76 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



4. Edward, born April 19, 1757, a 

 Revolutionary soldier and sea captain, died 

 at sea. 



5. Sarah, born 1759, died in infancy. 



6. Stephen, born October 20, 1762, died 

 1823 ; married Alice Watson. 



7. Mary, born January 5, 1765, died un- 

 married. 



8. Harman, born July 25, 1767, died 

 February 12, 1827; married Margaret Long. 



9. William, born July 25, 1769, died 

 1823, married Letitia Esther Long. 



Harman, son of Harman and Mary 

 (Stroud) Yerkes, was born in Warminster, 

 July 25, 1767. He spent his whole life on 

 the Warminster homestead, one hundred 

 acres of which he purchased in 1793, upon 

 which he erected the large stone mansion 

 still standing. In 1800 he purchased the 

 remainder of the 180 acres that had been 

 his father's and later bought the Noble 

 tract on the county line, making three 

 farms which he devised to his sons. He 

 married in 1790 Margaret, daughter of Cap- 

 tain Andrew Long, of Warrington, born 

 January 8, 1771, died March 4, 1849. He 

 died February 12, 1837. 



The children of Harman and Margaret 

 Long Yerkes were 10, viz : 



1. Mary, born 1791, died 1816; unmar- 

 ried. 



2. William, born July 8, 1792, died 1826; 

 married Penelope McDowell. 



3. Andrew L., born August 25, 1794, 

 -died 1862 ; married Eliza Everhart. 



4. Edward, born July 11, 1797, died 1799. 

 - 5. Elizabeth, born May 26, 1800, died 



1875 ; married John C. Beans. 



6. Clarissa, born October 2, 1802, died 

 December, 1873 ; married Samuel Mon- 

 tayne. 



7. Edwin, born November 28, 1804, died 

 1864; married Catharine R. Williamson. 



8. Harman, born March 9, 1807, died 

 1889; married Rebecca Valentine. 



9. Stephen, born May 19, 1809, died 

 July 25, 1865; married Amy Hart Mon- 

 tayne. 



ID. Margaret, born October 8, 1815, died 

 December 29, 1815. 



Stephen, son of Harman and Margaret 

 Long Yerkes, was born on the old home- 

 stead in Warminster, May 19, 1809, and died 

 there July 25, 1865. He commenced life as 

 a farmer on the west side of the Yo;-k 

 road, but at the death of his father in 1837 

 he removed to the original homestead de- 

 vised to him by his father. He later added 

 to this two other farms now occupied by 

 his sons. He married January 13, 1831, 

 Amy Hart Montayne, daughter of Rev. 

 Thomas B. Montayne, and great-grand- 

 daughter of Jean de la Montaigne, who 

 came to New York in 1624, and was direc- 

 tor-general of New York under the Dutch 

 government. Mrs. Yerkes was born Octo- 

 ber 23, 181 1, and died March 22, 1856. The 

 children of this marriage were : 



1. Thomas, born November 14, 1831. 



2. Harman, born February 8, 1833, died 

 May 24, 1840. 



3. Stephen, born April 11, 1835; mar- 

 ried Elizabeth Jamison, and is now living 

 on the Warminster homestead. 



4. Adolphus, born January 31, and died 

 February 31, 1837. 



5. Anna Margaret, born January 17, 

 1841, died at Germantown, March 13, 1903; 

 married Captain George H. Bucher. 



6. Harman, the subject of this sketchy 

 born October 8, 1843; married Emma 

 Buckman. 



7. Alfred Earle, born June 7, 1846; 

 married Mary A. Hazlett, living in War- 

 minster. 



8. Edwin Augustus, born October 24, 

 1849, died May 21, 190D. 



Judge Yerkes' boyhood days were spent 

 on the Warminster farm. He attended the 

 public school of the neighborhood and la- 

 ter the Tennent school at Hartsville, and 

 then entered Williston College at East- 

 hampton, Massachusetts, from which he 

 graduated in the class of 1862. He read 

 law with Thomas and Henry P. Ross, at 

 Doylestown, and was admitted to the bar 

 November 3, 1865, and at once began the 

 active practice of his chosen profession. He 

 was elected district attorney in 1868, and 

 discharged the duties of the office with 

 special ability. In 1873 he was elected to 

 the state senate and was re-elected in 1876. 

 He was a prominent figure in the upper 

 house of the state, and served on many im- 

 portant committees. He drew the laws 

 regulating the separate orphans courts 

 and the civil and criminal courts of' the 

 state under the new constitution of 1874. 

 He was a member of the state board of 

 managers of the Centennial Exposition at 

 Philadelphia in 1876, and took a prominent 

 part in the management. He introduced 

 the bill creating the Hospital for the In- 

 sane at Norristown and was one of the or- 

 iginal trustees to which position he has 

 been a second time appointed. He has been 

 a life long Democrat and has always been 

 prominent in the councils of the party. He 

 was chairman of the judicial committee of 

 conference in 1869, and was a delegate to 

 the judicial conventions of 187 1 and 1872. 

 He was a delegate to the Democratic 

 national convention at Baltimore in 1872, 

 but was one of the twenty-one members of 

 that memorable convention that refused to 

 vote for the nomination of Horace Greeley, 

 giving the vote to Hon. Jeremiah S. Black, 

 of this state. He was a national delegate 

 again in 1880, and delegate to the state con- 

 ventions of 1873, 1874, 1877, 1878 and 1882. 

 In 1883 he was elected president judge of 

 the district and was re-elected in 1893, re- 

 ceiving at that time the unanimous endorse- 

 ment of the bar of the county. As a judge 

 ■Mr. Yerkes displayed remarkable ability, his' 

 promptness in the despatch of business, his 

 eminent fairness of his decisions, the deep 

 study and wide research shown by the 

 opinions rendered and his intense earnest- 

 ness in the prosecution of the suits brought 

 before him, made him very popular. He^ 

 has frequently been called upon to hold 



