George Yoxall

GEORGE YOXALL. It seems singularly appropriate that the prosperity of western Kansas as a rule should be distributed most liberally among those who have been longest resident and who went through its period of hardships and pioneering. The fact is, however, that only the abler, more persistent and generally the more fortunate of the early settlers have reaped to the full the rewards of their early foresight and judgment. One of the most successful of the old-timers is George Yoxall, owner of three sections of farm land in Rooks County and vice president of the Stockton National Bank.

Mr. Yoxall is an Englishman and he was born at Crewe, Cheshire, May 23, 1850, but has been an American citizen for half a century. His father, John Yoxall, was born in Cheshire in 1815, lived in England for many years and while there followed the trades of painter, paper-hanger, plumber and gas fitter. In 1870, on coming to the United States he located at Russell, Kansas, and was the pioneer lumber dealer in that town where he died in 1880. After acquiring American citizenship, John Yoxall was a republican voter. He was a Mason and a very devout member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

John Yoxall married Elizabeth Eaton, who was born in Cheshire in September, 1820, and died at Russell, Kansas, May, 1887. Their children were: Edwin Thomas who was in the lumber business at Russell, Kansas, where he died in November, 1875; Frederick, a painter and decorator who died at Osborne, Kansas, September 8, 1918; George, of Stockton; Bertha, wife of W. M. Pennel, a retired furniture dealer at Pasadena, California; Albert, of Russell, Kansas, and formerly a banker there.

George Yoxall was educated in the public schools of his native shire in England and in youth learned the trade of plumber. When he came to the United States in 1867, he found work at his trade in Philadelphia and in 1869 went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1870 he located at Oshkosh, where he followed his trade a short time, and afterwards worked as a plumber at Peoria, Illinois, and again at Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Mr. Yoxall came to Kansas in April, 1871. He homesteaded a quarter section near Great Bend, proved it up and later sold it, and, in the fall of 1874 came to Rooks County, where he entered a tract of land from the Government. That original tract is still among the family possessions, but his property has been extended until he owns 1,920 acres on Medicine Creek in Rooks County. When he first saw this section of Kansas there was absolutely no settlement on the upper Arkansas River, and a very few scattered cabins on the tributary creeks. There were buffaloes in great numbers, also some Indians, and the state was still infested with horse thieves. It was in such a country that Mr. Yoxall had his early experiences as a homesteader, but he outlived these conditions, proved himself their master, and has risen to a point of prosperity which marks him as one of the substantial men of western Kansas. Besides his farm lands and his connection with the bank at Stockton, Mr. Yoxall owns a two-story business building in Stockton, some real estate in Russell, and has a splendid modern residence on Second Street, Stockton.

He has long been active in republican politics, having held local township offices and has been a member of the school board. He was elected and served two terms in the State Legislature, in 1909-13. During his second term he was a member of the ways and means committee, and through both terms was on the railroad, agricultural and public lands committees.

In 1874 at Russell, Mr. Yoxall married Miss Elizabeth Parr, who was born in the parish of Cladock, Herefordshire, England. They have a family of eleven children: John Edward, a farmer in the State of Idaho; Albert, a farmer and blacksmith at Montrose, Colorado; George Eaton, a farmer of Rooks County; Frederick Garfield, a farmer who died at Sterling, Colorado, in the fall of 1918; Bertha, wife of J. A. Taylor, their home being on Medicine Creek in Rooks County; Edwin, a farmer in Rooks County; Arthur E., who was in the army, in the aerial service in England; Blanche, wife of Herbert Eades, a merchant at Stockton; Myrtle, who died on the old homestead at the age of twenty-five; Everett, on the old homestead; and Miss Elizabeth, the only child at home.

Pages 2502-2503.