Yoho, Jeremiah

Jeremiah Yoho

The Ancestral File lists, Jeremiah Yoho (P2DR-GN), b. [1824].

SPOUSE:
Delbert Henthorn reports that Virginia Lois Rosenau Esh has found that Jane Henthorn, daughter of Adam and Nancy (Hood) Henthorn, married Jeremiah Yoho, in 1857. Jane was born 14 Jul 1824 and died Aug 1903. It appears she was the 2nd wife of Jeremiah Yoho.

RESIDENCES: Jeremiah Yoho lived in Marshall Co., WV; Apple Grove, Mason Co., WV; and Monroe and Gallia counties in Ohio.


Census: 1850, in Monroe Co., OH, Salem Twp., 232/232, 11 Sep 1850
Jeremiah Yoho, 21, m., laborer, VA
Hannah, 22, f., OH
Ezra, 1, f., VA
[Note: Hannah was Hannah Anderson the first wife of Jeremiah Yoho. REH]

BIOGRAPHY: The Underground Recruiter
Editor's Note: This article was submitted by Denver Yoho, Gallipolis, Ohio. It first appeared in the July 23, 1983 issue of the "West Virginia Hillbilly," where it was entitled, "West Virginia in the Civil War: Underground Recruiter."

My great-grandfather was Jeremiah Yoho (1828-1890). He was the son of George Yoho and Rachel Garner of Marshall County [West Virginia]. He lived during the Civil War at Apple Grove, Mason County [WV]. The house was on the Ohio River bank on land now owned by the Goodyear Company. I have lost the only written evidence of his living there, which was a letter he had written to his sister Polly's husband, Nicholas Gatts, who lived at Silver Hill, Wetzel Co., [WV]. This letter was written just prior to the start of the war. Jeremiah made his signature with an X.

My grandfather, Charles Yoho (1856-1946), was reared by his grandparents, the George Yohos, who lived on Fairview Ridge, Marshall County, at the time. One day, grandpa and a smaller boy saw some soldiers approaching at a distance. Frightened, they ran. The soldiers shot at them as they scurried into an empty house where they hid until the soldiers surrounded the house and demanded that they come out. The commanding officer, a Captain in the Union Army, upon seeing that they were children, addressed my grandfather. "Boy, I should thrash you good. We may have have killed you. Never run from soldiers for we don't make war on children."

Albert Anderson, who lived on Proctor Creek, Wetzel County in 1936, told me that my great-grandmother, Hannah Anderson Yoho, Jeremiah's first wife, was a sister of his father, Franklin Anderson. Albert also said that one of his Anderson uncles and another man of Wetzel County went to Jeremiah Yoho in Mason County and that Jeremiah was an underground recruiter for the Confederate Cavalry. Anderson said that Jeremiah furnished the men a horse and saddle each and told them they could find the Confederate troops on the Kanawha River near Charleston. The two had to slip around Union troops before they found the Confederate Cavalry. They enlisted in time to take part in the Battle of Scary Creek, July 17, 1861. Denver Yoho wrote, "I have never learned this great, great Uncle Anderson's name or which cavalry he joined."

Jeremiah had a large family operation with as many as forty men working for him. One of the many islands in the Ohio River at that time was just above Apple Grove, and the local people used it to hide their horses from the armies. This was a successful hiding place until one of Jeremiah's dissatisfied employees joined the Union Army and led a foray on the island. A team of mares and a span of mules belonging to Jerimiah Yoho were taken on this raid. (My aunt, Vesta Yoho Rollyson, age 96, reflected recently, "Wasn't that a dirty trick of Andy Jordon, stealing grandpa's horses?") Jeremiah heard of the loss soon after it happened and followed the raiders to the Kanawha River, by way of what now is Jerry's Run, [to] where the army had camped near Pliny. He was allowed to bring one mare home because she had a suckling colt there. He turned the mare loose and she hurried home to her colt. The distance from Pliny to Apple Grove is about 15 miles. The mare trotted most of the distance, arrived home before Jeremiah, went directly to the river and drank as the colt sucked. Both animals died, the mare from drinking too much water while she was hot, and the colt from sucking the mare's hot milk.

