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From: "Candace Roth" <>
Subject: Samuel B. YODER [1 of 2]
Date: Sun, 15 Aug 2004 17:39:52 -0400



History of Bedford and Somerset Counties, Pennsylvania" Bedford County by E. Howard Blackburn; Somerset County by William H. Welfley; v.3, Pub. The Lewis Publishing Company, New York/Chicago 1906, ppg. 116-121

"Samuel B. YODER.
Samuel B. Yoder, of Berlin, is a representative of a family which was founded in Pennsylvania by Christian Yoder, a native of Switzerland, who emigrated about 1745 to the province of Penn and settled in Berks county. In the spring of 1776 he removed with his family to Bedford, now Somerset county, where he had previously bought a large tract of timber land situated where Pugh now stands, about seven miles east of Somerset, in Stony Creek township. The deed for this property was dated October 9, 1775, the consideration named therein being nine hundred and sixty-eight dollars. There were no roads and the nearest neighbor was five miles distant. There was a small clearing where Christian erected a log house and barn, a picture of which is owned by his great-grandson, Samuel B. Yoder. He then began his battle with the wilderness, wild beasts and occasional Indians. Field after field was cleared and cultivated, until he had one of the largest and best farms in the county. !
He was a member of the Amish Mennonite church.
Christian Yoder married, in Berks county, Barbara Hooley, and they were the parents of fifteen children, namely: Fanny, born in 1753; Barbara, 1756; Christian, 1758; Jacob, 1760; David, 1763; Yost, 1765; Jonathan, 1766; Magdalena, 1769; John, of whom later; Elizabeth, 1774; Solomon 1776; Gertrude, 1778; Jephthah and Esther [twins], 1780; and Henry, 1782. Mrs. Yoder died March 6, 1812, at an advanced age, and Mr. Yoder expired November 20, 1816, being then about ninety years old. Nearly all their children settled in the immediate neighborhood and founded a community known as the Yoder settlement. They all reared large families and lived to advanced ages, and the Yoder settlement was, at that early period, the best cultivated and most prosperous section of the county.
John Yoder, son of Christian and Barbara (Hooley) Yoder, was born February 8, 1772, in Berks county, and was four years old when his parents came to Somerset county. Until his marriage he assisted in clearing the farm, which was then sold to him by his father, the deed being dated July 13, 1796, and the consideration being fourteen hundred and twenty-nine dollars and forty-four cents. In addition to the homestead he acquired a large tract in Cambria county, where the city of Johnstown now stands. This was divided into four farms, which were afterward owned by four of his children, one of these farms being the site of Grand View cemetery, where sixteen hundred and twenty victims of the Johnstown flood are now buried. Part of this tract is now Yoder township, having been named in honor of the family. John Yoder was a Whig and a member of the Amish Mennonite church.
John Yoder married, in 1796, Barbara Yoder, to whom he was in no degree related, and their children were: Salome, wife of John Miller, had ten children, died May 21, 1877, aged eighty. Jonas, married Sarah Schrock, had nine children, accidentally killed June 15, 1860, aged sixty-two. Moses, walked from Pennsylvania through the wilderness to Canada and settled on a tract of timber land twenty miles north of Toronto. He died in Canada, March 26, 1880, at the age of eighty. Daniel, married Kate Kaufman, had four children, died June 24, 1879. Samuel,married Elizabeth Lehman, had nine children, died April 8, 1872, aged sixty-eight. Gertrude, wife of Henry Hershberger, had seven children, died May 11, 1880, aged seventy-five. David, married Sarah Lehman, had seven children, died January 8, 1856, aged fifty. Fanny, wife of Michael Schrock, had three children, died October 23, 1890, aged eighty-three. Elizabeth, wife of Samuel Kaufman, had thirteen children, died May 16,!
1865, aged forty-three. Joshua, at twenty-two went to Canada, engaged in McKenzie rebellion, and on defeat of the rebels fled through the forest to Niagara river, where he crossed to New York. thence he went to Ohio and later to Union township, Elkhart county, Indiana, where he took up and patented a large tract of timber land, which he cleared and on which he made his home. He married, Maria Stump, had six children, and died March 28, 1867. Abner, taught in the schools and was a preacher of the Amish church, noted as an eloquent speaker and an able writer, the most gifted and intellectual member of the family. He married Fanny Schrock, had eleven children, and died December 12, 1883, at the age of seventy. Barbara, died in childhood. Benedict, of whom later. Lena, died in childhood. The mother of these children died December 1, 1856, at the age of eighty-one. She was a member of the Amish Mennonite church. Mr. Yoder, the father, died October 4, 1860, having live!
d eighty-four years on the homestead, and leaving behind him the memory of a religious and conscientious man.
David Yoder, mentioned above, was the father of a son, Tobias Yoder, who served in the Union army during the Civil war. He participated in the fight at Charles City Cross Roads, where he was shot three times through the body and had his shoulder shattered by a charge of buckshot. After lying three days on the battlefield he was found by the enemy, taken to Libby prison and shortly afterward released on parole. He finally found his way into the Union lines, recovered and re-enlisted. Moses Yoder, his brother, served in the Fifty-fourth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. His son, John Yoder, served in the Fifty-fourth Regiment and died in a field hospital. Jonas Yoder, son of Samuel, brother of David, served in the Thirty-third Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers.
Benedict Yoder, son of John and Barbara (Yoder) Yoder, was born August 20, 1817, in Stony Creek township, and until his marriage worked for his father. He then bought a tract of timber land two miles west of the homestead and began wresting a farm from the forest. On the night of May 9, 1853, the home he had built caught fire and burned to the ground, no property being saved and the family barely escaping with their lives. Four of the boys, small though they were, saved themselves by jumping from the second-story windows. Mr. Yoder at once began rebuilding and erected the residence which still stands on the farm in which he makes his home. He has always been an ardent Republican and is a member of the Amish church."

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