Alexander P. Yates (abt. 1808 - aft. 1880)

Born about 1808 in Morgan, Tennessee, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Easter McGuffey — married about 1823 in Tennessee, United States

Descendants

Died after 1880 after about age 72 in Gravelly, Yell, Arkansas, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: John Yates [send private message]

Biography

Alexander P Yates was born around 1808 in Grainger, Tennessee (Res. Notes 1, 2). He was a son of Benjamin Yates and his wife, who came from the “Shenandoah German” families, Arnwine, Cabbage, and Beeler, who were close neighbors in Grainger. Compelling genetic evidence links Alexander P to both parents (Res. Notes 3, 4).

Not long after 1810, the family moved to White Co., Tennessee, along the Caney Fork River. In 1820, Alexander was probably the boy of age 10-14 (rather than his brother, Benjamin D, who was the first to go to Missouri), and the eldest son still at home. Alexander would soon come of age and own land next to his father’s, touching the north bank of the river. Alexander’s and Benjamin’s land was sold in one transaction in April, 1824, 100 acres in all (see record image). Benjamin was moving his family west into Warren Co, while Alexander had probably headed north already.

In 1820, Alexander’s future father in-law, Edmond McGuffey, had his family in Smith County, north of Warren. The Caney Fork River valley turns north in Warren and leads to Smith Co, or what is now Dekalb. Alexander’s younger brother, Arwine, took this path and married there in the late 1830s. This is probably where Alexander met Easter McGuffey (1806-1863) and married in the early 1820s. However it happened, by 1830 the McGuffeys had moved east to Morgan Co, where Alexander and Easter lived near them, already with four sons of their own (1830 Census, below).

Alexander’s closest brother in age was Benjamin D Yates, who was the first in the family to move west, to the Gasconade Valley in Missouri. Benjamin D was on the sparsely populated 1830 census, with his wife (Millie Crider) and young children. By 1840 their father, Benjamin W Yates, had move his remaining family there, as had his eldest, Washington Yates. The 1840 census record for Alexander hasn’t been found, but Alexander was in Gasconade in early 1841 for the birth of his son, Riley V, who reported his birth there. In early 1842, Alexander served as a security to settle the estate of Benjamin D, who died in Gasconade before reaching the age of 40 (record attached). Diseases of the area, specifically yellow fever, took a toll and drove some settlers to return east.

These were frontiersmen though, and by the late 1840s they had moved further west. While Alexander’s 1850 census record hasn’t been located, he had settled in the northwest corner of the state, in Gentry or what would become Worth County. Families of two David brothers moved there by 1850, as did other neighbors from Gasconade. Alexander’s sons James and Andrew married David daughters there, around 1847 and 1853.

Sons James and Andrew got land and farmed in Gentry (Worth) County in the 1850s, as did son a younger son Thomas Benton by 1860. Son James left for southwestern Missouri by 1860. Andrew moved to Arkansas after the Civil War, by 1868, and the youngest son, Riley V, married in 1867 and went to Kansas with in-laws.

Easter is said to have died in 1863, presumably buried on Alexander’s farm in Worth. Alexander’s 1870 census entry shows him with a Nancy Yates, born in Virginia, age 54, by all appearances his second wife. Nancy may have passed away in a few years. In 1876 Alexander sold the last of his land in Worth and in 1880 was with his son Andrew near Gravelly, Yell, Arkansas. (See Land and census records, below.) Alexander passed away in 1884 and was buried at Parks Cemetery, Nola, Arkansas, several miles from Gravelly.

Children

Sons, James, Andrew, Thomas Benton, and Riley V, are the only known children of Alexander P Yates and Easter McGuffley. Because Alexander P’s census records of 1840 and 1850 have not been found, we don’t know how many children they had, or whether the two sons who were age 5 or older in 1830 survived to 1840. Two men, William B Yates, b ~1825, and Joshua Yates, b 1833, who lived in Gentry, Mo., have been nominated as sons of Alexander P. Joshua was clearly a son of Levi Yates (1800- ) and his wife Celia, from North Carolina, and William B probably was as well (Res. Note 5, below).

• James Yates, Reverend (~1829-1916), born in Morgan Co., Tennessee; died in Pulaski Co., Missouri. Married Sarah Anna David (1828-1873); 6 children.
• Andrew Jackson Yates (1829-1884), born Tennessee, probably in Morgan Co.; died in Yell Co., Arkansas. Married Martha Elizabeth David (1830-1897); 4 surviving, known children.
• Thomas H Benton Yates (1841-1918), born in Gasconade Co., Missouri; died in Howard Co., Missouri. Married first to Minerva Jane Stark (1842- after 1880); 3 children. Second wife, Millie (1855-1916); 3 children.
• Riley V Yates (1844-1907), born in Worth Co., Missouri; died in Hayes, Reno, Kansas. Married Elizabeth Sims (1844-1929); 2 children.

