William Rollin Yenawins. Farming has been the business of William Rollin Yenawine. He has given to that vocation the same qualities of enterprise and energy which a successful merchant gives to his store or a manufacturer to his factory. His success has followed as a matter of course. Mr. Yenawine is now the owner of “Brook Side” farm in Ashland Township of Riley County. It is said that the really busy man has more leisure than the one who pursues every undertaking with frantic haste and wastes his efforts on small accomplishment. This is perhaps the reason why Mr. Yenawine, while strictly a farmer and a successful one at that, found time to devote himself to public affairs. He has long been one of the active republicans of Riley county. For four years he held the office of county commissioner, and his creditable administration of that office brought him election as county treasurer. He filled that post four years and met all the most sanguine expectations of his many friends. After leaving the county treasuryship he again devoted his time to farming and stock raising, but in 1916 his friends urged him to become a candidate for the republican nomination in the August primaries for the office of county clerk. He won the election and took office January 8, 1917.
Mr. Yenawine is almost a native son of Kansas. He was born in Hancock County, Illinois, June 27, 1869. When less than two years of age his parents, Seth J. and Anna E. (Moore) Yenawine, moved to Riley County, locating on a farm in Ashland township. That was in 1870. The parents had their home there for many years, but a few years ago removed to the city of Manhattan, where they now reside. Seth Yenawine is actively engaged in the real estate and loan business.
Reared in Riley County on a farm, William R. Yenawine attended the common schools and also spent two years in the Kansas State Agricultural College and a similar period in Baker University. Though liberally educated, he found his most congenial task on the farm, and is one of the men who have helped to raise the general standard of agriculture in this section of the state. As a young man he taught one term in the rural schools. Fraternally he is a Master Mason, and also belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America and the Fraternal Aid. He is a member of the Methodist church.
In 1897 he married Miss Sallie A. Dix. Mrs. Yenawine was born in Riley county, Kansas, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. O. T. Dix, who came to Kansas from Illinois about 1869, locating in Ashland township, where they have since continued to reside. They represent one of the early farming families of the county. Mr. and Mrs. Yenawine have one son, Chester E. The family reside in Manhattan, and are active social members of that community.