BIOGRAPHY: Paul YAHNER, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 338-9
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PAUL YAHNER, a prosperous farmer and skilled surveyor of Elder township, is a 
son of Valentine and Christina (Chardon) Yahner, and was born at old Huntingdon 
furnace, Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, October 13, 1832. Like so many other 
industrious and substantial families of Cambria county, the Yahner family are of 
German descent. Valentine Yahner was born, reared and educated in the Kingdom of 
Bavaria, in the southern part of Germany. He came, in 1831, to Bellefonte, this 
State, where he worked for two years at his trade of stone mason, being 
principally engaged around furnaces. He then removed to the Glen Connell 
settlement, in what is now Chest township, and purchased a small tract of 
woodland which he cleared and owned up to 1839. In that year he sold and removed 
to Elder township, where he purchased a two hundred and forty acre tract, on 
which was a small clearing and a few improvements. Here he spent the remainder 
of his life in clearing, farming and improving his land. He was born February 
14, 1804, and died April 15, 1859. He was a good citizen, and a member of the 
Catholic church, and married, at Bellefonte, Christina Chardon, who was of 
French descent; she was born in Alsace-Lorraine, and died Dec. 26, 1880, aged 
seventy-eight years. They had three children: Paul, Elizabeth, who married Henry 
Abel, and died in 1861, at twenty- seven years of age; and John, a merchant of 
Patton, this State.
     Reared on a farm and attending the common schools for only six months, Paul 
Yahner commenced life for himself as a farmer. He cultivated for several years 
the home farm, of which he afterwards became, and is now the owner of one 
hundred and twenty-five acres. This land upon which he still resides is well-
improved and underlaid with coal. His educational efforts did not cease with 
leaving school, and he took up surveying, which he mastered by self-study and 
which he has followed to some extent since 1868. He has surveyed a large amount 
of coal lands, assisted in laying out a part of the towns of Patton and 
Hastings, and in 1887 surveyed over ten thousand acres of land for General (now 
Governor) Hastings. He is a democrat in politics, but is not an extremist, being 
a man of liberal political views. He has served continuously as school director 
since 1859, and has held the office of justice of the peace from 1868 to the 
present time. He is a member of the Catholic church. As a man, Squire Yahner 
stands high, and as a citizen and a neighbor commands the respect and good will 
of all who know him. He is one of those who cast in their fortunes with their 
native community, and help to build it up instead of withdrawing their means and 
removing to other sections of the country. In 1855 he visited Kansas when the 
"Border Warfare" was raging, but only remained four months and then returned 
home. An excellent farmer, a good surveyor, an able justice of the peace and a 
substantial citizen, Squire Yahner fills an important place in his section of 
the county and has contributed largely to the growth and prosperity of Elder 
township.
     On November 11, 1866, Squire Yahner was united in marriage with Barbara 
Long, a daughter of Joseph Long, of Cambria township. To their union have been 
born three sons and nine daughters: Mary, wife of Philip Hertzog, a farmer of 
Carroll township; Justina, married T. H. McMasters, a farmer of near 
Martinsburg, Blair county; Josephine, wife of D. A. Luther, of Carrolltown; 
Peter, proprietor of a hotel at Summerhill; Helena, a sister of charity at St. 
Peter's orphan asylum, Lowell, Massachusetts; Catherine, a sister of charity at 
St. Helena convent, Louisville, Kentucky; Agnes, a member of the Benedictine 
Order at Sacred Heart convent, Allegheny City; Elizabeth, wife of Patrick 
Kelley, of Hastings; and Ida, Stephen, Ambrose and Emma, who are still at home.