BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
"Y" Surnames
Yoakum, Robert G.
Robert G. Yoakum, an enterprising planter of the Tenth Civil District, was born in Claiborne County, September 6, 1824, son of Robert Yoakum. The parents were natives of Tennessee and Virginia, were married in Claiborne County, and settled after their marriage on a farm in Claiborne County in what is now Lonesome Valley, where the father died before our subject was born; his mother remarried, some four years after the death of the father, Mr. Thomas Davis, who was a Claiborne County farmer. He received a common school education and began life as a farmer, which has been his chief occupation all of his life. About 1855 he purchased and settled where he now lives. From about the year 1875 to 1885 he was engaged in the mercantile business at Lone Mountain Creek, in partnership with a nephew, James Yoakum, seven years, then with a son, E. F. Yoakum. Since then, he has been engaged exclusively in farming. Subject began life with nothing, but now owns upward of 350 acres of land in two tracts in the Tenth District. On June 20, 1856, he married Miss Lucinda Jennings, of Claiborne County. They have six living children, four sons and two daughters, and four deceased, two sons and two daughters. Subject is a Republican, is not a member of any church, but is in sympathy with the Methodist Church. His wife is a member of the Methodist Church. Source: History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present (Chicago, Illinois, Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1887), 1145.