T. M. YANCEY

 

The subject of this narrative, whose portrait appears in this work, was born in Pulaski, Giles County, Tennessee, on September 23, 1826 When nearly nine years old his parents took him to Marshall County, Mississippi, where he was educated. When the war with Mexico came on, Mr. Yancey enlisted in the First Mississippi Infantry, commanded by Jefferson Davis, in which regiment he served with honor till the close of the war.  Mr. Yancey early in life learned the printer’s trade, following it until after returning from the war, until he came to this State.  In 1851, he crossed the plains, and first made a halt in California at Sonora, Tuolumne County. He came to Co­lumbia on the 17th of September, 1852, where he was engaged in mining until May, 1853, when he went on the Gazette and continued on the paper until 1858.  In Octo­ber of that year he was appointed Deputy Sheriff, in which office he remained for three years.  In 1863, he moved to Mono County, and was appointed one of the Commission­ers of the Mono road.  In the following year we find him at Silver City, Idaho, where he remained about one year, and returning to Sonora, entered the Democrat office, and there remained for eleven years and four months. He was elected Sheriff of Tuolumne County in 1876, and so faith­fully has he discharged the duties of his office that he has been his own successor to the present time. One cannot speak too highly of Mr. Yancey’s administration as Sheriff. Common thieves, highwaymen, stage robbers and murder­ers have all found their detection and conviction sure, if their depredations were committed within the juris­diction of our Sheriff. Mr. Yancey married Rosa B. Crowell on the 12th of September, 1860.  She is a native of Maine. Their children are Louisa (now Mrs. Geo. McQuade), Mabel, Edna, Henry L. and Nellie.

 

“A History of Tuolumne County, California” B.F. Alley, 1882. Pg. 371-372.

Submitted by: Nancy Pratt Melton