
Doylestown, where he has since met with much success.  Mr. 
Yardley is an able lawyer and has won the confidence of all 
who know him.  He was appointed notary public by Governor 
Hartranft in 1877 and served until 1880, and then he 
resigned to accept the office of district attorney of the 
county, to which he was elected in 1879.  He was elected a 
delegate to the national republican convention at Chicago in 
1884.  He is one of the director of the Bucks County Trust 
company.  He is a Mason and a member of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows' Lodge.  He was married in 1874 to 
Clara Bell, who died in 1883.  He is one of the prominent 
and leading men in the county.  In 1884 he was elected as a 
republican to the fiftieth congress from the seventh 
Pennsylvania congressional district, composed of the county 
of Montgomery and all that part of Bucks county not included 
in the tenth district, receiving 17,079 votes against 14,944 
for Edwin Satterthwait, democrat, and 836 votes for Oliver 
H. Holcomb, prohibitionist.