Yoder, S. T.

The following data is extracted from A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans.

S. T. Yoder, vice president of the Farmers State Bank of Washington, had been a Kansas business man for over thirty years and had acquired many important interests to identify him with Washington County.

Mr. Yoder is of the old Pennsylvania stock of Yoders, a family that originated in Switzerland and was planted in Pennsylvania during the very early colonial period in that state. Mr. Yoder himself is a native of Pennsylvania, born in Somerset County May 3, 1851. His father, Benedict Yoder, who was born in the same county, spent his life in that county as an active farmer, following that vocation for sixty-five years. He died in 1910. He was a republican in politics and a member of the Mennonite Church. Benedict Yoder married Sarah Miller, who was born in Somerset County in 1825 and died there in 1900. They had a large family of children, thirteen in number. Samuel B., the oldest, was a Union soldier, was wounded at the battle of Gettysburg, and had ever since been a cripple and is still living in Somerset County. Daniel M., the second child, is a well known merchant at Haddam, Kansas. C. C. Yoder is a merchant at Amish, Johnson County, Iowa. John M. was a mail carrier in Iowa and was killed at a railroad crossing in 1903. Mary is unmarried and lives in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. The sixth child is Mr. S. T. Yoder. J. H. Yoder is a grain merchant at Washington, Kansas. Sarah, who died in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, in 1913, was the wife of Valentine Lehman, a farmer, also deceased. Nancy married Hiram Rhoads, a mechanic living in Oregon. Gertrude is unmarried and still living in Somerset County. E. L. Yoder is a merchant at West Branch, Iowa. Katie married Ellsworth Mostoller, a retired farmer at Somerset, Pennsylvania. Florence, who lives at Listie, in her native Pennsylvania county, was the wife of E. N. Mostoller, a farmer who died in 1902.

Mr. S. T. Yoder was reared on his father's farm in Somerset County, and after graduating from the high school in 1868 was a teacher in that locality for four years. He then went west to Iowa City, Iowa, took up merchandising, and in 1884 came to Haddam, Kansas, and was a general merchant there until 1887. He then entered the grain business and was active in that line until 1900, when he was elected county clerk of Washington County and filled that office with characteristic fidelity and with the appreciation of his constituency for five years.

Mr. Yoder began his career as a banker in 1906, when he became vice president of the First National Bank of Washington. In 1913 he transferred his connections to the Farmers State Bank and had since been vice president. The bank was established in 1904 by Walter E. Wilson, T. H. Eves and Dr. William Jacobs. The bank had a capital stock of $25,000 and a surplus of $12,500. The present officials are: Dr. William Jacobs, president; S. T. Yoder, vice president; Walter E. Wilson, cashier; and C. E. Rust, assistant cashier. Besides his active connection with this bank he owned two farms, comprising 160 acres, in Washington Township, had one of the good residences of the city on E Street and owned suburban property in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, within two blocks of the state capitol.

Politically his affiliations have been with the republican party. For ten years he served as a member of the Washington School Board. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and of Waters Camp No. 759, Modern Woodmen of America.

In 1871, in Somerset, Pennsylvania, he married Miss Harriet E. Rhoads, daughter of Daniel A. and Mrs. (Barnhart) Rhoads. Her father was a Pennsylvania farmer and both parents are now deceased. Mrs. Yoder died at Haddam, Kansas, in 1884, the mother of four children. Ora M., who lives at Washington, is the widow of R. E. S. Penney. Mr. Penney, who died in 1908, was a banker. Charles W. is cashier of the Narka State Bank in Republic County. Vida Bess married O. H. Smith, a druggist at Washington, Kansas. Frank A. is foreman of the shoe department of the Jackson Sheppard store at Washington. In 1908, at Washington, Mr. Yoder married Miss Anna Northouse. Her mother, Mrs. Caroline Northouse, died in Oklahoma in 1916.

Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans

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