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Samuel Younkin Sr. |
Samuel Younkin was born on Aug. 18, 1797 in Turkeyfoot Township, Somerset County, PA, the son of Jacob and Hannah (Nicola) Younkin Sr.
He was christened in infancy in the Sanner Church of nearby Milford Township. He was a young teenager in 1811 when his father died. In December 1813, his uncle Frederick was named as his and his sister Catherine's legal guardian.
Samuel in his youth and young manhood was a member of the Jersey Baptist Church of nearby Ursina.
Later during the decade of the 1810s, Samuel made the decision to seek his future in the west. Accordingly he asked the Jersey church for a letter of dismissal. But before leaving, on May 22, 1819, he entered into marriage with 18-year-old Rachel Deitz (Dec. 5, 1800-1870), also from Turkeyfoot.
The newlyweds then embarked on their voyage, perhaps first traveling to Pittsburgh and thence "going down the Ohio river on a raft," remembered a grandson, J.K. Younkin. They "settled for a while" at Marietta, OH, "following his trade as a potter. They moved from there to Hamilton County, Ohio, near Cincinnati."
There, in Jeffersonville, Clark County, he and Rachel again were joined in wedlock on June 24, 1820. John Carr officiated. Why a second ceremony was needed is not known, except that the young couple may have been lacking proper documentation of the first one after arriving in their new habitat.
Together, the pair went on to bear a brood of nine children -- Andrew Jackson Younkin, Dorothy Ann Gross, Elisabeth Younkin, Cyrus Sylvester Younkin, Roxylenia Younkin, Benjamin Franklin "Frank" Younkin, Manerva Muter, Samuel Younkin and John Deitz Younkin.
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| Above: the historic fight of Tippecanoe in 1811 on land near where Samuel settled in the 1850s. (Kurz & Allison; Library of Congress) Below: Gen. William Henry Harrison, who won that battle, and the obelisk that marks the field today. (Library of Congress) |
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The federal census enumeration of 1820 shows the couple making their dwelling-place in Charlestown, Clark County, IN.
Their dwelling-place in 1830 was in Union Township, Butler County, OH.
Census records for 1840 place the Younkins in Springfield Township, Hamilton County, OH.
Then in 1850, with Samuel continuing as a potter, they dwelled in Fairfield Township, Butler County, OH. In 1850, six-year-old Margaretta Younkin was in their household. They appear to have moved within a few years to Battle Ground, Tippecanoe County, IN.
Sadly, Samuel died in Battle Ground on Sept. 5, 1855. No newspaper obituary has been found.
Rachel survived her husband by 15 years. The United States Census shows her at age 59, residing with 22-year-old John Deitz Younkin in Rainsville, Warren County, IN, with him working as a potter.
She died in Battle Ground at the age of 69 years, 10 months on Aug. 17, 1870. An obituary in the Louisville (KY) Courier Journal said she was a "sister of George W. Dietz, of this city, and one of seven brothers and sisters, varying from 69 to 84 years of age... [and] had resided sixth-three years in Indiana." Interment was in Battle Ground Cemetery. A stone is known to have been placed at the grave.
~ Son Andrew Jackson Younkin ~
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Providence Cemetery, Darke County, OH - courtesy "Anonymous," Find-a-Grave |
On July 23, 1843, when he was 23 years of age, he tied the marital cord with 17-year-old Lydia Ann Guernsey (April 11, 1826-1909). Their exchange of marital vows took place in Clark County, IN.
During their brief marriage, the pair bore a daughter, Marietta Gray in Washington County, IN.
Grief shattered the young family when Andrew died in Preble County, OH at the age of 25 on Feb. 6, 1846. The cause of his untimely death is not known. His remains were lowered under the sod of Providence Cemetery in Harrison Township, Darke County, OH, and a stone erected at the site. The stone was flat on the ground but legible when found in recent years by an anonymous volunteer for Find-a-Grave.
The widowed Lydia Ann outlived her young first husband by more than six decades. On May 10, 1854, after eight years as a widow, she entered into marriage with Prussian immigrant Anthony Scholl (1823- ? ). The couple became the parents of eight -- among them Ernest Scholl, Ella Gray, Abby Bogshaw.
The Scholls settled in New Liberty, IN.
Said a newspaper, "She was one of the sisters that constuld [sic] the New Liberty Baptist church, her life in this community has been known to many. She bore her suffering in silence and was never heard to murmur or comoplain, and often remarked that she wanted to see New Liberty to prosper, which is reaping at this time."
Death swept her away in New Liberty, IN on May 16, 1909 at the age of 83. Burial was in the local cemetery in Salem, IN, with Rev. C.H. Bartle officiating. Inscribed on her grave marker is this epitaph: "Rest, mother, rest in quiet sleep, while friends in sorrow o'er thee weep." The headcount of her survivors included 24 grandchildren, 35 great-grandchildren and six great-great grandchildren.
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| Marietta (Younkin) Gray, likely with her Bible |
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Marietta and Marcus Gray - courtesy Marge Gray James |
- Granddaughter Nellie Gray ( ? - ? ) was united in matrimony with (?) Sommerville ( ? - ? ).
- Granddaughter Emma Florence Gray (1865-1950) was born in 1865. She married (?) McAdams ( ? - ? ).
- Grandson James Palmer Gray (1870-1951) was born in 1870.
- Grandson William E. Gray (1873-1929) was born in 1873.
- Granddaughter Pearl Gray ( ? - ? ) was joined in wedlock with (?) Holdren ( ? - ? ).
- Grandson Charles Gray ( ? - ? )
~ Daughter Dorothy Ann (Younkin) Gross ~
Daughter Dorothy Ann Younkin (1823-1878?) was born on Jan. 3, 1823 in Indiana.
On July 25, 1841, the 18-year-old Dorothy was united in matrimony with 22-year-old John T. Gross (Sept. 11, 1818-1891). Their wedding took place in Butler County, OH, by the hand of justice of the peace Jonathan Pierson.
Together they bore a foursome of known daughters, Manerva Jane Gross, Ann E. Gross, Sarah Elizabeth Parish and Susan I. Shigley.
When the federal census enumeration was made in 1860, the Grosses lived on a farm in Tippecanoe, IN.
Dorothy reputedly passed away on April 1, 1872, at the age of 49. The remains were lowered under the sod of Battle Ground Cemetery in Tippecanoe County, IN. A stone marks the grave.
John lived for another 19 years. After or in conjunction with his married daughter Susan's move to Nebraska in 1886, he followed suit and lived next door. He succumbed to the spectre of death at age 72 on March 24, 1891. In an obituary, the Hayes County (NE) Republican said "He was a sincere christian and will be missed by all who knew him." Burial was in Valley Cemetery in Hayes County, NE. Inscribed on his grave marker was this passage from scripture, 2 Timothy 4:7 (King James Version): "I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith."
Daughter Manerva Jane Gross (1842-1860) was born in Sept. 1842 in Ohio. The family was plunged into grief at her death at age 17 years and 10 months on July 11, 1860. The cause of her untimely passing is not known. Burial was in Battle Ground Cemetery in Tippecanoe County.
Daughter Ann E. Gross (1844- ? ) was born in about 1844 in Ohio.
Daughter Sarah Elizabeth Gross (1849-1936) was born in 1849 in Ohio. She was united in wedlock with Civil War veteran James Harvey Parish (1846-1913). During the war, he had served in the 72nd Indiana Infantry, Company K. The brood of children they bore together included Charles R. Parish, Mary Ann Forth, Nancy Alice Shaw, Delcenna Parish, Cynthia Welch, Clara E. Parish, Della Parish and James Harvey Parish Jr. Eleven years after the war's end, on May 8, 1876, James successfully filed for a military pension as compensation for wartime injuries. [Invalid App. No. 218.806 - Cert. No. 161.904] He then began receiving monthly pension checks for the rest of his life. The angel of death cleaved away James at the age of 67, in Wabash Township, Tippecanoe County, on Oct. 29, 1913. Burial was in the local Colburn United Brethren Cemetery. After his death, Sarah applied to receive her late husband's pension, and it duly was awarded. [Widow App. No. 1.017.010 - Cert. No. 768.871] She survived her spouse by 23 years. She passed into the arms of the heavenly host in Colburn on Dec. 16, 1936.
- Grandson Charles R. Parish (1868-1938)
- Granddaughter Mary Ann Parish Forth (1870-1948)
- Granddaughter Nancy Alice Parish Shaw (1872-1949)
- Granddaughter Delcenna Parish (1875-1883)
- Granddaughter Cynthia Parish Welch (1878-1922)
- Granddaughter Clara E. Parish (1881- ? )
- Granddaughter Della Parish (1883-1967)
- Grandson James Harvey Parish Jr. (1887-1955)
Daughter Susan I. Gross (1853-1908) was born in about 1853 in Ohio. In 1870 or 1872, at the age of about 17 or 19, she tied the knot with George Washington Shigley (Sept. 12, 1850-1936), a neighbor in Tippecanoe County, IN. (This name was mistyped in the notes of Donna [Younkin] Logan as "S. Higley.") The pair produced a family of 11 children, of whom the identities of only five are known -- Lenora "Nora" Paxton, John Otis Shigley, Annie Valley Minnick, Hazel Shigley, Arthur Shigley and Laura Pearl Wyland. The family in 1886 relocated to Nebraska and settled in the northeastern section of Hayes County, about 16 miles southeast of the town of Dickens. Susan suffered from asthma. Sadly, upon contracting pneumonia, she passed away on Dec. 4, 1908. One obituary said that "Her last sickness was very sudden and unexpected as she had seemed to be improving for several weeks. She had suffered bery much at frequent intervals with the disease which finally caused her demise. We know not the hour when when our Lord will come to take us away to his own dear home and we trust that she has gone to that beautiful home for she was a kind mother, a faithful wife and a devoted christian, having united with the Methodist church at the age of nine years." Another in the Hayes Center (NE) Times-Republican said she "has lived among us for twenty two years, being one of the first settlers of the Valley precinct... the funeral was held at the Valley school house and the remains laid to rest in Valley cemetery, which is on the homestead where she lived." Rev. D.W. Parker of Maywood presided over the funeral rites. Burial was next to her father. As a widower, George lived on for more than a quarter of a century. His home in 1910 was in Valley Township, Hamilton County, NE and in 1930 in Dudley, Fall River, SD in 1930. He died in Nebraska on March 31, 1936. Burial was in Alliance Cemetery in Box Butte County, NE.
- Granddaughter Lenora "Nora" Shigley (1878-1960) tied the knot with (?) Paxton. They settled in Medora, ND.
- Grandson John Otis Shigley (1879-1934)
- Granddaughter Annie Valley Shigley (1886-1918) wed (?) Minnick.
- Granddaughter Hazel Shigley ( ? - ? )
- Grandson Arthur Shigley ( ? - ? )
- Granddaughter Laura Pearl Shigley (1896-1992)
~ Daughter Elisabeth Younkin ~
Daughter Elisabeth Younkin (1825- ? )
~ Son Cyrus Sylvester Younkin ~
Son Cyrus Sylvester Younkin (1826-1863) was born in about 1826.
In 1850, at the age of 24, he was a bachelor and lived with his parents in Fairfield Township, Butler County, OH.
On Aug. 25, 1850, he tied the marital cord with Elizabeth Whallen/Whalon (1832- ? ). They exchanged vows in Butler County, by the hand of A. Eddy.
Together, the couple produced a trio of children -- Elizabeth Younkin, Cyrus Sylvester Younkin Jr. and Francis Marion Younkin.
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| Above and below left: the location of Cyrus' pottery, north of Independence, IN. (Library of Congress). Below right: John H. Henry's 1982 article about the pottery archaeology, published in The Independence Sesquicentennial. |
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Circa 1851, Elizabeth and Cyrus were named in a lawsuit in Hamilton County (OH) Court of Common Pleas over the division of real estate as filed by one of Elizabeth's relatives, Benjamin Whallen, administrator of the estate of James Whallen.
In about 1860, they settled about 1.5 miles north of the village of Independence, Warren County, IN. There, Cyrus purchased a pottery and shop from Lewis Lewis as part of a larger 15-acre farm for the price of $400. The type of ware made there largely was redware, glazed in lead and fired at about 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit.
The federal census enumeration of 1860 shows Cyrus as a potter. Living nearby were his widowed mother and brother John Deitz Younkin, who also was listed with the occupation of potter.