A second raid was made on the Yoho place, led again by a former employee. George Yoho, Jeremiah's father, was lying on the porch taking a nap when they arrived. The soldiers ran a bayonet up the old man's belly, cutting off buttons, but not doing other damage. They took what they wanted and left. A few years later, when the war was over, George was driving a wagon pulled by oxen on the streets of Gallipolis, Ohio. The mud in the street was so bad that a pedestrian had trouble keeping his boots on and had very little control of his movements as he crossed the street. The man who had used the bayonet walked directly in front of George's oxen and within reach of his bullwhip. My grandfather [Charle Yoho] said, "Grandpap George whipped the clothes off him and said, 'Now goddamn you there ain't no Civil War going on'". A grandson of the whipped man lived in the same neighborhood as my grandfather in Cabell County, [WV], and my grandfather would repeat this story to me every time we saw the man.
(Source: The Yoho Newsletter, April 1996, Vol. 5, No. 1)


Census: 1870, in Gallia Co., OH
Jeremiah Yoho, 42; Jane, 44
Manda R., 15; Adaline, 20; Charles Wm., 1
James Bath, 5, adopted; Thomas Spears, 15, adopted
Noah Haner, 24; Eliza, 18
[Note: Jane was Jane Henthorn the second wife of Jeremiah Yoho. REH]

Census: 1880, in Gallia Co., OH
Jeremiah Yoho, 52; Jane, 55
Willie, 11; Charles, 22; Alice, 14;
Thomas Sowards, 24
Julia A., 26
P.M. Garlic, 26
Amanda, 24
Jos. H., ??
Eristicia A., 4
Nancy Jane, 2


BIOGRAPHY: Yoho: Baseball, Columns, Postmen
by James Sands, Courtesy of Denver Yoho

On June 2, 1882 a post office was established at Yoho, Ohio with Jeremiah Yoho serving as the first postmaster. The village of Yoho was founded by Jeremiah Yoho on land that he farmed and used in his freighting business. According to a history compiled by Denver Yoho, a great grandson; Jeremiah Yoho was born about 1828 in Ohio County, Virginia. Before coming to Gallia County, Ohio just before 1870, he had also lived in Monroe County, Ohio and Mason County, Virginia (now West Virginia). In due time Yoho had purchased over 200 acres of land near the Guyan Township townhouse.

In the Denver Yoho history he writes: "Jerry Yoho was an entrepreneur, he operated a coal mine at Yoho and transferred the coal to consumers with his own wagons. He also did other freight business as well as farming his own land and renting large acreages of river bottom from the mouth of Swan Creek to the first hill towards Crown City in corn."

During the time that there was a community called Yoho we note an occasion byline in the various newspapers of the Yoho news. In the 1890's the village had a baseball team known as the Yoho Clippers. In 1882 the Yoho column included information about the need for farmers to diversify their crops. Stated the Yoho columinist in the fall of 1882: "Three years ago the idea of cultivating the sunflower plant, for its seed, would have been pronounced as unprofitable, and there are farmers that have as much as six acres devoted to this crop. Oil manufacturers have recently discovered that the sunflower seed contains a very fine oil, and the production doesn't supply the demand for them."

Jeremiah Yoho who lived until 1890 and is buried in the Guyan Township Cemetery weighed over 300 pounds. States Denver Yoho: "He (Jeremiah) road a dun pony weighing about 800 pounds over the farm while supervising his various enterprises. This large man on so small a horse was very conspicuous. He was a big eater and was especially fond of roasting ears. It is said that in a hotel in Gallipolis he ate 12 ears of corn with a meal and when he was paying for the meal he was advised that the cost was 15 cents. He replied that he thought the cost of the meal was 25 cents. The cashier said, "It is Mr. Yoho, but we only charge 15 cents for horse feed."
(Published in "Yoho Family Association 1992 Newsletter")

DEATH: Jeremiah Yoho died on 15 Mar 1890 at the age of 63 in Gallia Co., OH of a Carbunkle. Book 1, pp. 246.

CEMETERY: It has been reported that Jeremiah is buried in Guyan Townhouse Cemetery in Guyan Township, Gallia Co., OH.