John A. Yoder
Although John A. Yoder, a progressive agriculturist of Wayne township, Wayne county, has spent most of his life in his home locality, is perhaps not especially conversant with conditions prevailing in other portions of the country, he is a man who could have succeeded either in his home country or any other, for a study of his life record reveals the possession of those qualities that make for success in any environment, and he is now one of the substantial citizens of a community which holds high rank in the list of foremost countries in the Union. He is a native of Greene township, Wayne county, where he first saw the light of day May 19, 1861, the son of Samuel and Catherine (Naftzinger) Yoder, the former native of Mifflin county, Pennsylvania, and the latter was born in Germany. For a full history of the subject's ancestry the reader is directed to the sketch of M. P. Yoder, appearing elsewhere in this volume, and owing to its completeness there, it is deemed unnecessary to repeat it here. Suffice it to say that they were people of the highest integrity and were prominent in their neighborhood.
John A. Yoder received only a common school education in his native community, having worked on the home farm during the major part of the year until he reached maturity. He began doing little chores about the place when he was a very small lad, remaining under the parental rooftree until he was twenty-one years of age. He then turned his attention to the West and went to Johnson county, Missouri, while yet a single man. He formed a matrimonial alliance with Sarah Neuhauser in the month of January, 1885. She was a native of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and the daughter of C. B. and Catherine (Stolzfus) Neuhauser, both natives of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, who later went to Knox county, Tennessee, where they still reside. To Mr. and Mrs. Yoder three children have been born, namely: Crissie, Nellie and Roy.
After the year 1885 Mr. Yoder lived in Johnson county, Missouri, where he became the owner of an excellent piece of land,consisting of eighty acres of prairie ground, on which he resided for a period of eleven years, prospering by reason of his good management. But his old home in Wayne county, Ohio, still had its allurements and he was never wholly satisfied away from it, so in 1896 he came back to his native community and purchased thirty acres of land where he now lives in Wayne township, known as the Joseph Blocker place. It was badly run down when Mr. Yoder took possession of it, but he has made many valuable improvements and is making a comfortable living on the same. He is a man who takes no special interest in public affairs, never aspiring for office, merely voting the Republican ticket on election days. He and his wife are members of the Amish Mennonite church at Oak Grove, Greene township.
From The History of Wayne County, Ohio, Vol. 1, B. E. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, 1910