Cyrus reputedly died in Lafayette, IN on Nov. 19, 1863. No records are known to confirm this. However, writes John H. Henry in his article, "A Potter Shop Site," Cyrus "evidently experienced financial difficulty for he mortgaged the property in 1863 to David Dweell for $100. Sewell tranferred the mortgage note to a William Hock in 1867. Hock attempted to collect from Younkin in 1868, but found that he had since died. Hock continually pressed for payment from Younkin's heirs and finally secured a clear title."
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| Display of archaeological artifacts from the pottery and kiln which Cyrus Younkin owned and operated in the early 1860s, Warren County Historical Society, Williamsport, IN. |
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Many years later, in 1975, the pottery site was discovered in a cornfield owned by Earl Taylor. "Numerous earthenware pottery fragments were found on the surface and the density of the material indicated the possibility of undisturbed deposits lying below the plow zone," writes Henry. Archaeological tests found hundreds of pottery shards and square, stone foundation of a kiln.
Daughter Elizabeth Younkin (1854- ? ) was born in about 1854.
Son Cyrus Sylvester Younkin Jr. (1856- ? ) was born in about 1856. He is believed to have died in Lafayette, IN and to be buried there.
Son Francis Marion Younkin (1858-1948) was born in about 1858. At the age of 32, on Sept. 2, 1890, he wed Lydia Louise "Lizzie" Smith (Sept. 7, 1868), a native of Galesburg, IL. Their wedding was held in Plattville, IA. Lydia was a native of Illinois and the daughter of Lyman Henry and Lucy Jane (Reeves) Smith. They produced four offspring -- Gracie M. Younkin, Dora Fern Maxwell, Lyman William Younkin and Clyde Younkin, who sadly died at the age of eight months. They lived in Nebraska in 1893 when daughter Gracie was born and the migrated to Missouri by 1896, settling in Nishnabotna, Atchison County. The federal census listing of 1900 shows the Younkins in Nishnabotna, with Marion earning a living as a day laborer. Continuing to be restless, the Younkins relocated again circa 1905 to Washington State, first settling at Bacon Creek above Marblemount, near Cascade, Skagit County. There, their son Lyman was born in about 1908. The 1910 census shows Marion laboring as a farmer on a "truck farm." Their home circa 1913 was in Marblemount. Lydia died in or around Snohomish County, WA in 1942 and was placed into eternal repose in Darrington Cemetery. Marion followed her to the grave six years later, in 1948.
- Granddaughter Grace May Younkin (1893-1970) was born on June 27, 1893 in Browley, NE. She is believed to have migrated with her parents to Washington State when a girl of about 12. She was united in wedlock with Joseph L. Bennett ( ? - ? ). One son of this coupling was Marion Bennett. They lived in Everett and in 1934 came to Yakima. Additional moves were to Goldendale in about 1948 and a return to Yakima in 1958. Death enveloped her at the age of 76, in a Yakima convalescent hospital, on Feb. 22, 1970. An obituary was published in the Everett (WA) Daily Herald.
- Granddaughter Dora Fern Younkin (1896-1970) was born on June 20, 1896 in Missouri. At age nine, she moved with her parents to Washington State, settling at Bacon Creek above Marblemount. On March 5, 1917, in Mount Vernon, WA, she was joined in matrimony with 21-year-old Clarence Albert Maxwell (1895-1965) of Marblemount and the son of A.H. and Lettie (Shofe) Maxwell. He was a native of Kansas and at the time of marriage was a laborer. Their trio of children were Harold Clarence Maxwell, LeRoy Maxwell and Ferne Pauline Olsen. The Maxwells' home over the years was in Darrington and then in 1943 they moved to Conway. Sadly, Clarence surrendered to the angel of death in 1965. Dora Fern outlived him by five years and maintained a home near Mount Vernon. After what the Everett (WA) Daily Herald called "an extended illness," she died at the age of 74 on Nov. 12, 1970. She sleeps for the ages in Fir-Conway Lutheran Cemetery in Skagit County. Her survivors included 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Grandson Lyman William Younkin (1908-1948) was born in 1908. When he was 19 or 20 years of age, on June 20, 1928, he was joined in wedlock with 23-year-old Alice Elizabeth Chrisman (July 15, 1904-1998), a native of Olympia, WA but residing at the time in Darrington, WA. Their nuptials were held in Bellingham, WA. Reported the Red Bluff Daily News, "Mrs. Younkin has many friends here who wish her marriage to be a happy one, she passed the eighth grade in the Red Bluff school... [A]fter graduation went to the normal and has been a successful teacher for the past two years, she startd to learn to play the violin in Red Bluff playing that instrument with ease she soon was giving lessons to others while still attending school." Alice attended grade school in Red Bluff, CA and high school in Auburn, WA. She was a graduate of Western Washington State College in Bellingham, and went on to several years' of teaching in a two-room school near Darrington. The couple bore two offspring -- Lucille Potts and Eugene Lyman Younkin. Sadly, Lyman died in 1948 at the age of 40. Alice outlived her spouse by half a century. In 1970, she relocated from Bellingham to Rogue Valley and was active in the Methodist Church. She also liked to garden, paint, quilt and read. Alice in 1980 authored a memoir of her growing-up years and married life in the North Cascade wilderness, near Darrington, WA. The book is entitled Timber Bowl Valley, and an original signed copy is preserved today in the Minerd.com Archives. Alice's final years were spent in Medford, OR. At the age of 93, she surrendered to the spirit of death at home on April 12, 1998. Pastor Les Hagen led the funeral service, with burial in Darrington Cemetery.
Alice Younkin's memoir
~ Daughter Roxylenia Younkin ~
Daughter Roxylenia Younkin (1828- ? )
~ Son Benjamin Franklin "Frank" Younkin ~
Son Benjamin Franklin Younkin (1831-1873) was born on June 9, 1831 in Carroll County, IN.
He earned a living as a mechanic.
On July 16, 1853, Frank was joined in wedlock with Sarah A. Flowers (1835-1920).
The children they produced together were Edwin Younkin, Roxylenia "Roccielaney" Cook, Laura Minerva Buckellew Priest, John W. Younkin, Anna Elizabeth Younkin and Joseph L. Younkin.
The family was gripped in mourning when three of their sons died very young -- Edwin at age four years, 11 months and 22 days on May 10, 1862 -- John at the tender age of two days on Aug. 3, 1867 -- and Joseph at age four months on Oct. 10, 1872.
During the Civil War, he joined the Union Army and was placed in the 72nd Indiana Infantry.
Their homeplace was in the country west of Purdue University in Lafayette.
Frank passed away on July 21, 1873 at the age of 42 years, one months and 12 days in Wabash Township, Tippecanoe County, IN. Burial was in Battle Ground Cemetery.
The widowed Sarah applied for a military pension as compensation for her husband's wartime service [Widow's App. No. 142.005 - Cert. No. 112.568].
In 1893, she resided as an inmate of the Little Sisters Home for the insane in Indianapolis. Then in 1900, she dwelled in the Marion County Poor Farm. She moved to the Julietta Home for the Insane in Marion County in June 1900.
She passed away on Sept. 4, 1920. A news obituary said that "for 40 years [she] had been an invalid" and that she had "been a patient for nearly 20 years... at a sanitarium in Indianapolis."
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| The Cooks' 1877 marriage certificate - courtesy Donna (Younkin) Logan |
Daughter Roxylenia "Roccie Laney" Younkin (1860-1936) -- later "Roseline" -- was born on Nov. 19, 1860. On Christmas Day 1877, when she was 17 years of age, she married Charles "Henry" Cook (July 1856-1918), also known as "Charley," the son of German immigrants Henry and Kate (Smith) Cook. The nuptials took place in Battle Ground, Tippecanoe County, IN. Her husband's name erroneously also has been given as "R.L. Cook. The brood of children in this family were Lizzie May Mulford, Sarah E. Cook, Ethel V. Warnke, Blaine D. Cook and Theodore Cook plus two who died before 1900. The United States Census of 1880 shows the family on a farm in Prairie Township, White County, IN, with her name spelled as "Roccie L." When the federal census enumeration again was made in 1900, they were in Fairfield Township, Tippecanoe County, with Charles' occupation shown as "Painter & Decorator," and the spelling of her name as "Roccilaney." The Cooks relocated into the town of Lafayette between 1900 and 1910. Charles continued to ply his trade as a painter and she as a seamstress, now using the shortened name "Laney." A final move was to Indianapolis, with him working as a cabinet maker, and their home address was 103 East Iowa Street. Sadly, suffering from cirrhosis and chronic heart disease, Charles at age 59 died in Indianapolis on July 20, 1918. His remains were lowered into eternal rest in St. Joseph Cemetery. The widowed Roccie signed her name as "Lena Cook" on the official certificate of death. She lived in Lafayette, IN in 1920. At some point she simplified her first name as "Roseline." She died at age 64 on March 18, 1936. Burial was in the family plot in Arlington Park Cemetery, Greenfield, WI.
- Granddaughter Lizzie May Cook (1878-1918) was born on July 9, 1878 in White County, IN. Circa 1898, she married Allison Milton Mulford Jr. (Jan. 14, 1874-1953), son of Allison Milton and Sarah (Sherman) Mulford Sr. Together they bore an only known son, Ralph Allison Mulford. Their dwelling-place in the late 1910s was at 2000 Charles Street in Lafayette, IN. Sadly, in her late 30s, Lizzie was diagnosed with cardiac asthma and an exophthalmic goiter -- "Graves' Disease" -- which caused the thyroid gland to become enlarged. She surrendered to the angel of death in Lafayette on Feb. 2, 1918. The body was laid to rest in Spring Vale Cemetery. Allison as a widower moved to the Pacific West Coast and settled in Los Angeles. He married again on Feb. 3, 1932 to Christine Kleinert (1883-1964). There, at age 79, he died on Nov. 14, 1953. He sleeps for the ages in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.
- Granddaughter Sarah E. Cook (1880-1918) was born in about 1880 in Indiana.
- Granddaughter Ethel V. Cook (1890- ? ) was born in Nov. 1890 in Indiana. She married (?) Warnke ( ? - ? ).
- Grandson Blaine Duwaine Cook (1892-1956) was born on Oct. 5, 1892 in Tippecanoe County. He tied the marital cord with Florence Lorena Whitcomb (April 24, 1890-1966). Three offspring in this family were DuWane Cook, William Cook and Harold Larson. Their final address together was 3750 South Nikkickkinnic Avenue, Milwaukee. Death spirited him away at age 64 in Milwaukee on Oct. 12, 1956. Burial was in Arlington Park Cemetery in Greenfield, WI.
- Grandson Theodore Cook (1900- ? ) was born in about 1900 in Indiana. He was alive when named in the 1956 obituary of his brother Blaine.
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| The Buckellews' marriage license, 1879 - courtesy Donna (Younkin) Logan |
Daughter Laura Minerva Younkin (1865-1958) was born on March 4, 1865. On Oct. 11, 1879, at the age of just 14, she tied the marital cord with John Charles Buckellew (1855-1917), also spelled "Buckalaw." Their nuptials were held in Tippecanoe County, IN. Four known children of this coupling were Maggie Delphine Evans, Clarence V. Buckellew, Dollie Lorene Manning and Franklin Buckellew. John died in 1917. As of 1920, the widowed Laura was in Westville, IL. Later, she married (?) Priest. She died in Joliet, IL at age 93 on March 29, 1958.
- Granddaughter Maggie Delphine Buckellew Evans
- Grandson Clarence V. Buckellew
- Granddaughter Dollie Lorene Buckellew Manning
- Grandson Franklin Buckellew
Daughter Anna E. Younkin (1868-1889) was born on June 24, 1868.
~ Daughter Manerva (Younkin) Muter ~
Daughter Manerva Younkin (1833-1898) was born in about 1833.
She resided as a 17-year-old in 1850 with her parents in Fairfield Township, Butler County, OH.
Manerva wed (?) Muter ( ? - ? ).
They were the parents of Minnie Downs.
~ Son Samuel Younkin ~
Son Samuel Younkin (1835-1852?)
~ Son John Deitz Younkin ~
Courtesy Merrill V. Younkin
Son John Deitz Younkin (1837-1932) was born on Oct. 6, 1837 in Hamilton County, OH.
He learned his father's trade as a potter. In young manhood he pushed further west and settled near Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, IN, where he farmed and continued his pottery work, likely in collaboration with his brother Cyrus. In 1860, he and his mother resided together in Rainsville, Warren County, IN, with his occupation marked "Potter."
