BIOGRAPHIES

Source:
History of Shelby County, Ohio
and representative citizens
Publ. Evansville, Ind.
1913
947 pgs.

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EARL .A. YATES, M. D., who has been established at Sidney, O., in the practice of medicine and surgery since 1906, enjoys the confidence of the public here in marked degree. He was born on a farm in Miami county, O., near the town of Conover, March 11, 1874, and is a son of Samuel and Phebe (Shanks) Yates.      Samuel Yates and wife were both born in Miami county, he on April 30, 1830, and she on October 4, of the same year. Her death occurred in September, 1904, and his less than two years later, on April 18, 1906. They were farming people whose interests were centered in their home and family and they lived long and worthy lives.      Earl A. Yates attended school at Conover, and was graduated in 1893 from the Lena and Conover high school, and during the winter of 1893-94 attended the Ohio State University at Columbus, his studies from 1894 until 1897 being directed along the line of medicine, and his graduation with first honors took place in the last named year. On September first following he. opened an office at Kirkwood, Shelby county, where he remained in practice until 1906, when he came to Sidney, taking his place among the skillful medical men of this city, the profession being well represented here.      On August 19, 1897, Dr. Yates was married at Lena, O., to Miss Martha Denman, a daughter of Dr. H. B. and Rose (Brecount) Denman. Mrs. Yates was born July 9, 1875, and was graduated from the Lena and Conover high school in the same class with Dr. Yates. He is a member of the Shelby County Medical Society, the Ohio State Medical Association and the American Medical Society. Politically he is a democrat and fraternally a Mason and an Odd Fellow. Both he and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Source: History of Shelby County, Ohio and representative citizens, Evansville, Ind. - 1913 - Page  596

PHILIP W. YOUNG, who has been continuously in the general hardware and farm implement business at Anna, O., for forty-three years, is one of the best known business men of Shelby county and a prominent republican politician of Franklin township, of which he has been clerk, and also has served for twelve years as a justice of the peace.  Mr. Young was born on a farm in Mercer county, O., Dec. 10, 1842, a son of Adam and Mary (Noland) Young.      Adam Young was born in Pickaway county, O., a son of Philip Young who settled at an early day on Plum Creek, in Franklin township, Shelby county.  Philip W. Young was a boy when his father, Adam Young, came to his father's place on Plum Creek, here in the woods, Adam and his brother Philip, built a log house.  Philip W. Young can remember the fearsome howling of the wolves in the near-by forest, when he was a boy.  Here he grew up and when he could be spared from work on the farm, attended the district schools until he was eighteen years of age, when the outbreak of the Civil war determined the course of his life for the three succeeding years.  On Sept. 27, 1861, he enlisted in Company B, Twentieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry and soon accompanied his comrades to the front, and during his long service participated in twenty-two battles and other engagements, escaping all injury until July 22, 1864, at the battle of Atlanta, he was shot in the right breast, the bullet passed through the upper lobe of the lung and coming out through his shoulder blade.  After this serious accident he was incapacitated for the first time and was honorably discharged and mustered out on Sept. 27, 1864.      Mr. Young even then was only a boy in years although he had bravely borne the responsibilities of a man.  He returned to Anna and afterward taught school for four years and then embarked in his present business and for forty years has occupied the same store site.  Here he carries hardware including stoves and farm implements and washing machines and through forty-three years of business dealing has enjoyed the reputation of being honest and upright in all transactions.  He is a leading member of the Grand Army of the Republic in this section.      Mr. Young was married in 1869 to Miss Libbie I. Cole, of Anna, who died in 1887, survived by two children: Mary Eva, who is the wife of W. E. Shearer; and Don C., who is associated with his father.  Mr. Young's second marriage was to Mrs. Sarah J. Elliott, widow of Joseph D. Elliott.  Mr. and Mrs. Elliott had two children: a daughter who died in childhood, and Charles B.  Mr. and Mrs. Young are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which Mr. Young is secretary and treasurer. Source: History of Shelby County, Ohio and representative citizens - Evansville, Ind. - 1913 -

