George Yoakum and his younger brother, Jesse, arrived in MO sometime after 1840 and prior to 1850.  They were accompanied on their trek from TN via IL, by George's wife, Sarah.

    Yoakums first appear in the Brookfield / Browning, MO areas by the 1850 census.  In 1850, Jesse, 25 years old, is listed as living in the household of George, age 41, and Sarah, age 36, but, by the 1860 census, Jesse has his own household.  George, Sarah, and Jesse are all listed as having been born in TN.

    The 1850 census indicates that Jesse was single.  However, despite the Yoakum habit of a lack of closeness, by the 1860 census not only was Jesse married but he also had a house full of kids!  That leads to one of the difficulties I am experiencing in tracing the Yoakum history.

    The Martha Ellen Yoakum-Morris, daughter of Jesse, obituary states that she was the last of the 13 siblings to die.  However, I can only find ten children and one of them, Jack, is confirmed by oral history from only a single individual.  This leaves, at least, three individuals unaccounted for, and perhaps as many as four.

    Other Yoakum branches launched their treks to other vistas, most notably Texas, at approximately the same time as Jesse, George, and Sarah left for IL.  By the late 1800s or the early 1900s there would be Yoakum family members scattered from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts with another large portion of them remaining in the IL-MO-KS area.

   

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    The 1860, Linn County Census, provides us with a puzzle, one on which I have been unable to discover any further information.

 

Here is the conundrum: 

 

    1)  Martha, Frances, and John are listed with the last name

         of Yoakum, but during 1850 and 1860 the census data

         does not include relationship information.  All three are

         older than ten years old but are NOT listed on the 1850

         census.

 

             a)  Because they are NOT listed on the 1850

                  census and because they are listed last

                  after the known children of George and Jesse,

                  it is probably safe to assume that they are not

                  children of Jesse nor of George.

 

             b)  They may have been brother and sisters.  That

                  would also mean that Frances and John were

                  twins. 

 

             c)  The possibility exists that there was no

                  relationship between Frances and Martha/John.

                  They might have been homeless waifs taken in

                  by the Yoakum families and who adopted the

                  last name of their new "fathers."

 

             d)  It is also possible they were bonded servants

                  and adopted the names of their bond-families.

                  It was not unusual to list bond-servants,

                  however, the bonded usually retained their true

                  name.

 

Here is what we do know:

 

    A)  This is NOT the Martha E. Yoakum who was

         later born to Jesse & Mary Ellen.

 

    B)  According to census data, their last names were

         YOAKUM.

 

    C)  According to census data, Martha born 1845 --

         Frances and John in 1847.

 

    D)  According to census data, they were all born in

         MO.

 

    E) Neither the 1850 census nor the 1870 census

         listed the children in the datum household.

 

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    Another question for which I heartily desire an answer is Jesse's middle name.  Oral history from one Yoakum family member stated that his middle name is Pierce.  There is no documentation to substantiate this nor has anyone else substantiated it.  There are several documents that provide the middle initial of P., but none of the documents indicate the complete name.

 

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