On May 1, 1862, he was united in holy matrimony with Marietta Victoria King ( ? -1906), a native of Saratoga, NY. At the time, the bride was a teacher in the Battle Ground Seminary north of Lafayette.
The seven children of this union included William Ellsworth Younkin, Clarence Lincoln Younkin, Jennie Deitz Younkin, Samuel DeWitt Younkin, John King Younkin, Charles Franklin Younkin and Marietta "Adora" Yeck.
During the Civil War, on May 10, 1864, John joined the Union Army and was placed within the 135th Indiana Infantry, Company E. He served for a term of 100 days and received his discharge on Sept. 29, 1864. He mustered out of the army in Indianapolis.
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4 generations, clockwise, top left: William E., John Deitz, Florence, Florence Jo Hahn - Younkin Family News Bulletin |
John at the end of 1879 applied for a military pension as compensation for his wartime injuries. It was approved, and he received a monthly government check for the rest of his long life. [Invalid App. No. 333.429 - Cert. No. 263.251]
Before the children were grown, wrote J.K. Younkin, "they moved to Nebraska, 1881 -- then afterward to Kansas." On April 29, 1890, at the Wakeeny Land Office, John is known to have been issued a tract of 160 acres in the southeast quarter of Section 15, Township 17 South, Range 20 West in Rush County. His land-grant certificate was signed by President Benjamin Harrison.
Their first homeplace in Kansas was at McCracken, KS. He and his son Clarence, a young carpenter and stone mason, are believed to have helped build out the towns of McCracken and LaCrosse, KS. John joined the local Rush Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, a veterans organization. Then in 1892, after about a decade, they moved to a near Great Bend, with their residence northwest of the town.
Sadly, Marietta suffered a paralytic stroke in February 1906 and lingered for several weeks. Death finally spirited her away on March 6, 1906. An obituary was published in the Great Bend Weekly Tribune, which said "She lacked but a month of being 67... Mrs. Younkin was a devout christian and a member of the M.E. church. She took a great deal of interest in church work, was a power for good in the community and she will be missed by old and young. The sympathy of the entire community is extended to the bereaved family." Funeral services were conducted in the family church.
The widowed John only remained alone for just under nine months. On Dec. 1, 1906, he wed Charity M. (Smith) Henderson Howard (1842-1923) of Cissna Park, IL. The ceremony was held at the parsonage of the Methodist Episcopal Church, by the hand of Rev. D.T. Summerville. The marriage was reported in the Great Bend Daily Item. She had been married twice before and was the mother of six. How the pair met is not yet known.
John generated income in 1910 as caretaker for a local cemetery, and living in their household that year was Charity's 16-year-old grandson Ernest Howard.
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| John Deitz Younkin family, 1919. Back, L-R: William Ellsworth, Clarence, John K., Dora Yeck, Jennie Riley, Charles F. and Nannie (Wilson). Middle, L-R: Mary Jane (Honderick), Edna (Verbeck) and baby Paul, Charity (Smith) and John Deitz, Murtice and Ed King. Front, L-R: Wayne W., Harold A., Marietta Huffman Showalter, Blanche Yeck, C. George, Dwight, Frances Fox.Courtesy Janice Schneck and Younkin Family News Bulletin |
In October 1919, at John's 82nd birthday, his children and relatives gathered at his home near Great Bend, with some traveling from as farm away as LaGrande, OR. Said the Great Bend Tribune, "An elegant dinner was prepared, photos taken and auto rides over the city. All retired late in the evening having enjoyed the occasion. His daughter, Mrs. Yeck from Oregon was formerly a Barton county school teacher and had not been home for twelve years."
Second wife Charity passed away on Nov. 5, 1923 after 17 years of marriage.
U.S. Census records for 1930 show John, age 92, residing in Great Bend with his widowed daughter Jennie Riley and 22-year-old grandson Willis Younkin.
John was cleaved away by the grim reaper of death in Great Bend on Oct. 26, 1932. His remains were lowered into the sacred soil of Great Bend Cemetery.
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| William E. Younkin's ranch near McCracken, KS Courtesy Merrill V. YOunkin |
Son William Ellsworth Younkin (1863-1930) was born on Feb. 19, 1863 in Battle Ground, IN. When he was 24 years of age, on Nov. 13, 1887, he was joined in wedlock with Mary Jane "Jennie" Honderick (Aug. 4, 1863-1956), a native of West Point, Lee County, IA. The ceremony was held in Pleasantdale, Rush County, KS, by the hand of F.F. Bernstorf. Nine children of this coupling were Clara Rae Younkin, Florence Edna Younkin, Ralph Edison Younkin, Donald John Younkin, Harold Younkin, William Jennings Bryan Younkin, Marietta E. "Marie" Younkin, Charles W. Younkin and Willis Honderick Younkin. The family was plunged into grief when son Harold died in infancy in July 1895 in LaCross, KS and again in 1910 at the death of nine-year-old Marietta. The girl's remains are known to sleep for the ages in Wild Mead Cemetery in Nickerson. Their home in 1906 was in Galatia, KS. William earned a living over the years as a farmer and public education official. He passed away in Miami, FL at the age of 67 on Nov. 1, 1930. The remains were shipped back to Kansas to sleep in the soil of LaCross Cemetery. Jennie lived on for another 26 years. She relocated to Kansas City in about 1940 and then in 1954 moved into the home of her married daughter Clara Rae Cummings at 4330 Brooklyn. She held a membership in the Northeast Presbyterian Church. After what the Kansas City Star called "a brief illness," death took her away in Kansas City on Jan. 4, 1956.
- Granddaughter Clara Rae Younkin (1888-1976) was born in 1888. She entered into marriage with (?) Cummings and established a residence in Kansas City.
- Granddaughter Florence Edna Younkin (1890-1942)
- Grandson Ralph Edison Younkin Sr. (1893-1970) was born in 1893 in McCracken, KS. He was a U.S. Army veteran of World War I. In 1922, he moved to Kansas City, MO. He taught school in young manhood and later switched careers to be an installer for Western Electric Company. Ralph held a membership and served as an elder in the South Presbyterian Church. He also belonged the local Marlborough lodge of the Masons, Order of Eastern Star, Marlborough Golden Age Club and 20th Ward Republican Club and was an advisor to True Kindred. Ralph first was joined in wedlock with Florence Abbott (1891-1996), daughter of Rilla Abbott. Their five children were Rilla Jane Lonsbrough, Patricia Ann Schorr and Margaret Abbot Chiles, Dr. Ralph Edison Younkin Jr. and Betty Lee Younkin. The marriage dissolved in divorce. Ralph married again in 1954, at age 60, to Dasie Belle (Harding) McMillen ( ? - ? ). Their address in Kansas City in 1956-1970 was 1426 East 77th Street. He made a living as a painting contractor. Sadly, as a patient in Baptist Memorial Hospital, suffering from chronic lymphatic leukemia, he died at age 77 on May 24, 1970. The Kansas City Times published an obituary, in which the family asked that any memorial gifts be made to the family church. Interment was under the sod of Mount Moriah Cemetery. Former wife Florence lived in Springfield, MO in 1964 and eventually moved to Granada Hills, CA over the ensuing years. Her mother having died at age 109 in 1964, Florence reached her own 100th birthday in 1991. Death enveloped her at age 105 on Nov. 10, 1996. An obituary in the Springfield (MO) News-Leader said that she "will be remembered for her loving deeds and kind concern for family and many friends in Kansas City, Springfield, and California." Her remains were returned to Missouri for burial in Robberson Prairie Cemetery, with a memorial service held in the First Baptist Church of Reseda, CA.
Grandson Donald John Younkin (1894- ? ) was born on Oct. 7, 1894 in a sod house in Otis, Rush County, KS. He served his nation during World War I in the U.S. Army. At the age of 29, on June 1, 1924, he tied the marital knot with Ellen Quigley (June 21, 1900- ? ), a native of Pleasant Hill, Cass County, MO. The wedding was held in Otis. Three offspring of their union were Janice Helene Schneck, Carolee Quigley Binson and Donna Joanne Atkeson. The family home for years was in Larned, KS. Donald was a longtime farmer in Barton and Pawnee Counties and a rural school teacher of Barton. He belonged to the United Methodist Church, Masons lodge in Larned, Consistory of Wichita and Garfield post of the American Legion. At the age of 95, Donald surrendered to the angel of death on March 7, 1990. An obituary was published in the Wichita Eagle in which family requested that any memorial contributions be made to the Methodist Church. His survivors included 10 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Donald and Ellen Younkin
- Grandson William Jennings Bryan Younkin (1897-1978) was born on Aug. 22, 1897 in Otis, KS. He was named for the famed three-time presidential candidate who was a champion of the common people. In 1927, in Cincinnati, OH, the 29-year-old William wed Marie E. Leslie (1895-1968), daughter of James W. and Molly (Turner) Leslie of Huntington, WV. The pair did not reproduce and remained together through the ups and downs of more than four decades. Their home address was at 327 Lincoln Avenue in Beach City near Dover, OH. For many years, he was employed as superintendent of Beach City Light & Water Company. On the fateful day of Sept. 27, 1944, he received "back and head injuries sustained ... when a power pole on which he was working broke and fell on him," reported the Massillon Evening Independent. "Younkin was strapped to the pole when it broke, causing him to fall about 20 feet. As he fell a crossbar of the pole struck him on the head." In 1962, William was honored by his employer with a dinner in the Legion Home for 25 years of service, Marie died in Massillon City Hospital at age 73 on July 24, 1968. Her obituary was printed in the Dover Daily Reporter, which said "she was a resident here 36 years. She was a member of the United Methodist Church, Pythian Sisters and Daughters of America." Her funeral was held at the Second Street United Methodist Church, led by her pastor, Rev. Dean Roush. He passed away at the age of 80 on Feb. 2, 1978. They sleep at each other's side in South Lawn Cemetery in Beach City, Stark County.
- Grandson Charles W. Younkin (1903-1999) was born on Aug. 7, 1903. He married Virgie Tucker ( ? -1988), originally from Fort Lauderdale, FL. Their only child was Charlene Ambrose. They made their dwelling-place in the 1950s in Miami and circa 1957 moved to Lake Placid, FL, putting down roots for good. As of 1964, their home address was on Lake June Road. Virgie was a member of the First Baptist Church of Lake Placid and the local chapter of the Order of Eastern Star. Sadly, at the age of 81, Virgie died on June 26, 1988. An obituary was printed in the Tampa Tribune. Charles survived his bride by 11 years. In 1993, he and his brother Willis traveled to Somerset County, PA to attend the Younkin Reunion-East. He passed away into the arms of the heavenly host on Dec. 29, 1999. Daughter Charlene married R.N. Ambrose and relocated to Richmond, VA.
Grandson Willis Honderick Younkin (1907-1994) was born on Oct. 23, 1907 in Nickerson, KS. A bachelor at age 22, in 1930, he shared a home in Great Bend with his elderly grandfather and widowed aunt Jennie Riley, generating income as a farm laborer. By 1934, he migrated into Texas and settled in Alamo, Hidalgo County, TX. On April 1, 1940, he was united in matrimony with Grace Elizabeth Carrigan (Feb. 18, 1917-1989) of Leon County, TX. The couple did not reproduce. Over the ensuing decades, they remained in Alamo. During World War II, Willis served in the U.S. Navy, with deployment to the Pacific Theatre. Willis was hired as maintenance man/building superintendent at the new Hidalgo County Courthouse in 1953 for a salary of $350 per month. He remained in the county's employ for two decades. Grace worked in the office of the county tax assessor/collector. He was a commander of the local American Legion post, and in her own right, Grace was secretary to the Auxiliary to the Alamo American Legion and held a membership in the Hidalgo County Home Demonstration Club. They belonged to the Alamo Community Church, and he was a member of the Rio Grande Valley Audubon Society and Hidalgo County's Forty and Eight Voiture 1077. Sadly, Grace was gathered away by the grim reaper of death at age 72 on Sept. 16, 1989. Her funeral was presided by Rev. Bob Sinclair. Willis spent his final years in Victoria, TX. In 1993, he and his brother Charles traveled to Somerset County, PA to attend the Younkin Reunion-East. He followed her to the grave four-plus years later, at age 86, on Jan. 2, 1994. Burial was in Centerville City (TX) Cemetery, with Rev. Randy Thomas leading the rites. Obituaries were published in the Victoria Advocate and McAllen Monitor.