SILAS D. YOUNG, the twentieth child of Philip Young, whose family consisted of twenty-two children, was born east of Anna September 11, 1837.  Handicapped in the race of life with Mr. Ludwig by ten years he has never been able to overtake him.  His youth was of the uneventful one of a farmer boy before machinery had lightened labor, and to be horny handed and horny footed was the rule not the exception as now.  After amusing himself until twenty years old clearing land, burning logs and brush he concluded that he should take life more seriously, and with fear and trembling made a proposition to Miss Mary Jane Munch which was favorably considered and Mar. 19, 1837, the double bow nuptial knot was tied.      Mary was an orphan from birth as her father died before she was born and her mother also when Mary was six months old, so she never knew the care and fervor of parental love.      Six children, all girls, blessed this union, four of whom are living, Ella, now Mrs. William Shuter, of Delaware; Minnie, now Mrs. John Manning, of Anna; Myrtle, Mrs. Richard Curtner, of Anna; and Berth, Mrs. Edward Zaigler, of Medina.      When the Civil war broke out and President Lincoln called for troops.  Silas, fired with patriotism so intense as to induce him to leave his wife, two small children and his home for the privations and perils of the tented field.  Being the 20th child he enlisted in the 20th regiment on the eighteenth day of August, 1861, under Col. J. C. Fry, serving three years and one month.  At the hot fight at Champion Hills, Mississippi, though he sought protection of a tree, he could not entirely screen himself from a sharp shooter who seemed to have a desire to pick him off and shattered the bark of the tree several times.    Unfortunately a small buck shot struck the bridge of his nose at the corner of one eye passing through his nose.  This "doused his glim" and for two months he was in the hospital as blind as a mole.  When he recovered the surgeon wanted to give him a ward in the hospital to superintend, but Silas demurred, as the buck shot put ginger into him and he vowed he would be revenged but was not pacified until after the battle of Atlanta where he killed as many rebels as they did of him if not more.  He did not go with Sherman to the sea and when his term of enlistment expired returned to the bosom of his family.  In Cincinnati he was offered $1,500 to enlist again as a substitute but he deemed that Mary Jane, whom he had promised to protect and who had been on the anxious seat of dire apprehension for three years and the two children had a prior claim and he was not to be diverted from its fulfillment.  He is a live member of Neal Post of Sidney and few are the grand encampments that he and Mrs. Young have not attended and he stands at the head of the list or about there of the Red Chair enterprises which have been in vogue for twenty years or more. Many years ago five chairs were presented to veterans or their widows in one day at the Kah house in Anna where 325 took dinner.  Knowing that W. D. Davies, of Sidney, was billed to speak at Botkins, the soldier boys went to the station a few rods distant and called out Mr. Davies to the platform of a north bound car.  When he appeared they kidnapped him and bore him to the Kah house where he became the orator of "the day and sent word to Botkins that not today, but some other time, he would be in Botkins and that they ought to have known better than to have started him out by way of Anna, filled as it was with buccaneers, without a guard.      Few farms as so delightfully situated as their home place of seventy-three acres.  The corporate limits of Anna have been extended until it embraces part of the farm, a cement sidewalk extends to his very door and with a few steps he can enjoy the delights of country life or the bustle of an embryo city.  This gives him polish on one side and the glow and appetite of rustic health on the other.      When fourteen years of age he was converted, joined the Methodist church and never got over it.  He frequently led prayer meetings when in the army.      Out of such sterling material it would be impossible to fashion anything but a republican of fast colors and that is what Silas is, a shining example worthy to be followed. Source: History of Shelby County, Ohio and representative citizens, Evansville, Ind. - 1913 - Page 398

WILLIAM M. YOUNG, proprietor of a prosperous grocery business with quarters at No. 215 North Pomeroy street, has been a resident of Sidney, O., for seven years and is a native of Shelby county, born in Franklin township, July 2, 1879.  His parents were William and Loretta (Rairdon) Young.      William Young, Sr., was born in Pickaway county, O., Aug. 31, 1819, and came to Shelby county with his father, Adam Young, who secured a claim on a small tract of land in Franklin township.  When these pioneer settlers, William Young, Sr., being then a lad of twelve years, reached their new homestead, Nov. 12, 1832, the only shelter they found was under the branches of an oak tree and cold weather came upon them before they could complete their log cabin.  Pioneers, however, in those days were made of courageous men and women who did not fear hardship or expect much material comfort.  Two years later they moved to Dinsmore township on which place William Young, Sr., spent his subsequent life, living to be over eighty-seven years of age and dying Dec. 17, 1906.  He was a farmer and also a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal church.  He married Loretto Rairdon, who was born in Logan county and died in Shelby county, May 27, 1888.      William M. Young was reared in Franklin township and attended the country schools until he was fifteen years of age, after which he worked for his father until he was twenty-one years old.  He had, however, an ambition to learn the art of telegraphing and when he became legal master of his own time, entered the Ohio Normal University at Ada and studied telegraphy and later continued at Edgerton, O.  On Oct. 14, 1901, he went to work for the Chicago & Northwestern railroad at Bertram, Ia., being then transferred to Des Moines, and in all spent two years in Iowa, coming then to Anna, O., and in 1903 went to work for the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad, continuing with them at Lima, Troy and Tippecanoe City.  For six years he was with the Big Four railroad, at Sidney, and was also agent at Sidney from July 10, 1909, to Jan. 12, 1910; cashier for the Big Four until June 30, 1911, and from July to Dec. 15, 1911, was train dispatcher for the Western Ohio Electric railroad, his headquarters being at Wapakoneta.  After this varied railroad experience he decided to become a permanent resident of Sidney and bought his present mercantile business from E. J. Evans, taking possession on Jan. 1, 1912.      In 1903 Mr. Young was married to Miss Faye Knief, of Bloom Center, Logan county, O., and they have three children: Lucile, Warren and Wallace.  They are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Source: History of Shelby County, Ohio and representative citizens - Evansville, Ind. - 1913 - Page 760