The success achieved by this stirring young man is evidence of his worth and ability in the agricultural lines, while his excellence in the sawmilling business is equally as signal, having made himself an expert sawyer in following it for a number of years.
Walter E. Yager was born in Hancock County, Illinois, on November 2, 1870, being the son of Cornelius J. and Elizabeth (Pullian) Yager. The father was a farmer, born in 1844, in Illinois, and served under General Sigel in the cavalry of the Civil war. His wife was born in Illinois and did in 1875. Her parents were Kentuckians and pioneers in Illinois. Walter remained in Illinois, where he gained his education, until fifteen, when he came to Union County, Oregon, his father having come in 1882. He at office took up sawmilling and became expert as a sawyer. He followed this steadily until the reservation opened and in 1896 he selected a quarter section near Melrose, and proved up on it on December 7, 1901, having lived steadily there during the intervening time.
On December 31, 1901, Mr. Yager married Miss Lillian, daughter of Jacob and Lucy (Palmer) Goble, the wedding occurring at Lewiston. Mr. Goble was a wagon maker, born in Pennsylvania in 1822. He settled in Kansas in 1857, and his daughter. Naoma, was the first white child born in Marysville, Kansas. In 1862 they came to Walla Walla and took land, and Mr. Goble and his wife are still living. Mrs. Goble was born in New York in 1830. Mrs. Yager was born in Lehigh. Utah, in 1872 and was educated in Marshall County, Kansas. She has the following sisters and brothers: William, in Kansas: Ophelia, in Oregon; Sarah, in Oklahoma: Don, in Lewiston; Anna, in Mount Idaho. Mr. Yager has two half sisters and one half brother.
On January 14, 1898, Mrs. Yager took a claim four miles northwest from Culdesac, where they now live. Mr. Yager handles both this and his own claim. He does a general farming business and raises stock also. He is thrifty, industrious and capable, and is one of the men who has done much for the general up building and progress of the country.
Back to: Nez Perce Biographies
Source: An Illustrated History of Northern Idaho, Embracing Nez Perce, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone Counties, Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903