Daniel Yager (grandfather) was a native of Madison Co., VA.
He came to Oldham County in
1817 and resided there until he was eighty years of age, and died
in 1860. He was a farmer on
a very extensive scale. The Yagers are of German origin, but
have been in this country for more
than a century.
Diana Smith Yager (mother) is a native of Oldham Co. and she and
Dr. Yager are members of
the Baptist Church.
Fountain Smith (grandfather) was a native of VA. When he first
came to Kentucky he located in
Oldham Co., but afterwards removed to Henry Co., where he died in
1843 at the age of forty years.
Professor Arthur Yager received his primary education in his native
town and entered Georgetown
College in 1875, graduating in 1879, after a four years course,
after which he had charge of the
College Academy for three years. He then spent two years in
the Johns Hopkins University at
Baltimore, graduating with the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in
1884. He then returned to
Georgetown and was elected Professor of History and Political Science.
He was for a time secretary
of the Kentucky College Association and has been, since its organization,
a director in the Kentucky
Chautauqua at Lexington KY and is a member of a number of historical
and scientific associations.
Professor Yager was married in 1892 to Estill, daughter of Dr. James
Lewis of Virginia. She was
born in Louisiana, where her father was for a time located.
They have one son, Rodes Estill Yager.
JOHN
RUSSELL YEAGER. As one of the successful farmers of Boyle County,
John Russell Yeager is living up to the traditions of one of the
old families of this section of Kentucky.
He began his career young has been industrious and progressive,
and he and his good wife have
always recognized that life is an opportunity for enjoying the good
things of the world as well
as for doing work and accumulating wealth.
Mr. Yeager, whose home is one of the attractive ones along Lancaster
Pike and situated 3 1/2
miles east of Danville, was born in Boyle County January 13, 1878.
His family came out of Culpeper,
Virginia, in 1805, and in that year, more than a century ago, settled
on land in the same
community where John Russell Yeager now lives, and some of that
land has never been out of the family.
His father, William
Wesley Yeager, was born in Boyle County January 2, 1836, and died July
29, 1915.
On October 11, 1866, he married Sarah Figg, who was born at Carrollton,
Kentucky, April 5, 1841,
and is now living at Danville
The only child of his parents, John Russell Yeager grew up on the
old homestead and finished his
education in the Hogsett Academy, a military school at Danville.
On August 8, 1896, he married
Miss Mary Erwin, of Danville. She was born in Lincoln County October
8, 1879, and completed her
education in the Kentucky College for Women at Danville and the
Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.
Her people were also pioneer Kentuckians. Her father, Samford Erwin,
was born in Cartersville, Georgia,
July 8, 1830, and died March 20, 1888. September 1, 1869, he married
Elizabeth Bright Lillard, who
was born September 8, 1849. Mr. and Mrs. Erwin had five children,
one dying in infancy. Samford
Erwin, Jr., who was born August 24, 1881, in Lincoln County, and
is now a resident of Salt Lake City,
enlisted in the Canadian army before the United States declared
war on Germany and saw some of
the heaviest fighting in Flanders and France. Elizabeth Erwin, sister
of Mrs. Yeager, born May 22, 1883,
is the wife of Hubert S. Howard, a traveling salesman living at
Meriden, Mississippi. Mrs. Yeager's
brother John was born April 22, 1885, and died September 13, 1893.
Mr. Yeager was eighteen and his wife sixteen when they were married,
and they began at once the
task of building a home and achieving a definite place for themselves.
For eight years they lived at
Riverside in Boyle County, and since 1907 have occupied their present
home on the Lancaster Pike,
where Mr. Yeager is handling a large farming proposition of 440
acres, devoted to general crops and
live stock.
Mr. and Mrs. Yeager have an interesting family of four children,
whose education and training they
have carefully supervised. Elizabeth, the oldest, was born March
5, 1897, and on October 8, 1919,
became the wife of V. P. Cannon, of Columbia, Missouri, but now
in the oil business at Wilson,
Oklahoma. William, the oldest son, was born January 30, 1898, completed
his education at Center
College in Danville, and is already in the ranks of the progressive
young farmers in Kentucky. Allen
Carter, born March 19, 1900, was a student in Center College and
a member of the Students Army
Training Corps, and is associated with his brother William in farming.
Lewis Churchill, the youngest
of the family, was born May 26, 1902, and has also had the advantages
of Center College.
THOMAS
C. YAGER was born in Danville, Ky., October 6, 1804, and is
a son of
Jesse and Ann (Clore) Yager, natives of Virginia. He has for many
years lived
in Oldham County, and is regarded by all as a fine citizen. He has
been a member
of the Christian Church for many years, and has always supported
its principles.
