Biographical Sketch of Jonathan P. YERKES (1893); Chester County, PA Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by John Morris . *********************************************************************** USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: Printing this file within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** Source: "Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsyl- vania, comprising a historical sketch of the county," by Samuel T. Wiley and edited by Winfield Scott Garner, Gresham Publishing Company, Phila- delphia, PA, 1893, pp. 523-4. "JONATHAN P. YERKES, one of the leading farmers and successful business men of Easttown township, is a son of John and Elizabeth (Stump) Yerkes, and was born on the farm adjoining the one upon which he now resides, in Easttown township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, January 16, 1833. His paternal grandfather, John Yerkes, was a native of Wales, and came with his parents to Montgomery county. He owned a farm of two hundred and fifty acres of land, was a member of the Society of Friends, and reared a family of eight children: William, John, Andrew, Harman, George, Rachel Jones, Nancy Righter, and Emmeline. "John Yerkes (father) was born in Montgomery county, this State, in 1785, and in 1818 came to Chester county, where he first settled in Charlestown township. He soon afterward removed to Easttown township, where he rented a farm on which he resided until his death, May 16, 1847, at sixty-two years of age. He was a republican, and a Friend. He married for his first wife Emmeline Coffman, who died and left four children: William, Emmeline, Charles, and Sarah H. After her death Mr. Yerkes married Eliza- beth Stump, who died June 16, 1864, when in the seventy-eighth year of her age. By his second marriage he had eight children, four sons and four daughters: Mary, Job, Morris, John, Elizabeth Supplee, Hannah Colbert, Jonathan P., and Martha E. "Jonathan P. Yerkes received his education in the common schools of his native township and in Professor Koaken's academic school at Norristown, this State, and assisting his father in farming until the death of the latter in 1847, when he and his brother John assumed the management of the home farm, which they conducted successfully for several years. Jonathan P. was next engaged in buying and butchering cattle for the Philadelphia market for some time, and then purchased his present farm of one hundred and thirty-five acres of good farming and grazing land, located near Leopard, close to the main line of the Pennsylvania railroad. At the present time he is extensively engaged in farming, market gardening and cattle dealing. He does a large business in the Philadelphia markets, where he is known as a reliable and active business man. In politics Mr. Yerkes is a republican. He has always been interested in educational affairs and is now serving his twenty-fourth year as a school director of Easttown township. "On February 5, 1863, Mr. Yerkes married Matilda Barr, daughter of Charles and Mary A. Barr, of Delaware county. To Mr. and Mrs. Yerkes have been born five children, two sons and three daughters: Lizzie A., who died at eighteen years of age: Charles Rush, who died in infancy: John, deceased; Edna, who died young; and Martha E., at home with her parents."