JACOB YOCUM. Stone County has been fortunate in being developed by men who are not only ambitious but broad-minded and farseeing. Many portions of it are as attractive as though laid out by a landscape gardener and reminds one of the beautiful Champs d’Elysee of which Paris is so proud. In all the county there is no more diversity of scenery than in Washington township, and that portion of it in which our subject lives. Jacob Yocum is a native of this county, or what is now Stone County, born in 1837.
Son of Levi and Mary (Patterson) Yocum, who were among the first settlers of what is now Stone County. Both died in this county, the father about 1852 and the mother three years later. They were worthy and earnest members of the Methodist Church. The grandfather, James Yocum (the name was formerly spelled Yoachum), it is thought was a German, and was one of the first white men to make a home in what is now Stone County, this being at the mouth of James River. Yoachum Creek was named for him and the name of Yoachum is a household word to every old settler and their descendents in this region of country. Grandfather Patterson was also a very early settler of this county and passed his last days on James River. The eight children born to the parents of our subject were named as follows: Elizabeth, who married J. M. Pollen, returned to our subject’s home after the death of her husband, residing there eight years, then went to her farm in Lawrence County and married E. Jellet, she died there in 1863; Jacob, subject; Sarah, wife of George Moore of Texas; Ruby, wife of Andrew Smith of Lawrence County; Nancy J., wife of Greene Lemaster of Lawrence County; Mary married a man named Wheeler; Robert died when about thirteen years of age, and Still died at the age of two years.
Our subject received no schooling in his youth and was only about fourteen or fifteen years of age when his father died. After the death of the mother the support of the younger children devolved on him for a number of years and this prevented him from making a start for himself. Soon after reaching manhood the war broke out, and, filled with a patriotic desire to fight for the old flag, he enlisted in 1861 in Company 1, Twenty-fourth Missouri Infantry, with which he served as a private for five years, fighting in Tennessee, Missouri, Alabama, Louisiana, etc. He was in the first Nashville fight, the Red River expedition, and in many other prominent engagements. After the war closed he was stationed in the fort near Mobile, until 1866, when he was discharged. He was never captured or wounded and was a faithful soldier. In the month of August, 1866, he married Miss Christina Wooley, a native of what is now Stone County, and the daughter of William and Catherine Wooley who were early settlers of that county. There the father died, but the mother is still living. As the years passed by children gathered around the fireside of our subject and were named as follows: William Levi; Mary; Catherine, wife of Jasper Blunk of Stone County; Maggie; Mattie; Thomas; Minnie E.; Laura; and Homer, who is deceased.
Mr. Yocum lived for three years in Christian County and since then on his present farm of eighty acres, about two and a half miles northeast of Galena on James River. At that time there were but about twenty-three acres cleared, and he now has it nearly all cleared and in a fine state of cultivation. In politics he is a stanch Democrat, and in religion he and wife are members of the Christian Church, as well as his children, Mary, Cattie, Maggie and Mattie.