Willis Honderick Younkin
 |
| Clarence's name on the letterhead of the short-lived Younkin Family History Society based in Great Bend, KS |
|
Clarence Lincoln Younkin - Younkin Family News Bulletin |
Clarence pulled up stakes again and migrated to California and thence to Miami, FL. Evidence suggests that he might have married again to Bessie. He was a writer of long letters. In one missive to his brother Charles in the mid-1930s, from Miami, Clarence wrote the following snippets:
I guess old age creeping up on us faster... We do not run around much, only go to church & townsend Club & my K.K... Have been helping Vivian build an addition to her Garage to be used as an Apt... She has not home from Calif. but short time I suppose you have heard her Mother (Emma) died about 1 months ago & Vivian was much torn up. She was buried out there. Remorse & wrong way of living helped her off. Wages of Sin is Death... Money is scarce, wages small & living high. Pork politics running high, I don't mess with them much... Well this old world sure Rocking & Reeling & is in a Chaotic Condition. I can't see how God can stand it much longer. He will not hold his wrath always... Wars & rumors of war. All prophecy is all being fulfilled. I am ready at any time....
Seems as tho I have lost most all trace of any of my Relation now. Wonder our Family knows but little of our own Family tree. I r'cd a 12 page letter from Charley at Penn. also the Bulletin but I cannot see through any of it as thro all the writing to various ones just where our Branch sprang from not a word or a line or a name to place my self in what & how have you figured out any of it. Lots of them that Bear our given sir name but who was our Great Grand Father. Any way now Charlie Father told me once that his Father had a Bro Jacob but it is a Chinese puzzle so far but all are Related in some way...
[Father] was very slow to relate anything Rel[ating] to his people. Now he did tell me how his Mother swam the Ohio River on Horseback to get away from Indians & how his Father died & was buried in Greenville Ohio but I have no way of finding any accurate dates of anything... He told me his Parents left Penn on the Ohio River on a flat Boat & landed near Dayton ... in a rough & sparsely settled wilderness & where the French & Indians were causing much trouble in the year 1807... I remember what Father said after his Father died he sent his Mother on to Independence Ind. to his Bro Franks. He stayed Home & settled things up & then he took that little trunk you seen at our old Home on his Back & walked all the way to where his mother was. You see his sistr Ann had married John Gross, Minerva married William Muter. John Gross & William Muter ad uncle Will went to Battle Ground where he & wife are burried & Uncle John G went about 12 mi North of Battle Ground on a Farm. Aunt Ann is burried at Battle Ground. Uncle John went to Neb. & took Homestead at age of 75 & is burried there. Father and his Mother would go up to see Uncle Will at B.G. & there is where he met our Mother. I remember them all so well & I remembr Uncle Frankk & as he ran a toll gate on a gravel road in the Pine Village Road. Was at his funeral. Aunt Sarah soonafter went insane, was taken to Indianapolis & was burried there. She had two girls, one Married Charlie Cook, he was killed in accident. Laura married John Buckalew, R.R. Man was living at Danville Ill. last I knew. I never seen any of other Bro's of Father's. Uncle Cyrus had 2 Boys, I remember well Marion and Sylvester & they had uneventful career which would fill a book. Now I have asked you several times about that old account Book who has it & where is it?... I tell you this Great Notorious tribe of our's must go down on Record.
Clarence agreed during the late 1930s to serve on the Younkin Family History Society, based in Great Bend, a midwest counter-organization to the Younkin National Home-coming Reunions of Somerset County, PA. Other officers were Noble Younkin, president (of the family of Isaac and Rebecca [Walter] Younkin), Fred E. Younkin, first vice president (family of Michael and Anna Maria [McClintock] Younkin), Otto Roosevelt Younkin, historian (family of Balaam Younkin and Amanda [King] Younkin), Charles Arthur Younkin, secretary and Clarence's own brother, Charles Franklin Younkin, corresponding secretary and treasurer. During the 1930s, Clarence attended the Younkin National Home-coming Reunion in Kingwood, PA and kept up a correspondence with his committee member and Younkin National Reunion secretary and family newspaper publisher Charles Arthur Younkin. At first the two men admired one another. But in 1939, after driving to the reunion from Miami, they clashed. Clarence wrote to a friend: "A difference existing between Chas. & I ... owing to Charlie's attitude. He probably showed you my last letter to him in answer to his very vicious and unseemly letter. As I am a real Younkin I know how to take an insult." The original of this letter is preserved today in the Minerd.com Archives. Clarence passed away in Miami, FL at the age of 75 on April 30, 1941. His obituary was published with his photo in the very last edition of the YFNB (June 30, 1941).
- Granddaughter Arletta M. Younkin (1896- ? ) was born in about 1896 in Topeka, KS.
- Granddaughter Vivian M. Younkin (1898- ? ) was born in about 1898 in Topeka, KS.
- Granddaughter Jessie D. Younkin (1900- ? ) was born in about 1900 in Topeka, KS.
Daughter Jenny Deitz Younkin (1867-1951) was born on Nov. 19, 1867 in Battle Ground near Lafayette, IN. She moved to Kansas at age 16 with her parents, first settling in McCracken, Rush County. When she was 20 years of age, on Jan. 26, 1888, she entered into marriage with Solomon Harris Riley (1866-1924). The happy event was held in McCracken, Rush County, KS, officiated by Rev. C.H. Gramby. Three known sons of this union were John Earl Riley, L. Roy Riley and Ivan Harris Riley. Solomon had moved from Illinois to Wichita at age 18, circa 1884, and then returned to Illinois after a year. Two years later, circa 1887, he came back to Kansas and settled in Sumner County, teaching school for several years. Then following marriage, the family again pulled up stakes and moved to Illinois, and in 1890 came to Kansas once more and settled in Portland, KS in 1890. Said the Wichita Eagle, "During this time he became known all over the state as a foot racer. Although he weighed more than 200 pounds and was never officially timed, 'old timers' say he has run the 100 yard dash in 10 seconds at various fairs, community picnics and other gatherings." A tornado in Wellington destroyed their home and virtually all of their belongings, but no one was hurt. Circa September 1893, the family made plans to move to the newly opening Oklahoma Territory, and Solomon took part in the "run" to claim a tract of land near Salt Fork. Said the Wichita Beacon, "He got hold of 160 acres, but when he went to file he discovered he was ineligible for the land. He owned 160 acres in Kansas. 'He came back laughing about it,' Mrs. Riley recalls. 'He said there was a Sooner on the land, so he turned it over to him." Jenny once walked across town to listen to a speech by Populist candidate William Jennings Bryan, who thrice ran unsuccessfully the U.S. presidency in 1896, 1900 and 1908. Many years later, she couldn't recall a word that he had said. The family survived another disaster on March 31, 1898, when a tornado blew down their house near South Haven, KS. Then in 1903, floodwaters from Chisholm Creek "lapped at the Riley doorstep" on their block of East Douglas Street, said the Wichita Beacon. Circa 1904, they settled on a farm near Kechi, north of Wichita. As of 1906, the Rileys dwelled in nearby Valley Center, KS. Jenny kept as a souvenir a fragment of glass from a framed "near nude" picture that had jung above the bar in a local saloon that temperance activist Carrie Nation shattered on one of her crusades. Said the Beacon, "Mrs. Riley hastily explains that she wasn't in the saloon when Carrie came, and she didn't follow Carrie there. She was at home where a homemaker should be," and the shard was brought home by one of their sons. There is evidence to suggest that the couple separated, as neither was named in the other's newspaper obituaries. A final move for Solomon was to Wichita in 1907, with him earning a living in the restaurant and real estate businesses and operating a hotel at 227 West Douglas Avenue. Grief blanketed the family when Solomon died in a Wichita hospital on Oct. 7, 1924. An obituary in the Eagle called him a "pioneer farmer of southern Kansas and Wichita" and said that in his last "few days of his life he spent clipping accounts of the records [son] Ivan had made in Europe and at other track meets from newspapers." Burial was in the Old Mission Cemetery. The widowed Jenny in 1930 lived with her elderly father and 22-year-old nephew Willis in Great Bend. Then in about 1936, she was in Los Angeles at the start of the year and in Wichita by the end. She held a membership in St. Paul's Methodist Church. Her final address was 115½ West 10th Street, Wichita. At her 82nd birthday, she was pictured and featured in a Beacon article headlined "82-year-old Wichitan Recalls Stirring Events in This State." On the fateful day on Nov. 20, 1951, Jenny went shopping in Wichita and stopped for lunch in a department store. As she was eating, she suffered a massive heart attack and died. The remains were laid to rest in Old Mission Cemetery in Wichita. An obituary in the Eagle said she was survived by her two sons and brother John K. Younkin.
- Grandson John Earl "J.E." Riley (1892-1973) was born on Jan. 22, 1892 in Portland, Sumner County, KS. On June 29, 1913, when he was age 21, and she 18, he was united in matrimony with Enid Eva Watkins (May 8, 1895-1990). Two children born into this family were Lewis Riley and Onah Margaret Steele. They dwelled in Clay Center, KS circa 1920, where he was manager of the Williamson Milling Company. In 1924, his home was in Sapulpa, OK. John lived in Wichita in 1951 at the address of 1515 or 1550 North Emporia, operating a dairy supply store. Their final address together was 1550 North Emporia. He died in Wichita at the age of 81 on April 2, 1973. Burial was in the city's Old Mission Cemetery, with Rev. Louis Gant leading the funeral service. A brief funeral notice was printed in the Wichita Beacon.
- Grandson Leroy Anderson "Roy" Riley (1888-1967) was born in 1888. He made a home in Los Angeles in 1924. He relocated to San Antonio, TX in about 1940 and spent the remaining 26 years of his life there. Leroy was employed by the U.S. Defense Department as an accountant at Kelly Field, later renamed Kelly Air Force Base. He eventually retired from the position. Leroy was joined in wedlock with Ila W. Guy (1901-1989). She brought a stepson to the union, Talmage M. Guy. They dwelled at 307 East Mistletoe in the mid-1960s and belonged to the Trinity Baptist Church. Leroy passed away at the age of 78 on Oct. 1, 1967. Rev. R.F. Wideman presided over the funeral rites, and burial was under the sod of Sunset Memorial Park. The San Antonio Express-News ran an obituary. The widowed Ila survived for another 22 years. The spirit of death whisked her away in 1989.
~ Ivan Riley's Path to the 1924 Olympic Games ~ |
Event/Meet |
Date |
Time (seconds)
|
| 220 Low Hurdle - Missouri Valley Conference | May 1922 | 24 7/10 |
| 75 Low Hurdle - Illinois Relays | March 1923 | 8 1/5 (record) |
| 220 Low Hurdle - Missouri Valley Conference | May 1923 | 24 1/5 |
| 220 Low Hurdle - Kansas Relays | April 1923 | 25 5/10 (record) |
| 120 High Hurdle - National Collegiate | June 1923 | 15 1/5 |
| 440 3-Ft. Hurdle - Central Championships | Aug. 1923 | 56 1/5 |
| 440 3-Ft. Hurdle - National A.A.U. Championships | Sept. 1923 | 55 2/5 |
| 400 Meters 3-Ft. Hurdle - Wilco Games, New York City | Sept. 1923 | 54 3/5 (American record) |
| 70-Yard High Hurdle - I.A.C. Handicaps, Chicago | Jan. 1924 | 8 4/5 (ties world record) |
| 50-Yard High Hurdle - K.C.A.C. Handicaps - Kansas City, MO | Feb. 1924 | 6 3/5 |
| 60-Yard High Hurdle - Cincinnati Handicaps - Cincinnati | March 1924 | 7 4/5 |
| 45-Yard High Hurdle - Penn A.C. Meet, Philadelphia | March 1924 | 6 (ties world record) |
| 400-Meter 3-Ft. Hurdle - Penn Relays, Philadelphia | April 1924 | 54 3/5 (American record) |
| 400-Meter 3-Ft. Hurdle - Olympic Tryouts, Ann Arbor, Mich. | May 31, 1924 | 52 1/10 (world record) |
| Source: Boston Globe, May 27, 1924 |
- Grandson Ivan Harris Riley (1900-1943) was born on New Year's Eve 1900 in Wichita. He was a graduate of Newton High School, where he starred in track and field. He then enrolled at Kansas State Agricultural College where he ran in competition in the Missouri Valley Conference. In 1923, still at Kansas State, he joined the Illinois Athletic Club so that he might be eligible to compete in the U.S. Olympics. While in pre-Olympics competition Aug. 25, 1923, in Detroit, he set a record in the 440 yard intermediate hurdles and third place in the 120-yard high hurdles, and then broke his own record in the 440 on Sept. 1, at the Chicago National Amateur meet. Said the Wichita Beacon, "There was no hurdler in that part of the country to compare with him, so he ran against time." He qualified for the Olympics at a meet in September 1923 at Yankee Stadium in New York, where he took first in the 440-meter low hurdle and second in the 220 meter high hurdle. Reporting on his accomplishment, the Clay Center Times said "Riley is rated as one of the six greatest hurdlers of this country." Then in the spring of 1924, he captured first in the 400-meter hurdles in the Classic Penn Relays in Philadelphia. The 1924 Summer Olympics officially opened in Paris on July 5, 1924. One of Ivan's teammates was Johnny Weissmuller, who captured three gold medals in swimming and a bronze in water polo and reached greater fame in the movies portraying Tarzan. Among his competitors were British runners Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell, whose story was portrayed in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire. The Boston Globe pictured Ivan in a profile in late May 1924, saying:
Often an athlete tries his speed and power in several events before he finally hits upon one in which he is better than others. In this instance, Ivan H. Riley ... "fiddled" around, so to speak, before finding that his long limbs were better fitted for hurdling than for high and broad jumping and sprinting. It was as a high jumper that Riley, the present national champion and American record holder for the 440-yard and 400-meter hurdles, began his athletic career. That was back in the freshman class of the high school at Great Bend, Kan. He was not satisfied with what was doing and when he enrolled at Newton, Kas. High School, he took up sprinting and broad jumping, and later became proficient as a quarter-mile runner, competing in the event for four years, and being beaten only once. It appeared as if he had found the event in which he was able to accomplish great things, as he had never heard of the hurdle race, as the event was not in vogue at the high schools.
