FRENCH ARLINGTON YOKE

The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 529
Monongalia

FRENCH ARLINGTON YOKE. There is no class of men in
the country today who are performing a more important
service than that which has for its object the proper instruc-
tion of the rising generation through the medium of the
public-school system.  The conscientious educator of the
twentieth century does not consider his obligation to his
pupil by any means discharged when he has heard him
recite, or has imparted to him the subject matter of the
textbook. These duties are really of a secondary importance
compared with the urgent need for awakening in the plastic
mind a desire for further information and an appreciation
of the high ideals in every walk of life. One of the young
men of Monongalia County whose life so far has been de-
voted to the highest kind of educational work is French
Arlington Yoke, superintendent of the Piedmont city
schools, whose success in his chosen calling is generally
recognized, and whose usefulness as a citizen is unques-
tioned.

French Arlington Yoke was born on Stone Coal Creek,
Lewis County, West Virginia, April 18, 1891, and he is a
son of Solomon Gordon Yoke, and grandson of John Yoke,
the founder of the family in West Virginia, who came of
English, Irish and Dutch descent. Professor Yoke can
trace his family back in this country to an ancestor whose
service as a soldier in the American Revolution gives to
him and the other members of his family the right to mem-
bership in the Sons of the American Revolution and the
Daughters of the American Revolution.

Solomon Gordon Yoke was born in the same locality as
Professor Yoke, the year of his birth being 1850. His
educational training was limited to that given in the com-
mon schools, but he has always been a reader and student,
and had little difficulty in qualifying himself for teaching
school, and for eighteen years was numbered among the
successful educators of Lewis County. During all of that
time he was also engaged in farming, and after he retired
from the schoolroom he devoted all of his time to agricul-
ture until he moved to Morgantown to engage in the broker-
age business. He is a democrat, and has served Lewis
County as its assessor. For many years he has been a con-
sistent member of the Methodist Protestant Church. He
married Helen N. Wolverton, a daughter of James and
Elizabeth (Ferrel) Wolverton. James Wolverton was born
in Scotland, but was brought to the United States by his
parents when he was still a child, and he was reared at Big
Bend, Calhoun County, West Virginia, where he was mar-
ried. He took no active part in the war of the '60s, but
was a prominent man of his locality, where he served as a
magistrate, and he was influential in the ranks of the demo-
cratic party. In religions belief he was a Baptist. His
life was devoted to farming, and he died at Big Bend.
Mr. and Mrs. Solomon G. Yoke became the parents of the
following children: Frank R., who is superintendent of the
schools at Weston, West Virginia. Grace Elizabeth, who
married W. H. S. White, president of Shepherd's College of
West Virginia; and French Arlington, who is the youngest
born.

Growing up in the midst of a highly intellectual atmos-
phere it was but natural that French Arlington Yoke should
enter the profession which had claimed his father for so
many years. After graduating from the preparatory school
of the University of West Virginia, at Morgantown, he
completed the literary course in that institution, and re-
ceived his degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1915, since which
time he has been actively engaged in educational work. His
first school after leaving the university was that of West
Union, and he remained there as superintendent. In 1917
he came to Piedmont to succeed W. H. S. White, his brother-
in-law. Professor Yoke belongs to the county, state and
national educational associations, and is a valued member
of all of them, his original ideas and thorough grasp of the
problems of the work giving him a high standing among
his brother educators.

On October 27, 1915, Professor Yoke married at Oakland,
Maryland, Helen Jo Lenhart, of Kingwood, West Virginia,
a daughter of James A. Lenhart, of that city, a sketch of
whom appears elsewhere in this work. Professor and Mrs.
Yoke have one son, Kent Arlington, who was born Septem-
ber 22, 1919. Professor Yoke belongs to the college fratern-
ity Phi Sigma Kappa. He has traveled the Masonic route.
from the Blue Lodge through the York Rites to Osiris
Temple, Mystic Shrine, of Wheeling, West Virginia, and he
belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and
Knights of Pythias. Drawn in the Selective Draft, Profes-
sor Yoke was placed in Class 4 and was expecting to be
called to the colors when the armistice was signed. Pro-
fessor Yoke is earnest, sincere and thorough in his work, to
which he is devoting the abilities of a really superior
mentality, and the parents of Piedmont are fortunate indeed
in having their children under his wise and watchful care
and subject to the stimulus of his constant efforts in their
behalf. 


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