WILLIAM YAKEY,
whose varied business interests have been an important element in
the commercial and industrial development of his town and county, is
now the president of the First National Bank of New Concord, and is
also engaged in lumbering and farming. His keen perception and
understanding of a business situation and his recognition and
utilization of a business opportunity have been the basic elements
of his prosperity making him one of the representative men of his
locality. He was born May 21, 1846, in Perry county, near New
Lexington, Ohio, his parents being Henry and Margaret (Croskey)
Yakey, the former a native of Loudoun county, Virginia, and the
latter of Mansfield, Ohio. Henry Yakey, arrived in this
state about 1835, and located in Perry county, where he followed the
occupation of farming. He spent the remainder of his days
there and died in 1880. His political support was given the
democracy.
When he had completed his education as a student in the
public schools of Perry county, William Yakey turned his
attention to the commercial world, and entered upon his business
career as a dealer in lumber in Fairfield county, Ohio. Later
he engaged in merchandizing at various times in Junction City, Perry
and New Lexington, Ohio. For many years he has been engaged in
the manufacture and sale of lumber and since 1890 he has resided in
New Concord, where he has manufactured lumber, owning and operating
a sawmill until the spring of 1905, when he sold his plant. He
owns a farm, which he rents, and he was instrumental in developing
an oil well four miles from New Concord, the company owning one
two-barrel well. He is now well known in banking circles in
the town and surrounding districts, having been president of the
First National Bank of New Concord since its organization on the 5th
of October, 1903. A safe, conservative and yet progressive
policy was inaugurated that has awakened public confidence and the
bank has enjoyed a prosperous existence from the beginning.
Mr. Yakey has also dealt in stock, and he is a man of resolute,
determined will, who carries forward to a successful completion
whatever he undertakes. He is alert and enterprising, watchful
of opportunity, managing his interests along modern business lines
and with strict conformity to a high standard of commercial ethics.
Mr. Yakey was married in 1876, to Miss Mary
E. Ball, who was born in Morgan county in 1858, and a daughter
of Joseph J. and Adeline (Bradley) Ball, who were natives of
New England. The father, a farmer by occupation, was born Mar.
20, 1807, and traces his lineage to the Washington family, his
grandfather being a second cousin of Mary Ball, mother of
George Washington. His wife was born in March, 1815.
Mr. and Mrs. Yakey have one child, Adeline who was
born in 1881, and is the wife of C. E. Meyer, who resides in
Sheridan near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, of the firm of Glass & Meyer,
brokers at 1304 Keystone Building, Pittsburg. The parents are
members of the Presbyterian church and are interested in the social
and moral welfare of the community, their labors contributing to
progress along those lines. Mr. Yakey is also deeply
interested in politics and keeps well informed on the questions and
issues of the day. He give his support to the republican
party, and was once nominated for the position of county sheriff,
but resigned the following day. He was served, however, as a
member of the city council of New Concord, and his effort in behalf
of the improvement and upbuilding of the city has been far-reaching
and beneficial. As president of the First National Bank, it
was for him to fill the position of superintendent of construction
during the building of the bank's hotel property, a magnificent
two-story structure, with bank, hardware store, furniture store and
the hotel office on the ground floor and eighteen outsides rooms,
well arranged, on the second floor. Arrangements have already
been made to furnish the hotel complete and have it ready for
occupancy Sept. 1st. This will complete one of the most
desirable hotel properties in any town of a like size in the state.
He has been and is distinctively a man of affairs and one who has
wielded a wide influence. His interest in public in public
action is that of practical labor rather than theory and in public
life, as in private business affairs, his work is followed by
tangible and gratifying result.
Source: Past and Present of the City of
Zanesville, and Muskingum Co., Ohio - Published Chicago: The S. J.
Clarke Publishing Co. - 1905 - Page 245 |
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