In his 400-meter hurdle race in Olympic Stadium in Colombes, on July 6, 1924, Ivan took a bronze medal, finishing behind teammate F. Morgan Taylor of Grinnell College and Filen of Finland. Reported the Associated Press, "the huge stands were sparsely occupied. Upon returning home Ivan completed his degree at Kansas State. But that fall, in October, he endured the death of his father. Ivan became an architect immediately after college and in late October 1924 was employed in Chicago by Schmidt, Garden and Martin, a firm specializing in hospital designs. He continued to enter races on the side. Ivan was joined in wedlock with Geneva Hollis ( ? - ? ). They were the parents of Ivan Harris Riley Jr. later settled in Harlingen, TX. In 1933, he was the architect in charge of design and construction of the State of Texas' exhibit at the Chicago World's Fair. Then in 1943, he served as secretary-treasurer of the building contractor Hawley-Riley Inc. and supervised construction of emergency housing for the government in Stamford, TX. Ivan died at the age of 42 on Oct. 28, 1943. Interment was in Sunset Memorial Park in San Antonio.
Great-grandson Ivan Harris Riley Jr. (1937-2005) was born on Jan. 5, 1937 in San Antonio, TX. He studied at the University of Tennessee, class of 1957. His first wife was Vassar Star ( ? - ? ), daughter of Vassar Meredith Mitchell of Nashville, TN. At the time of their June 15, 1957 marriage, she was a student at the University of Tennessee. The couple divorced. As of 1968, his home was at 5465 Whitefox Drive in Rolling Hills, near Los Angeles. On Aug. 16, 1968, he tied the knot with Patricia Ann (Hilliard) Peterson (Dec. 14, 1937- ? ), daughter of Charles R. and Gertrude B. (Haren) Hilliard. At the time, Patricia made her dwelling-place in Arlington, VA. Ivan's third bride was Ann McFarland ( ? - ? ), with the vows exchanged on Oct. 16, 1976 in King County, WA. Ivan died in Nelson County, VA on Nov. 11, 2005.
Son Samuel DeWitt Younkin (1869-1936) was born on Nov. 6, 1869 in Lafayette, IN. On Dec. 10, 1889, in Topeka, he was joined in the bonds of marriage with 18-year-old Ida Anna Spencer (1874-1905). News of their marriage license was published in the Topeka Daily Capital. Together they became the parents of four daughters -- Mae Adora Younkin, Ada Carol Younkin, Edith Olive Younkin and Ethel Maud Younkin. Samuel in 1897 served as secretary of the Topeka post of the Salvation Army. In a letter to the editor of the American Bimetallist, printed Feb. 5, 1897, he wrote that "In a recent copy of your paper I find where some ignorant peerson has made a great blunder in his judgment. As an American Citizen I have adopted in my Platform three (3) things. First Loyal to my God, 2nd Loyal to my Country, 3rd Loyal to my home or family. As a son of a Veteran, and a Soldier for Jesus Christ, I have been taught to love the stars and stripes, and regard them as an emblem of Liberty, and what I may pen in these few words I believe I speak the sentiments of 68 as Loyal and as brave a people as ever went forth to war, in days gone by, namely The Salvation Army in this city. Having been a member in this city alone for 8 years I know where of I speak." At Christmas 1897, the family traveled to Great Bend to celebrate the holiday with his family. But despite his high-sounding self-image, Samuel led a bit of a double life in Topeka and was married to two women at the same time. Reported the March 27, 1899 edition of the Topeka Daily Capital:
Miss Virgie Davis, who claims that she is the wife of Samuel D. Younkin, who was horsewhipped by his wife Saturday night, is missing, and it is believed by the police that she has left town with Mr. Younkin. A reporter for the Capital called at Mr. Younkin's home last night and found the house apparently unoccupied. Miss Davis left her home on Jackson street, opposite the Grand opera hosue, at 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon. C.L. Younkin, brother of Samuel Younkin, called for her with a buggy, and she has not been seen since. The father and sister called at the police station last night and wanted to have a search made for Miss Davis. They will probably have a state warrant issued for the arrest of Mr. Younkin, on the charge of bigamy. According to the statement of Miss Davis' father and sister, while paying attention to Miss Davis, Mr. Younkin gave his first name as Charles. He pretended that he was not married, and after several months of industrious courting, became her affianced husband. He secured a marriage license under the name of Charles Younkin on February 3, 1899, and on February 25, just one month prior to the horsewhipping, he was married to Miss Davis by a North Topeka clergyman. The couple secured rooms on East Seventh street, and lived there till a few days ago, when they moved to the rooms opposite the Grand opera house on Jackson street. That is, Mrs. Davis-Younkin lived there. Mr. Davis, father of the wronged woman, is naturally very indignant at the treatment which his daughter has received. He and his daughter, who is still unmarried, both threaten to punish him to the full extent of the law. They are also very desirious [sic] to get the missing girl to come back to them.
Samuel and Ida apparently reconciled. When the federal census enumeration was made in 1900, the Younkins dwelled in Emporia, Lyon County, KS, with Samuel earning a living as a stone mason. But not long after, they separated for good, and he moved out. From that time on, said a newspaper, she was "left to care for herself and four small children." She joined the Protected Home Circle, a fraternal life insurance company. She also sued for divorce in September 1904 in the District Court of Shawnee County. Grief cascaded over the family when Ida died on March 15, 1905. Added the news story, "The ladies of the lodge cared for her and her children for some time before her death and a large number of them attended the funeral which was conducted by the lodge." Her remains were laid to rest in the city's Topeka Cemetery. As of 1905, Samuel lived in Kiowa. Still smitten with Virgie, otherwise known as "Virginia Bell Davis" (1877- ? ), the pair were wed on May 9, 1905. The nuptials were conducted by the hand of Probate Judge Gleason, in his offices in Medicine Lodge, with Deputy Treasurer Warren attending as a witness, "to see that the ceremony was performed with befitting dignity," said the Barbour County Index. Five children of the pair were Mary "Virginia" Brown Hilliard, Samuel Jerome Younkin, Charles Franklin Younkin, Kenneth Davis Younkin and Maxine Delores Ellis. They lived in Topeka, KS in the early-to-mid-1910s, at 306 Van Buren Street. But the second marriage was troubled, and in May 1915 Virginia brought a legal claim against him on charges that he "abused her on numerous occasions," said the Topeka State Journal. "One night, she recites, Younkin drove her from their home. Clad only in her night clothes, the woman says she ran barefooted to the home of a neighbor, where she sought shelter. The wife says Younkin is a persistent user of morphine..." They apparently reconciled, with two more children born after the dispute. In time, the family settled in Great Bend. For reasons that may only been inferred, Samuel chose not to attend his father's well-publicized 85th birthday party in 1922. Sadly, the couple died less than a month from each other. He passed first, suddenly in Topeka, on April 23, 1936. Daughter Mary Virginia and son Kenneth of Nevada City traveled to attend funeral services. Said the Pomona (CA) Progress-Bulletin, "Mr. Younkin, who had planned to visit his children here within a few weeks, apparently was in good health, and his death was entirely unexpected." Virginia Bell followed him into eternity on May 16, 1936, at the age of 59.
- Granddaughter Mae Adora Younkin (1892-1989) was born on April 27, 1892 in McCracken, KS. At the age of 18, about 1910, she entered into marriage with 22-year-old Nelson Clay Boyd (Aug. 14, 1890-1946), a native of Clay Center, NE. Nine children borne of this family were Mitchel Nelson Forest Boyd, Charles William Spencer Boyd, George Russell Thurston Boyd, Frederick Jacob Boyd, Harrison Lee Boyd, Donald L. Boyd, Emma Jean May Boyd, Robert Earl Clay Boyd and Arthur Lewis Samuel Boyd. Sadly, their son Charles passed away in 1917 at about age two and daughter Emma Jean died in 1934 at about year years of age. When Nelson was required to register for the military draft during World War I, they lived in LaJunta, CO, and he worked as a window, house and carpet cleaner at the county jail. The federal census enumeration of 1920 places the family in Topeka, with Nelson working as a packer in a flour mill. During the decade of the 1920s, the Boyds pulled up stakes and relocated to San Diego, CA. There, in 1930, Nelson generated income as a sign painter. As of 1936, the Boyds were in Pomona, CA, at the address of 1093 North Gordon Street. Nelson continued in the trade of painting contracting into 1940, working with his teenage sons Frederick and Harrison. Their address in the mid-1940s was 142 Oberg Street, San Dimas, CA. The family belonged to Trinity Methodist Church of Pomona. At the age of 55, Nelson died in Pomona on July 5, 1946 after a weeklong illness. Rev. Frank Butterworth preached the funeral sermon. An obituary in the Pomona Progress-Bulletin said he "came to California 29 years ago from Wichita, Kans., and five years ago moved to San Dimas. He was well known thruout this vicinity, having been one of the owners of A.B.C. Paint company." Mae Adora survived him by more than four decades. She died in San Luis Obispo, CA on Sept. 30, 1989. Her remains sleep for all time in Pomona Valley Memorial Park.
- Granddaughter Ada Carol Younkin (1895-1995) was born on Christmas Day 1893 or 1894. She grew up in Topeka. Ada in April 1913 entered into marriage with Norris J. McCall ( ? - ? ). Their known children were Manford Leroy McCall, Betty J. McCall, Opal Mae Mongold, Margaret Simon, Keith McCall and Lawrence McCall. The McCalls resided in McLouth, KS and then in about 1931, during the Great Depression, relocated to Meriden, KS. They held a membership in the Meriden United Methodist Church. Ada celebrated her 100th birthday in 1994. Sadly, she died just 23 days later, on Jan. 17, 1995. Her remains were lowered under the sod of Meriden Cemetery, with Rev. Lawrence R. Fry leading the funeral rites. An obituary was printed in the Oskaloosa Independent and numbered the headcount of her survivors as seven grandchildren, 19 great-grandchildren and seven great-great grandchildren. On her grave marker are the words "In God we trust."
- Granddaughter Edith Olive Younkin (1895-1969) was born on Nov. 2, 1895. She tied the marital cord with Heber Dean Jennings (Jan. 24, 1893-1972), originally from Perry, KS and the son of Walter W. Jennings. Their known offspring were Walter D. Jennings, Edward H. Jennings, Riley W. Jennings, Tracy M. Jennings, Beulah Marker and Edith Louise Bailey. Heber at age eight had been badly burned in an explosion of an air-tight heating stove, but survived. They moved to Bonner Springs, KS in 1947 and stayed for good. Heber was a longtime truck driver for Lone Star Industries. The family belonged to the local Christian Church. Death swept her away at age 72, in Bonner Springs, in Sept. 1969. Burial was in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Perry, KS. Heber endured for another three years. He was stricken by a heart attack and died at home on May 3, 1972. He was survived by 21 grandchildren and 30 great-grandchildren. An obituary in the Valley Falls (KS) Vindicator said he had "spent most of his life in Perry and Bonner Springs."