In 1831 he married Mary E. Yager, a daughter of John
W. Yager, who bore him
two children: James P. and Berilla. Mrs. Yager died in October,
1837, and our
subject then married Rebecca A. Allen, February 21, 1839, a daughter
of Benjamin
Allen, a widely known Christian minister. To this union were born
three children:
William B., John T. and Sarah E., all of whom are now living. Mr.
Yager owns a
fine farm of 225 acres, all well improved, and a fine brick residence.
Politically
Mr. Yager is a Democrat.
PRESLEY
N. YAGER was born where he now resides, in Oldham (but what
was then Jefferson) County, October 19, 1810, the fourth of a family
of nine children born
to Jesse and Anna (Clore) Yager. Jesse
Yager was born in Virginia, came to Kentucky
about 1800, and located in Danville, but about 1805, settled where
our subject now
resides. He was a son of Nicholas, of Virginia, who was a son of
Adam, a native of
Germany, but who came to Kentucky at an early date. Jesse was a
farmer and carpenter,
and died September 10, 1841. Mrs. Anna (Clore) Yager, was a daughter
of John and
Margaret (Blankenboker) Clore, natives of Virginia, and died May
15, 1860. Jesse, at
the time of his death, owned about 700 acres of fine land. Our subject
was reared on
the farm, and received a common-school education. He chose farming
for his vocation,
and now owns 440 acres where he resides. November 15, 1842, he was
united in marriage
with Mary J. Hardin, a daughter of Jonathan and Ducy (Wilhoite)
Hardin, of Oldham
County. To this union were born two children: a boy who died in
infancy, and Nora E.,
the wife of John D. Barbor, sheriff of Jefferson County. His wife
having died June 27,
1864, Mr. Yager married Susan F. Hardin a sister of his first wife,
who bore him two
children, Laura V. and Jesse J., the latter deceased. Mr. and Mrs.
Yager are members
of the Christian Church. Politically he is a Democrat.
DR. FRANKLIN
J. YAGER, a widely known physician and surgeon of Campbellsburg,
Henry County; was born in Oldham County, Ky., the sixth of seven
sons and two daughters born
to Daniel
and Susan (Berry) or, and is of German descent. His father was a native
of
Madison County, born May 17, 1779, came to Kentucky in the fall
of 1817, and settled
a farm in Oldham County, near Brownsboro. The year following he
moved to a farm on
Harrod's Creek, where he resided until his death, August 14, 1860.
He was a member of
the Missionary Baptist Church, and was one of the most influential
men of his day. Mrs.
Susan Yager was a native of Madison County, Va., born May 23, 1788;
she was a member of
the Missionary Baptist Church, and a firm supporter of its principles,
and died in May,
1844. John Yager, paternal grandfather of our subject, was a native
of -Germany, came
to America when a young man, and settled in County, Va., where he
resided until his
ninety-eigth year. His maternal grandfather, Michael Berry, was
a native of Germany, but
little of his life is known. The early life of our subject was passed
on the farm until
his eighteenth year, when he entered Shelbyville College, under
Prof. John E. Farnam, and
there remained under a year. He then attended the seminary at La
Grange for three years,
then under a professor at his father's house fifteen months, then
taught school in Henry
County one year,. then one year in Oldham, during which time he
prosecuted the study of
medicine, with a view of making it his profession. In 1846 he entered
the medical
department of the University of Louisville, where he finished his
course of study. He
began practice at the Pond Settlement, Jefferson County, where he
remained two years, and
then came to Campbellsburg, where he has since successfully followed
his profession. April
10, 1847, he was united in marriage with Diana Smith, a native of
Oldham County, and a
a-righter of Fountain and Bersheba Smith, Her father was a native
of Virginia, born June
18, 1802; came to Kentucky in his twenty-second year; was one of
the earlier settlers of
Oldham County, and died April 16, 1843. Her mother was born March
25, 1811, was a member
of the Missionary Baptist Church, and died December 29, 1831, in
Oldham County. Four sons
and three daughters were born to Fountain S., born May 1,
1849, now practicing law at
Leesburg, Florida.; Ida L. born August 29, 1853, died March 8, 1855;
Ernest, born December
30, 1855, last one graduating at Georgetown College, Ky., now a
banker at Leesburg, Fla.;
Arthur, October 29, 1857, graduated at Georgetown College with the
degree of A. B., in
1879, taught three years in the academy at Georgetown, then to Johns
Hopkins University,
Baltimore, graduated with the degree of Ph. D. in 1884, and is now
professor of history and
political science at Georgetown; Luella J., born February 3, 1860,
graduated from the female
high school, of Louisville in 1879 with honor-, Nannie, born June
4, 1864, died January 24,
1866; and Walter H., born April 28, 1868, now attending Georgetown
College. Politically Dr.
