Sacramento County
Biographies
CHARLES AUGUSTUS YOERK
The first representative of the Yoerk family in the new world crossed the ocean during the
year 1832 and became a pioneer of Ohio, where he and his wife improved a
homestead and remained until their death. While they brought with them to
America the greater number of their children, there was one son, Christopher
Frederick, the father of our subject, who had entered the German army prior to
their departure and it was therefore impossible for him to accompany them.
After he had completed his term of service and received his honorable discharge
he married a young German girl and settled in Wurtemberg,
where for many years he followed the butcher's trade. A spirit of intense
loyalty to his community led him to accept civic positions and for fifty years
he served his city continuously in some official capacity. At the end of
his long and honorable service the city presented him with a diploma.
When he passed away at the age of ninety-two years there was a universal expression
of gratitude for his faithful labors as a citizen and a general appreciation of
his sterling attributes of character.
Born in Wurtemberg,
Germany, August 24, 1833, Charles Augustus Yoerk
received the advantages of the excellent schools of his native land. At
the age of twenty years, in 1853, he crossed the ocean to the United States and
settled at Philadelphia, where he secured employment at $6 per month in a meat
market. For four years he followed the butcher's trade in Philadelphia.
Ambitious to try his fortunes in the then unknown west, he gave up his position
in the east and came by the Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco, where he landed
at the end of an uneventful trip of five weeks. From San Francisco he
soon came to Sacramento, April 1, 1857, and secured employment at the butcher's
trade, remaining for seven months. During the great gold rush to Fraser river in 1858 he went to Victoria, British Columbia, where
it was estimated that thirty thousand men spent the following winter.
Because of an uprising among the Indians, and having lost his money and even
his boots, he remained in Victoria, and seeing the possibilities along the line
of his trade, put up a tent and began to make sausage. That work kept him
busy until the miners began to disperse and came by boat, sleigh and horseback
to Portland. Thence they traveled by wagon to Corvallis, Benton county,
Ore., where he engaged in the butcher business, but he soon returned by
horseback to Sacramento, where he and Mr. Schwartz carried on a meat business
for three years.
Upon disposing of his interest to his
partner, Mr. Yoerk returned to Philadelphia, where,
June 22, 1862, he married Miss Margaret Lentz. About the same time he
opened a market in that city, but a year later he sold out and returned to the
Pacific coast by steamer, accompanied by his family. Late in 1864 he
embarked in the butcher's business with Louis B. Mohr, and the connection has
continued up to the present time, the firm meanwhile having greatly enlarged
its business, with a corresponding increase in the returns. Subsequently
they incorporated the Mohr & Yoerk Packing
Company and erected the Mohr & Yoerk building on
K and Eleventh streets, which covers a space of 80x160 feet and is five stories
high. Two corporations were later formed from the firm, the Mohr & Yoerk Company and the real estate business of Mohr & Yoerk Realty Company. Three of the sons of Mr. Yoerk are stockholders and directors in the companies, and
the two eldest, Fred C. and George P., have the management of the meat market
in their charge. The youngest son, August, is manager of Hall, Lewis
& Co., of Sacramento. The eldest daughter, Carrie R., resides with
her mother. The younger daughter, Louise, married Eugene Neuhaus, a teacher of painting in the University of
California. The eldest son, Fred C., was born in Sacramento May 23, 1865,
and married Miss Uzilla Hand of North San Juan.
From boyhood he has been familiar with the butcher's trade, and he still gives
of his energy and time to the business so successfully established many years
ago. Fraternally he is identified with the Woodmen of the World and Elks
and also belongs to the Native Sons of the Golden West. In religion he
holds membership with the German Lutheran church, and his parents, as well as
the other members of the family, likewise adhere to that faith. Ever
since the father became a voting citizen of the United States he had upheld
Republican principles and that party received his ballot in local and general
elections. Fraternally he was identified with the Masons for many
years. To his adopted country he proved a true, loyal citizen,
to the state of his adoption he was especially devoted, believing California's
resources to equal those of the most favored sections of the entire world,
while the possibilities of the commonwealth in his estimation were beyond the
vision of even the most optimistic. His demise occurred August 18, 1912,
at the age of seventy-nine, removing from their midst one of Sacramento's most
valued citizens.
Transcribed by Sally Kaleta.
Source: Willis,
William L., History of Sacramento County,
California, Pages 727-728. Historic
Record Company,
© 2006 Sally Kaleta.