- Granddaughter Ethel Maud Younkin (1899-2003) was born on Feb. 9, 1899 in Topeka. On May 25, 1918, she first tied the marital cord with Asa Martin Smith (1896-1977). The marriage ended in divorce. She and her married sister and brother-in-law, Mae and Nelson Boyd, traveled together to Arizona in 1929. It's said that their car broke down in Tucson, and that Ethel had to find a job to help pay for the repairs. When the Boyds continued their trip to California, Ethel stayed in Tucson. Then on Christmas Eve 1938, in Tucson, she wed a second time to Elbert Giles "Al" Grantham (1904-1977). The couple put down roots in Tucson and produced a family of three -- Bonnie Ruth Favro, Marlyn Kay Glenn and Alan Giles Grantham. The Granthams moved in 1943 to Williams, AZ, where they ranched and their children could attend a good school. Said an obituary, Ethel Maud "loved ranching and gardening, and kept the yard at the ranch blooming with beautiful lilacs, hollyhocks and lilies. Her hard work in the vegetable garden during the summer months was enough to sustain her family through winters after canning much of the food." Sadly, Al passed into eternity in 1977 from the effects of cancer. Burial was in Mountain View Cemetery in Williams. Ethel lived on by 24 years, with their son Alan taking over the ranch. She reached her 100th birthday in 1999, and lived for another four years. She was gathered away by the legion of angels at age 104 on March 1, 2003.
- Granddaughter Mary "Virginia" Younkin (1901-1983) was born on June 24, 1901 in Hutchinson near Topeka, KS. At the age of 23, on May 1, 1925, she wed James Brown ( ? - ? ). Her home in 1936, using the name "Brown," was in Nevada City, KS. She later was joined in wedlock with Joy "Baldy" Hilliard ( ? -1958). The couple did not reproduce. Joy was a U.S. Army veteran of World War I and belonged to the Ben Ali Temple of Shrine. Virginia "worked as a psychiatric technician at the former DeWitt State Hospital in Auburn for 10 years," reported the Grass Valley (CA) Union. "She lived in Grass Valley and Nevada City for 50 years. She belonged to the Eastern Star Chapter No. 13 of Nevada City and the Grass Valley Senior Citizens Club [and] her favorite hobby was crocheting." Joy was a well-known road contractor specializing in access roads, and for a period of time earned a living with the U.S. Forest Service. They dwelled five miles north of Nevada City along the Downieville Highway, although during the workweek she lived at the hospital. On the fateful morning hours of Oct. 3, 1958, the 61-year-old Joy was found dead at home. It was determined that he had died the night before of natural causes, while reading a newspaper. Said the Grass Valley Union, "Neighbors and acquaintances contacted the sheriff's office when they noted that the stock had not been fed, doors were locked and Hilliard had not been seen lately. Sheriff's deputies were forced to beak in a rear door and found Hilliard in a reclining chair in the living room." Funeral services were conducted by Rev. Cedric Porter. Virginia survived him by 25 years. She died in a local hospital at the age of 83 on July 20, 1983. Her cremains were placed into eternal repose in Forest View Cemetery.
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| Wee Kirk o' the Heather Chapel, where Samuel and Helen Younkin were wed |
- Grandson Samuel Jerome Younkin (1906-1993) was born on May 28, 1906 in Great Bend. At age 23, circa 1930, he first wed 20-year-old Blanche I. ( ? - ? ). They are shown together in the 1930 United States Census, living in Virgil, KS, with him working as a house carpenter. He migrated to Southern California in the early 1930s and in 1936 was in Pomona, CA at the address of 742 San Francisco Street. He was employed in the mid-1930s by Pomona Pump Company. On Jan. 25, 1936, he married Helen Lucille Waller ( ? - ? ), also of Pomona. They exchanged their vows at the Week Kirk O' the Heather in Glendale, with Samuel's sister Mary "Virginia" Brown traveling from Grass Valley to attend as a bridesmaid. Rev. Clifford A. Cole, of the Central Christian Church of Glendale, presided. The Pomona Progress-Bulletin reported that the "bride wore a gown of white crepe, fashioned with long sleeves and high collar, and a full length tulle veil. She carried a bouquet of gardenias, white sweet peas and lily-of-the-valley." One known son of the couple was Jerry Younkin. When the census again was taken in 1940, Samuel and Helen were in San Jose, Los Angeles County, with him employed in a pump factory as a machinist. His employer in 1947 was the Fairbanks-Morse Pomona Pump Works. He made his home in 1983 in Pomona. Samuel died in Rancho Cucamonga, CA on June 30, 1993.
Great-grandson Jerry Younkin ( ? - ? )
- Grandson Charles Franklin Younkin (1915-1999) was born on May 2, 1915 in Topeka, KS. News of his birth was announced in the Topeka State Journal. As of 1936, he lived in Salem, ID and in 1943 in Long Beach, CA. He was employed in the early 1940s with the Douglas Aircraft plants in Santa Monica and Long Beach, CA. He served in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II, with postings in Greensboro, NC, Texas and California. Charles does not appear to have married or reproduced, and spent his life "traveling," said the Reno (NV) Gazette Journal. He was a longtime psychiatric technician at DeWitt State Hospital in California and for some years served as chaplain for the American Legion of Gross Valley, CA. Charles was in Cool, CA in 1983 and moved to Carson City, NV in 1997. Sadly, on New Year's Eve 1999, he died at Carson City Hospital. His obituary was published in the Gazette-Journal. The remains were cremated.
- Grandson Kenneth Davis Younkin (1916- ? ) was born on Aug. 18, 1916 in Topeka. His birth was announced in the Topeka Daily Capital. He relocated as a young man to Nevada City, CA. Kenneth wed Norma ( ? - ? ). One daughter of this union was Valora Lee Boot. Kenneth joined the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, training at Kearns, UT. He is known to have lived in Soda Springs, CA in 1983 and in New Jersey in 1999, and to have worked for the U.S. Department of Forestry. Kenneth's final dwelling-place was in Ewa Beach, HI. There, at age 90, he died on Sept. 26, 2006. An obituary appeared in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
- Granddaughter Maxine Delores Younkin (1920- ? ) was born on May 15, 1920 in Topeka. She grew to womanhood in Topeka and then, after her parents' deaths when she was 16, she relocated to live with a sister in Nevada City, CA. Her first spouse was (?) Coe ( ? - ? ). Then on Jan. 26, 1947, in Reno, NV, she tied the marital cord with (?) Ellis ( ? -1986). In all, she was the mother of Samuel Coe, David Coe, Ellwood Ellis, Dana Schimmerman and Terry Yeager. Maxine was employed at one time as a psychiatric technician at Dewitt State Hospital in Auburn, CA. Said the Casper (WY) Star-Tribune, "she was once an avid swimmer and won many blue ribbons. As a young adult she played baseball on a women's team. During World War II she did calligraphy for a sign company and was said to have 'maintained that art through her beautiful handwriting'... [She was] full of spunk and straight forwardness, but with a heart full of love for her children and family." Their home was in Lander, WY. Death spirited her away in Lander Valley Medical Center, at the age of 79, on Aug. 19, 1999.
Great-grandson Samuel Coe dwelled in Petaluma, CA in 1999.
Great-grandson David Coe made his home in 1999 in Auburn, CA.
Great-grandson Ellwood Ellis settled in South Lake Tahoe, CA.
Great-granddaughter Dana Schimmerman put down roots in Lander, WY.
Great-granddaughter Terry Yeager has resided in Carson City, NV.
Son John King "J.K." Younkin (1872-1953) was born on June 15, 1872 in Lafayette, IN. He moved to Great Bend in 1893 at the age of 21. John attended Central Normal College. He wed Edna C. Verbeck (Nov. 20, 1881-1969) on Dec. 28, [year?]. She was a native of Great Bend, KS. Eleven offspring were born into this family -- Clarence Roy Younkin, Marion Willis Younkin , John Kenneth Younkin, Harold Arthur Younkin, Earl Franklin Younkin, Edna Marian Younkin, Goldie Pearl Younkin, Marietta Elizabeth Younkin, Paul Younkin, Chester Raymond Younkin and Dorothy Adora Younkin. Six of the children died in infancy -- Marion and John (1908), Earl (1911), Edna (1913), Goldie (1914) and Dorothy (1926). John taught school for several years and was employed as county clerk. As of 1906, at the death of John's mother, they made their homeplace at Great Bend. Then in 1918, he began working for the U.S. Post Office until retirement in 1937. John was a historian of the Younkin family and served as an officer for the Kansas Younkin Reunions, held in Wakefield, Clay Center and Junction City during the 1937-1941 timespan. The advent of World War II appears to have been the demise of these gatherings. He also was a membeer of the Odd Fellows lodge. He relocated in 1943 to Southern California and for the balance of his life lived in West Los Angeles at the address of 2244 South Bently Avenue. He joined the Knights of Pythias lodge of Santa Monica. The angel of death cleaved John away in Los Angeles at the age of 80 on March 1, 1953. The body was shipped to Great Bend for funeral services conducted by Rev. Cecil Swindle in the First Christian Church and then burial in Westwood Memorial Park. Edna outlived her husband by 16 years. She passed into the arms of the awaiting angels in Sonoma, CA at the age of 87 on Sept. 16, 1969.
- Grandson Clarence Roy Younkin (1904-1975) was born in 1904. He grew up in the Great Bend area and was a longtime employee of Armour Creamery. Clarence and the family later settled in El Centro, CA. He was married and the father of Donald Younkin. At the age of 70, the angel of death cleaved him away in Scripts Memorial Hospital in LaJolla on Aug. 30, 1975. The funeral service was conducted in El Centro. His obituary was printed in the Great Bend Tribune.
Great-grandson Donald Younkin ( ? - ? ) was in St. Louis in 1975.
Grandson Harold Arthur Younkin (1909-2004) was born on June 4, 1909 in Great Bend. He made his permanent home in the town of his birth. Harold was united in matrimony on May 30, 1942 with Glenda Pfister ( ? -1987). The couple did not reproduce. Harold was a veteran of World War II, attaining the rank of master sergeant in the U.S. Army. For more than half a century, he was employed in town as a postal mail carrier. He also was very active with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, including service as general commander of the Patriarchs Militant in 1976-1977. At age 83, he took part in an annual Odd Fellows ceremony conducted at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. The pair belonged to the First Christian Church of Great Bend. As well, he gave of his time as grand officer of the Encampment of Kansas from 1964 to 1965, D.C. of Kansas in 1960-1965 and was a member of the American Legion, Barton County Farm Bureau and National Letter Carriers Association. Sadly, Glenda died on Oct. 30, 1987. The widowed Harold lived for another 17 years. He traveled to his ancestral Somerset County, PA in 1992 to attend the Younkin Reunion East and was photographed holding an antique Younkin branding iron. Sadly, at the age of 95, Harold passed away on Sept. 26, 2004 in Central Kansas Medical Center in Great Bend. Services were held in the First Christian Church, with his pastor Rev. William F. Johnson presiding. An obituary appeared in the Wichita Eagle.
Harold Younkin and branding iron
- Granddaughter Marietta Elizabeth Younkin (1916- ? ) was born in 1916 in Great Bend. When she was about 22 years of age, she first married Byron Huffman ( ? -1976) in her hometown. Their three known children were Lt. Donald Lee Huffman, Alan/Allen B. Huffman and Gretchen Huffman. During World War II, the Huffmans moved around, to Nebraska and then California. The Huffmans' dwelling-place in 1953 was in Glen Ellen, CA, apparently in a house that they built together. After raising her children, Marietta went back to work as a medical secretary for several physicians before joining a hospital staff as a medical transcriber. Sadly, Byron passed away in 1976. In time she wed her husband's widowed cousin, Kenneth Showalter ( ? - ? ). Kenneth relocated from Kansas to California to begin their married lives. In 1991, she remained in Glen Ellen and by 2004 had moved to Healdsburg, CA. Marietta in her spare time enjoyed "Oil painting, wood carving, cooking gourmet dishes, gardening, crocheting, knitting and sewing -- creating anythign beautiful," she wrote in the January 1993 edition of the Younkin Family News Bulletin. "I also like hiking and biking." for 25 years, she also served as a church organist. In 2012, Marietta at age 96 published a 128-page memoir entitled Marietta's Stories: From Kansas to California, Memories of My Life. A description of the volume says that it "tells entertaining and informative stories of her life adventures. A girl born into an era before immunizations and antibiotics when many children die, including six of her siblings. Her family struggles through the Great Depression, her brothers' fight in World War II, and she is uprooted from the security of hometown and extended family to accompany her husband. Motherhood, relocations, and unexpected anguish follow, along with newly discovered joys and insights."