Yager, has been a lifelong Democrat. He has been combating the saloons,
retailing whisky
business and drunkenness for forty years, has been a member of the
Masonic fraternity for
thirty years, and has attained to the Royal Arch degree. He has
been a member of the county
board of health for many years, and of the Missionary Baptist Church
since 1844. His farm
near Campbellsburg consists of 252 acres.
CHANCELLOR
YAGER, M. D., the youngest of the eight children born to Dr.
Sanford C. and
Lucy (Boulware) Yager, is a native of Henry County, Ky., and was
born February 11, 1857.
Dr.
S. C. Yager began practice at Floydsburg, was thirty years at Sligo,
Henry County, and
many years ago was surveyor of Oldham County; his death occurred
August 27, 1878. Chancellor
Yager married Miss Rose E. O' Brian, daughter of George H. and Mary
(Hoagland) O'Brian,
natives of Virginia and Trimble County, Ky., respectively. Mary
Hoagland was a daughter of
Isaac Hoagland, who was a son of Elias Hoagland, a native of Germany,
but a pioneer of
Trimble County. To Dr. C. Yager and wife one child has been born,
George C., January 29,
1880. The Doctor received his academical education in Henry County,
read medicine seven
years under his father, and June 28, 1877, was graduated from the
Kentucky School of Medicine
at the age of twenty, and December 2 of the same year succeeded
to his father's practice at
Sligo, which practice has been largely increased and extends through
Trimble and Oldham
Counties. The Doctor is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church
South.
SUSIE YEAGER a Schoolmate of Lincoln in Kentucky
The original Yeager settler in Tennessee was Daniel Yeager and the
original Yeager settler in Kentucky
was Cornelins Yeager. Both went from Pennsylvania about the time
the Lincolns and the Boones left
clerks county-prior to the Revolution.
Cornelius settled in Washington county, Kentucky. and his grandson,
Joseph Yeager, married Susan
Riney, daughter of Zachariah Riney, who was Abraham Lincoln's first
school teacher.
Miss Helen Nicolay, whose father, John G. Nicolay, and John Hay,
the late Secretary of State, wrote
the one great "Life of Lincoln," wrote what is considered by authorities,
the best "Boys' Life of Lincoln.
" Miss Nicolay says that when Lincoln was four years of age his
Parents moved to a "much bigger and
better farm on Knob Creek." "It was," she says, "while living on
this farm that Abraham and his sister,
Sarah, first began going to school. Their earliest teacher was Zachariah
Riney, who taught near the
Lincoln cabin."
In this connection the following letter is interesting and instructive,
for Miss Nicolay truly says "that of the
early part of Lincoln's childhood almost nothing is known."
In response to an inquiry sent by the United States Marshal, James
M. Yeager, whether she was a
schoolmate of Lincoln's, Mrs. Yeager wrote as follows:
Dear Sir: I was very glad to hear from you. Many thanks. Yes, I went
to school with Abraham Lincoln. I
remember Abe Lincoln well when he was a little bit of a fellow.
It was in what is now LaRue county, but
was then a part of Hardin county, that Abe Lincoln and I went to
the same school. My father, Zachariah
Riney, was the teacher. I can see the old school house now. It was
built of rough logs as all school houses
were in those days. The logs were so arranged at the corners of
the building that the ends stuck out and
formed little recesses in which the children played at hide and
seek. These were favorite hiding places for
little Abe. The school house had no windows, but one log removed
the whole length of the building served
for light. and the floor was of dirt. The benches consisted of logs,
split in the middle and placed alongside
the walls. There was just one bench made of a plank. This was looked
upon with envy, and the children
used to fight daily for the privilege of sitting upon it. The school
house was situated on Knob Creek. where
it joins Rolling Ford. 1 remember that Abe's sister brought him
to school. He was then six years old, and I
was ten. They walked a distance of several miles. He was most diligent
at his studies. The one thing that I
remember best about was his unfailing good humor. He was an extra
good boy. He never received a
whipping. He was very gentle in his manners. I remember seeing him
bending down saplings for horses. This
was his favorite amusement at play time. The family moved to Illinois
and I never saw them again. I am now
nearly ninety-three years of age and do not feel as I did when I
went to school and played with little Abe
Lincoln.
I lope to hear from you again.
Yours truly,
Susie Yeager.
Rineyville, Ky., Sept. 15, 1897.