Background
Yoakum was born on September 6, 1810 in Claiborne County, Tennessee, the son of George and Colly (Maddy) Yoakum. He was of Welsh descent, and his American forbears had lived successively in New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Tennessee.
(This is a valuable contribution to general history, and e...)
This is a valuable contribution to general history, and especially to the history of the United States. The past of Texas is here brought down and covers a period of 161 years—the greatest prominence being given to the first half of the 19th century. Several familiar names figure in the work, respecting whom, in connection with Texas, the reader will naturally desire to learn what is here told. This is one of the most authentic and valuable books, in connection with the general affairs of Texas, that can be found; in which nothing is stated upon individual responsibility—everything in it is sustained by the official documents. This is volume two out of two.
https://www.amazon.com/History-Texas-1685-1846-2/dp/3849674681?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=3849674681
(This is a valuable contribution to general history, and e...)
This is a valuable contribution to general history, and especially to the history of the United States. The past of Texas is here brought down and covers a period of 161 years—the greatest prominence being given to the first half of the 19th century. Several familiar names figure in the work, respecting whom, in connection with Texas, the reader will naturally desire to learn what is here told. This is one of the most authentic and valuable books, in connection with the general affairs of Texas, that can be found; in which nothing is stated upon individual responsibility—everything in it is sustained by the official documents. This is volume one out of two.
https://www.amazon.com/History-Texas-1685-1846-1/dp/3849674673?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=3849674673
historian attorney military politician Soldier
Yoakum was born on September 6, 1810 in Claiborne County, Tennessee, the son of George and Colly (Maddy) Yoakum. He was of Welsh descent, and his American forbears had lived successively in New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Tennessee.
Until Yoakum entered the United States Military Academy in 1828, he lived on his father's farm and at intervals attended country schools. In 1832 he was graduated from the Academy and became a brevet second lieutenant in the 3rd Artillery.
Yoakum resigned from the army in 1833, and settled at Murphreesboro to study, and later to practise, law. As captain of the Murphreesboro Sentinels, a company of Tennessee mounted militia, he served during the last half of 1836 under Gen. John Pollard Gaines on the Sabine frontier; and in 1838 he was colonel of a regiment of Tennessee infantry in the Cherokee war. The next year he was elected to the Tennessee Senate, and until 1845 took an active interest in politics.
He was a partisan of James K. Polk, favored the annexation of Texas, and late in 1845 moved to Huntsville, Texas, where, on December 2, he was admitted to the bar of the Republic of Texas. On the declaration of war with Mexico, Yoakum enrolled in Colonel J. C. Hays's regiment of Texas mounted rifles, and was a first lieutenant at the battle of Monterey. When his enlistment expired, October 2, 1846, he returned to Huntsville to devote himself to his law practice.
In July 1853 he removed to his country home, Shepherd's Valley, near Huntsville, and there completed his History of Texas from Its First Settlement in 1685 to Its Annexation to the United States in 1846 (2 vols. , 1855), for half a century the standard history of the region. It was republished, with additional notes by Dudley G. Wooten and a series of new chapters covering the years 1820 to 1845, in Wooten's A Comprehensive History of Texas, 1685 to 1897 (2 vols. , 1898). Yoakum was aware of certain imperfections in his work, principally those common to pioneer explorations of historical fields. He knew of important materials for the Spanish and Mexican periods which were inaccessible to him; and in dealing with the period of the Republic of Texas he did not avoid partisanship.
Although Yoakum's partisanship for Houston is unmistakable, he acknowledges no assistance from him in the preparation of the work. According to family tradition, however, Houston accompanied Yoakum to the battlefield of San Jacinto and there related the story of the campaign, while Yoakum took notes. The History was Yoakum's only published work. A year after its publication he died suddenly in the old Capitol Hotel in Houston. He was survived by his wife. One of the fifty-four counties in west Texas, created in 1876, was named in his honor.
(This is a valuable contribution to general history, and e...)
(This is a valuable contribution to general history, and e...)
Yoakum was a man of wide intellectual interests, an able lawyer, and an effective, although not a rousing, speaker.
Yoakum was married to Eveline Connor of Roane County, Tennessee, on February 13, 1833.