Great-grandson Lt. Donald Lee Huffman ( ? - ? )
Great-grandson Allen B. Huffman ( ? - ? )
Great-granddaughter Gretchen Huffman ( ? - ? )
Grandson Paul Robert Younkin (1919-2012) was born on March 19, 1919 in Great Bend, KS. He entered into marriage with Annabelle ( ? - ? ). Their union endured the ebbs and flows of an extraordinary 70 years together. The only child of this family was Debbie. Paul served in the U.S. Army during World War II and achieved the rank of staff sergeant. He attended college in Kansas, Los Angeles Pierce Community College and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Paul built his career as a longtime aerospace engineer with McDonnell Douglas Corporation, making a home in Reseda, CA in 1953. He belonged to the Masons and they to the Baptist Church, and in his spare time liked to fish, hunt and follow sports. Later, they lived in Redding, CA in 2004. Paul and Annabelle are known to have traveled to Salem, OR in 1998 for the Younkin Reunion-West, where they met the founder of this website. Paul filled an entire table with old paper memorabilia of the family including a full set of the original Younkin Family News Bulletin newspapers from the 1930s. Graciously, he donated a few duplicate copies of the YFNB so that they could be reproduced in a master set. In March 2012, he was spirited away into the heavenly host at the age of 93 as a patient in Shasta Regional Medical Center. An obituary appeared in the Redding Record Searchlight.
Paul with his YFNB newspapersGreat-granddaughter Debbie Younkin tied the knot with James. They are the parents of Matthew.
- Grandson Chester Raymond Younkin (1921-1991) was born on July 19, 1921 in Great Bend. In 1942, at the age of about 20, he was joined in wedock with Blanche "Lucille" Jensen (Aug. 23, 1918-2001), a native of Bode, IA. The pair did not reproduce. Early in their marriage the couple dwelled in El Centro, CA and then in 1950 relocated to Great Bend. There, Chester spent his career as owner of Chet's Jewelry Store at 1911 Lakin and as an agent for American United Life Insurance. He also was engaged in 1970 as a hay buyer for a new alfalfa pellet plant in town. Their address for years was 2106 McKinley. Chester died at the age of 69, in Hays, Ellis County, KS on May 14, 1991. The funeral was conducted in Great Bend's St. Mark's Lutheran Church. Burial was in Great Bend Cemetery. Lucille survived her husband by a little more than a decade. She surrendered to the angel of death on June 1, 2001.
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| Above: Charles and Nannie in the Barton County Clerk's office in the courthouse, 1922. Below: Their family, July 1941. Back, L-R: Wayne and Loretta, Margaret and Dwight, Ruth and C. George, Frances Fox. Seated: Charles and Nannie with Wayne's twins Richard and Robert. Front: Merrill, Patricia Baxter. Courtesy C. George Younkin and Younkin Family News Bulletin |
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Nannie and Charles Younkin - courtesy Merrill V. Younkin |
Method, accuracy and reliability are the essential qualifications of the man who is the incumbent of the office of county clerk. All these excellent traits are combined in the personality and business methods of C.F.Younkin, who is now serving his third term as county clerk of Barton county. Mr. Younkin is accommodating in manner, energetic and thorough in his work and has proven to his political adherents and many friends that their judgment has not been misplaced and that he fully merits the trust and confidence which he enjoys.
The Younkins' residence for their married lives together was in Great Bend, KS. When receiving an invitation to the inaugural Younkin National Home-coming Reunion in 1934, to be held in Somerset County, PA, Charles wrote back to the event planners. His letter explained "that the family first came to New York from Holland in 1647 and later to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, eventually migrating to Somerset County," said a related article in the Younkin Family News Bulletin. After that reunion concluded, the YFNB publisher Charles Arthur Younkin wrote to cousin Mamie (Younkin) Prather in Dodge City, and she replied saying that "the John Dietz Younkin father of Chas. F. Younkin of Great Bend Kans. and her father Singleton Younkin were cousins and that the above Chas. has the best information of the Kansas Younkins. She tells me there are 150-200 of them there." Death spirited Charles away at the age of 68 on July 3, 1942. Nannie lived for another nearly four decades. At her 79th birthday,, in 1965, a family picnic was held at Lake Barton. In reporting on the event, the Great Bend Tribune said "It was the first time that the C.F. Younkin Clan have all been together in 20 years. Approximately 24 grandchildren and 11 adults attended the picnic..." She passed away in Great Bend on July 21, 1981, at the age of 94.
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| C. George Younkin and son Chip at the 1991 Younkin Reunion in Somerset County, PA, at the 1811 German-language grave of their ancestor Jacob Younkin Sr. |
- Grandson Charles George Younkin (1910- ? ) -- a.k.a. "C. George Younkin" -- was born on Oct. 13, 1910 in Great Bend. He was an alumnus of Great Bend High School and a 1935 graduate of Washburn University and studied at Southeastern University in 1936-1937. He became a prominent American historical archivist, with a focus on Native American history. From 1935 to 1951, he served with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC, interrupted by service during World War II. George in 1951 was tapped to join the branch archives at the National Archives and Records Center at Fort Worth, TX. He served until 1975 and was named chief of the branch. He also was a regional archivist serving Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas during the 1968-1975 timeframe until retirement. George was the author of the 1969 book, Historical and Genealogical Records of the Five Civilized Tribes and Other Indian Records. He was an archival consultant from 1975 to 1998, advising such groups as the Kiowa History and Research Association of Carnegie, OK, as a member of the executive committee of the Boy Scouts of America in Fort Worth; the Governor's Advisory Committee for the Aged in Tarrant County; and the Tarrant County History Commission. In recognition, he was named a Fellow of the Texas State Genealogical Society. George on Dec. 27, 1939 married Ruth Ward (Oct. 28, 1915- ? ), daughter of Jesse Ray and Henrietta (Gebhart) Ward and originally from Ogden, UT. The four known children they bore together were Karen Postma, Eleta Marie McEvoy, Cheryl Younkin and Chip G. Younkin. In 1991, he invited Younkin Reunion East founder Donna (Younkin) Logan to meet him in Philadelphia, where he was scheduled to speak at a seminar. Recalled Donna, "After the seminar we drove to Bedminster, Bucks County, Pa. I had great fun showing him all the 'points of interest' that Dad and I had seen just the year before. I am not sure when the reality hit Dr. Younkin, but I am told that the night he got back to Texas, he was on the phone until 2 a.m. calling all of his cousins telling them where he had been and what he had seen." George wed a second time to Nann Totten ( ? - ? ). His final home was in Fort Worth, TX. He died at the age of 87 on Jan. 2, 1998. He was pictured in his obituary in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Great-granddaughter Karen Younkin married Robert Postma.
Great-granddaughter Eleta Marie Younkin (1946-2013) was born on the next-to-last day of 1946 in Washington, DC. At the age of three-plus, she moved with her parents to Arlington, TX. She was a 1965 graduate of Arlington High School and went on to attend Arlington State College. On April 26, 1969, she wed fellow Arlington State student Stephen B. McElroy ( ? - ? ). The newlyweds moved to Moerfelden, Germany, where he was serving with the U.S. Air Force, and spent their first two years together there. The McElroys returned stateside in 1971 and the following year settled for good in Houston, TX. The trio of children they produced were Jennifer McElroy, Erick McElroy and Kathleen McElroy. Over many years, said an obituary, Eleta "served as a Camp Fire leader and in several positions with the Boy Scouts of America, including a Cub den leader, Scout leader, Explorer advisor and district committee member. She was recognized as den leader of the year and was also awarded the God and Service Award from the United Methodist Church. She served in countless positions in the church not the least of which was teaching Sunday school while her children grew. She was employed by Pasadena Independent School District as a licensed educational paraprofessional and retired in the spring of 2010. She was a member of the Texas Gulf Coast Tia-Piah Society with Steve and was an avid student and practitioner of Native American crafts, excelling in beadwork. She was a longtime member of the Texas State Teachers Association." Sadly, at the age of 66, Eleta passed away on June 29, 2013, following a lengthy illness.
Great-granddaughter Cheryl Younkin tied the marital cord with Thom Gamble.
Great-grandson Chip G. Younkin was joined in wedlock with Polli.
- Grandson Wayne Wilson Younkin (1913-1988) was born on Oct. 3, 1913 in Great Bend, KS. He ws a graduate of Great Bend High School. When he was 24 years of age, on Feb. 26, 1938, he entered into marriage with Loretta Agnes Murphy (May 7, 1914- ? ). The ceremony was held in her hometown of Hoisington, KS. The pair produced three sons -- twins Richard Wayne Younkin and Robert Joseph Younkin, and Stephen Patrick Younkin. Wayne was employed as a personnel manager for Boeing in Wichita. He then made a move to Torrance, CA, where he became a missile specialist with North American. At their 25th wedding anniversary, they made a trip to Hawaii. The Younkins are known to have returned to Great Bend in 1971 to celebrate his mother's 85th birthday and traveled to Washington DC and Great Bend to visit relatives in July 1975. Wayne died in Torrence at the age of 74 on March 2, 1988. Son Richard received a law degree and at one time was a judicial officer with the California Workmen's Compensation Appeals Board. As of 1975, he was completing his master of law degree at Georgetown University Law Center with plans to join the law firm of Parker and Dalley in Pomona, CA.
- Grandson Dwight Willard Younkin (1915-1991) was born on Feb. 26, 1915 in Great Bend. He was an alumnus of Great Bend High School. In 1940, he wed Margaret Mary Lyons (1922-1985). A foursome of known sons of the couple were Timothy Younkin, Charles Younkin, Arthur Younkin and Terrence David Younkin. Dwight earned a living as a farmer and well tester for Gulf Oil Company. They lived in Chase, KS in 1965-1978. At age 76, Dwight passed away on May 1, 1991, in Great Bend. An obituary appeared in the Wichita Eagle and the Dodge City Southwest Kansas Register. Rev. Fr. Gerald Hammeke officiated the Rosary service conducted in St. Patrick Catholic Church, Great Bend.
- Granddaughter Frances Victoria Younkin (1917-2012) was born on Feb. 10, 1917 in Great Bend, KS. She was a graduate of Great Bend High School. On New Year's Eve 1939, in Great Bend, she tied the knot with Wilson C. Fox (1914-1987). Together they bore a family of four -- Philip Fox, Michael Fox, Judi Fox and Vickie Rondeau. Wilson is known to have served overseas during World War II. Said the Great Bend Tribune, Frances "was a telephone operator for Southwestern Bell Telephone for thirty years. Mrs. Fox was a lifetime Great Bend and was a member of First United Methodist Church, Church Chancel Choir, United Methodist Women, Sweet Adelines, Telephone Pioneers, and the Kansas Writers Association." Sadly, Wilson passed away on Sept. 3, 1987. Frances lived for another quarter-century as a widow. She died in Great Bend Regional Hospital at the age of 95 on Dec. 18, 2012. Her funeral was led by Rev. Lennie Maxwell, at the First United Methodist Church. Interment was in Great Bend Cemetery.
- Grandson Merrill Vernon Younkin (1925- ? ) was born on Feb. 2, 1925 in Great Bend, KS. He was a 1943 graduate of Great Bend High School and went on to serve with the U.S. Navy during World War II. During the war, he was posted to the USS Wallace L. Lind (DD-703) until 1946. Just three days before Christmas 1946, he was united in matrimony with Dorothy Kerbs ( ? - ? ). The couple's two children were Keith Younkin and Jayne Younkin. Merrill used the GI Bill to received a degree from Wichita Business College and then joined the Boeing Company in Wichita as an industrial engineer. His career at Boeing spanned 37 years, including a promotion into management in 1951 and a transfer to Everett, WA in 1968. Among the aircraft he and his "The Incredibles" colleagues helped fashion were the 747 airliner, as well as the B-47 and B-52 bombers and other commercial aircraft up to the 767. His final position was as senior director of industrial engineering at Renton, WA. Merrill retired in 1987 and with Dorothy took many retirement trips in their motor home and spent their winters in Palm Springs. He was active with the Boy Scouts of America leadership and gave of his time on the executive management council of the United Way of Snohomish County. Among his memberships were the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, Lynnwood Elks 2717, American Legion Post 66, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3070, and St. Matthew Lutheran Church. A lifelong hobby was coin collecting and he belonged to the American Numismatic Association and Society of Paper Money Collectors. With a passion for genealogy, he dug deeply into his Younkin roots and attended the 1991 Younkin Reunion-East in Somerset County, where he met the founder of this website and together were advocates for organizing the hundreds of branches into an organized, systematic tree. He and this website's founder also attended the 1998 Younkin Reunion-West in Salem, OR. Merrill was the author of a 2007 book about his in-laws, Passage to Freedom: a Story of the Kerbs Family, an account of Friedrich Kerbs (1832-1899) of Russia and his wife Eva Catherine Schick (1838-1919). Sadly, Merrill passed away on Aug. 16, 2007 at the age of 82. His obituary was printed in the Seattle Times. Funeral rites were held in the Edmonds Lutheran Church, and burial followed in Edmonds Cemetery. Circa 2008, daughter Jayne contributed valuable content for a reprinting of the original Younkin Family News Bulletin series of newspapers of the 1930s and early '40s.
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| Above: Merrill Younkin at the 1991 reunion in Kingwood, PA, armed with pen, tablet and camera. Below: Merrill at the 1998 reunion in Salem, OR. |
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- Granddaughter Patricia Ida Mae "Pat" Younkin (1927-2019) was born on Jan. 22, 1927 in Great Bend, KS. She was an alumna of Great Bend High School. When she was 20 years of age, on Jan. 25, 1947, she tied the knot with Hiram Joseph "Hi" Baxter Jr. (May 28, 1923-2011), a native of Larned, KS and the son of Hiram Henry and Katherine "Mae" (Simmons) Baxter. Their vows were exchanged in Great Bend. Five children born to this couple were Jeffrey Lynn Baxter, Charles Joseph Baxter, Nancy Kathryn Baxter, Lori Anne Underwood and Alan Eric Baxter. Hiram was a 1941 graduate of Sublette High School, where he played basketball on a squad that won the Class B state championship. During World War II, Hiram served with the U.S. Navy, attached to the U.S. Marine Corps, as a medical corpsman. The Baxters appear to have spent their entire married lives in Great Bend. For 32 years, he was employed as a U.S. Post Office letter carrier. After retirement, he went to work for Barton Community College as a mailman, continuing his career by another decade. They held a membership in the First United Methodist Church, and Hiram belonged to the Americal Legion's Argonne Post, was president of the Great Bene Evening Lions Club and business manager for the Lions State Convention. Patricia was business manager for the family church and a member of the United Methodist Women and Philanthropic Educational Organization Sisterhood. She also was active on the board of the local library, was Great Bend High class president for two years, a leader with the Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts and president of Panther Parents. Said an obituary, Hiram "enjoyed big band dances, yard work, walking, being outside and vacationing in the mountains." Grief blanketed the family when the 87-year-old Hiram succumbed to the spectre of death on May 9, 2011. Patricia endured for another eight years. She passed away at age 92, as a resident of Woodhaven Care Center in Ellinwood, KS, on Oct. 22, 2019. Her funeral was led by Pastor Morita Truman. Their remains rest in the sacred soil of Great Bend Cemetery.
Daughter Marietta Adora Younkin (1876-1948) was born on Oct. 26, 1876 in Battle Ground near Lafayette, IN. In a wedding ceremony held in Florence, KS on May 22, 1900, the 23-year-old Marietta was joined in wedlock with teacher Putnam Yeck (March 10, 1874-1938). The nuptials were held in the home of her parents in Great Bend, by the hand of Rev. A.J. Bixler of the First Methodist Church. In announcing the marriage, the Great Bend Beacon said:
The couple were married standing under a beautiful arch of roses and evergreens. About thirty-five of the friends witnessed the ceremony, and partook of a bountiful wedding feast. Many presents were left as tokens of friendship and esteem. Miss Dora has lived in this county for a number of years, has been a student at the college, and a teacher in the county schools. She has many friends who dislike to see her leave us, but who send their best wishes with the new family. Mr. Yeck is a prominent business man of Herrington.
Putnam was a native of near Sandoval, Tyler County, IN. At the age of four he migrated to Kansas with his family. The six children born into this union were Grace Beatrice Barton, Paul Yeck, Elsie May Gugle, Alta Josephine Yeck, Lloyd Oliver Yeck and Anetta Blanche Yeck. The family resided in Wallowa, OR in the 1910s. They were plunged into mourning at the death of daughter Alta in Wallowa at age 3 years, 11 months on May 15, 1911 from acute gastrointestinal intoxication. Putnam's first teaching assignment was in the spring of 1894 southeast of Florence, KS. At the end of the terms, said the Florence Bulletin, "he has already demonstrated that he is of the stuff of which successful teachers are made." Then in the fall of 1895, he was assigned to the school in district 106 south of town. He is known to have joined the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War and in July 1898 trained at Chickamauga Park in Lytle, GA. At the time of marriage, he taught at the Sunnyside School. He also appears in 1902 to have performed part-time railroad work, later changing full time to that business. He was promoted to fireman in late 1902 and assigned to a post in Emporia, KS. At some point he was elevated to engineer on the Santa Fe Railroad branch. His name often was in the gossip columns of the Florence Bulletin for his work comings and goings. Then in March 1907, working on the yard engine in Wichita, he resigned, with plans to relocate to Oregon. They settled in Elgin, OR and in 1917 moved to LaGrande, OR and stayed for the balance of their long lives. While in Elgin in 1908, Marietta was badly injured in a housefire. While trying to save her baby, she "fell into the flames," reported the Shoshone (ID) News-Press. "Her hair was burned off and her scalp seriously burned. She is in a serious condition." Fortunately she recovered. Putnam earned a living for years at the Mt. Emily mill. He served as grand of the local lodge of the Odd Fellows and commander of the James E. Page Camp of the Spanish American War Veterans. Marietta was active in her own right in the community and in 1928 was elected president of the local Women's Christian Temperance Union. She also was involved with the women's auxiliary of the Spanish American War Veterans, the Relief Corps and the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War. Their address over the years was at 1502 V Avenue, LaGrande. Sadly, he died the day after Christmas 1938, in Walla Walla Veteran's Hospital, after a long illness. An obituary was published in the La Grande Observer, saying "He has been an active citizen of La Grande and will be mourned by a host of friends." Marietta outlived her spouse by nearly a decade and suffered from chronic kidney disease. She passed away at the age of 71 on June 23, 1948. The Observer said in an obituary that she was "a 41-year resident of Union county and prominent La Grande clubwoman..." Rev. Henry K. Gernhardt, of the LaGrande Methodist Church, presided over the funeral rites.
- Granddaughter Grace Beatrice Yeck (1901-1950) was born on April 16, 1901 in Florence, KS. She was not quite six years old when she and her parents relocated to Oregon. Grace was a 1921 graduate of LaGrande High School In September 1921, she first wed William "Arthur" Barton ( ? -1940). They were the parents of Aleene Barton, Garnet Rae Barton and Buena Jean Barton. Their dwelling-place in 1938 was in Shevlin, OR, and in 1940 Arthur is believed to have been employed by the Shevlin-Hixon Lumber Company. Sadly, Arthur died in May 1940. After two years as a widow, Grace married again to Lester C. Kramer ( ? - ? ) of Bend, OR. She held a membership in the Bend lodge of the Rebekahs, Bend Toastmistress Club, Oine Forest Grange and local Presbyterian church. Within the Grange, she held positions as a juvenile matron, Oregon state juvenile lecturer, Oregon state juvenile district representative and home economics chair. At the age of 49, Grace passed away at Charles Hospital in Bend, OR on Nov. 2, 1950. Burial was in Elgin, and an obituary appeared in the Bend Bulletin.
Great-granddaughter Aleene Barton tied the knot with Merle Alford.
Great-granddaughter Garnet Rae Barton entered into marriage with Delbert Massey.
Great-granddaughter Buena Jean Barton was unmarried in 1950.
- Grandson Paul Yeck (1903-1967) was born on April 11, 1903 in Florence, KS. If he married, he does not appear to have reproduced. Paul made his address in 1938 at 1502 V Avenue in La Grande, OR. He is known to have made a 2,000-mile driving trip in the spring of 1939 to see the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington State. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army, and was placed in Company D of the 71st Engineering Battalion. Paul remained in LaGrande as of 1950. He died in Walla Walla, WA at the age of 64 on Dec. 15, 1967. The remains sleep in eternal repose in Elgin (OR) Cemetery.
- Granddaughter Elsie May Yeck (1905-1987) was born on June 10, 1905 in Kansas. She was a 1923 graduate of LaGrande High School. She then taught for several years, including in 1929 in the Pine Grove School. Elsie was a member of the Oliver P. Morton Relief Corps of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization for the benefit of Union veterans of the Civil War. Then in 1932, at the age of about 28, she married Harold Eugene Gugle (May 12, 1903-1980), originally from Dayville, OR. Elsie and Harold did not reproduce. They resided in Malheur County, OR in 1935 followed by a relocation to Lapine, Deschutes County, OR. The federal census enumeration of 1940 shows the Gugles in Lapine, with him laboring in the logging industry. Shortly thereafter they moved to Shevlin, OR, where they were inaugural members of the Shevlin Home Extension Unit in 1942. As of 1947-1950, the couple lived in Harper, Malheur County, and now earning a living as farmers. Harold died in Deschutes County at age 76 on April 5, 1980. Elsie survived as a widow for another seven years. At the age of 81, Elsie died in Deschutes County, OR on Jan. 22, 1987. Burial was in Deschutes Memorial Gardens.
- Grandson Lloyd Oliver Yeck (1910-1986) was born on March 3, 1910 in Elgin, Union County, OR. Dr. E.D. McKenney assisted in the birth. On Nov. 11, 1933, Lloyd at age 23 tied the marital cord with 23-year-old Bernice A. Ingerson (Dec. 9, 1909-1988) of LaGrande, OR. The pair does not seem to have reproduced. They resided on Lake Street in La Grande in 1938. When the federal census enumeration was made in 1940, the Yecks' dwelling-place was in Ontario, Malheur County, OR. Lloyd at that time worked as a carpenter's helper with a state bridge crew. He also registered for the military draft in 1940 and stated their address as Johnday, Grant County, OR, employed by the Oregon State Higway. By 1948, they had moved to Pendleton, Umatilla County, OR, and remained for good. Lloyd's occupaton in 1950 was as an office clerk for the state highway commission. The angel of death cleaved Lloyd away at the age of 76, in Pendleton, on Oct. 15, 1986. Bernice followed him to the grave in Sept. 1988.
- Granddaughter Annetta "Blanche" Yeck (1912-1994) was born on Jan. 28, 1912 in Wallowa, OR. She moved in girlhood to LaGrande and was an aluma of LaGrande High School. Unmarried, she made a home with her brother Paul in 1938. She was active with the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War in the mid-1930s. Blanche was joined in wedlock with Carl William Battrick (Feb. 22, 1897-1971), a native of Johnston, OH and the son of Ellsworth T. and Lizzie Battrick. He had been married before and brought a trio of stepchildren into the second union -- John Emmet Battrick, Calvin Edward Battrick and Lillian May Goodwin. The couple themselves did not reproduce. They dwelled for decades in LaGrande, where he operated Carl's Taxi Service until retirement in 1961. Their address was 1502 V Avenue, and they belonged to the Grande Ronde Community Church. Sadly, Carl died at age 74, in LaGrande, on Nov. 6, 1971. Rev. Paul O. Jewell, pastor of the First Methodist Church, presided over the funeral rites. Interment was in Island city Cemetery. Blanche outlived him by 23 years. Death spirited her away at Wallow Memorial Hospital in Enterprise, OR, at the age of 82, on July 9, 1994. Burial was in Island City Cemetery in Union County, OR.
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Copyright © 2016-2017, 2024 Mark A. Miner |
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Research for this page graciously shared by the late Merrill Vernon Younkin, the late Olive (Rowan) Duff and the late Donna (Younkin) Logan. Map of Fountain and Warren Counties, Indiana, 1865 courtesy Library of Congress |