Sources

• Tennessee Land. Entered April 12, 1824, a land survey for Milford Carey’s purchase from Benjamin and Alexander Yates, 100 acres on the north bank of the Caney Fork River in White, Tn. See attached image. Source: Tennessee State Library and Archives; Nashville, Tennessee; Series Number: 03; Series Title: Plats and Surveys.
• Death Certificate of James Yates, from Missouri Govt Records online. Image attached to this profile. Father, Alexander Yates; mother, Easter McGuffie.
• 1830 U.S. Census, Tennessee, Morgan Co. Record & image at Ancestry.com. Alexander Yeates and wife aged 20-29, with 2 boys under 5, 2 boys 5-10, suggesting marriage by 1823. James McGuffie, likely bro in-law, is 4 doors earlier in the list. Three pages later is father in-law Edmond McGuffie, age 50-60, with woman of same age and son 15-20.
• 1842 probate record for estate of Benjamin D Yates, Gasconade, Mo. Alexander P Yates named as a security. See attached image.
• BLM Land Patent, Alexander P Yates of Gentry Co, 20 Feb 1857. Accession Nr: MO4720_.253. See T65N R32W NE1/4 NE1/4 Sec. 26, 40 acres. (This is ~1 mile NW of the tiny town of Worth.) Record online at glorecords.blm.gov.
• Land transactions in Gentry/Worth, Mo, were summarized by Olan Lewis (1932-2008) and Virginia Dean Ralston (1925-2019), second cousins and great grandchildren of Easter “Callie” Yates (Lewis, Simpson), and shared by Matt Ralston: “Along with James and Andrew, his sons, Alex is recorded as having bought land in what is now Worth Co but in 1855 Gentry Co Mo… Nov 1855 deed Gentry Co. Mo. 120 acres for $150 to Alexander P. Yates. 7 Mar 1863 deed from A P & Easter Yates to Andrew J Yates, in Worth Co. Mo.; $450. Warranty Deed 3, Nov 1871, Worth Co. Mo., to A. P. Yates; 20 acres; $240. 27 Oct 1876 sale was recorded of same land for $400.
• 1860 U.S. Census, Missouri, Gentry Co., Twp 65, P.O. Grants Hill. Record and image at FamilySearch. Family 1564: Alexander Yates 50 Tn, Hester 54 NC, Riley 16 Mo. Next door, Fam1565: Benton Yates 19 Mo, Jane 18 In, Nancy 6/12 Mo.

Grants Hill isn’t on the map today, but Grant City is the seat of Worth. Perhaps it became Greene Twp in Worth. In 1850 it wasn’t not part of any county, according to https://mycounties.com/missouri/ In 1860 census though, Allendale was a township of Gentry Co. Allendale is in Worth, east of Grant City. Townships in Gentry in 1860 were Albany, Allendale, Gentryville, and Townships 61 through 66.

• 1870 U.S. Census, Greene, Worth Co. Greene Twp is the SW corner of Worth, bordering Gentry Co. Alexander Yates, age “58”, born in Tennessee, with Nancy Yates, age 54, born in Virginia.
• 1880 U.S. Census, Upper Lafave, Yell, Arkansas. Record and image at Andrew Yates and household. Name relation (age) birthplace: Andrew Yates self (“33”) Tn, Elizabeth wife (“40”) Ind, Alic son (22) Mo, Ludinda dau (18) Mo, Nelly dau (20) Mo, Alic father (69) Tn.
• Find A Grave: Memorial #51604749. See Note 4, below, regarding the parents incorrectly named on the granite grave marker, placed four generations later.

Research Notes

1. Middle Name, Peter or Pleasant?

Some records included a middle initial, P. Two grandsons were Alexander Peter Yates (1854-1937), son of Andrew J, and Alexander Pleasant Yates (1854-1908), son of James. More than 100 years after the death of the elder Alexander P, descendants in the branch of grandson Alexander Peter marked the grave of the elder Alexander with a granite plaque reading, Alexander Peter Yates, which has influenced public trees. Pleasant might have been the middle name, though.

2. Guessing the Year of Alexander’s Birth

Alexander’s age appears to have been reported inaccurately, either when he was young and coming of age or when he was much older. A record at Ancestry.com from a family worksheet gave 1803 for Alexander’s birth year (see source). This seems more plausible than years 1810-12 implied by census records of 1860, 1870, and 1880. An 1830 census listing (see source), very likely to be his, shows Alexander and wife, ages 20-29, with 4 boys, two over age 5, suggesting marriage by 1823 or so. Also, in 1824, land owned by both Alexander and Benjamin Yates, their combined lots of 100 acres, was sold. Alexander couldn’t legally have owned land or married before legal age, 15 in most places. Finally, Benjamin’s 1820 census listing showed a son aged 10-14, who was either Alexander or Benjamin D Yates. We might guess that this was Alexander, because soon he came to own land beside Benjamin’s. ~1808 is a compromise for Alexander’s birth.

3. DNA Evidence

Twenty-eight descendants of Alexander P Yates were found who match descendants of Alexander’s brother, English Lafayette Yates, and descendants of other children of Benjamin Yates. Matches were through several regions on different chromosomes, well triangulated, some that match more distant Yates cousins through Benjamin Yates, and other segments that are from Benjamin Yates’s wife and match cousins from her side, Arnwine, Cabbage, and Beeler. Matches through both Benjamin Yates and his wife make the conclusion compelling. A summary of the large study is here, Research Note 1. A full report should be published later in 2021.

4. An Errant Guess, Engraved in Granite

More than one hundred years after Alexander’s death, a descendant came to believe that Alexander’s parents had been Joseph Arthur Yates (~1770-1829) and Jane Daughtery Yates (~1770-__), of Virginia, who lived in Kentucky. These names were machine-engraved at the bottom of the aforementioned granite plaque placed on Alexander’s grave. There is no reason to suspect that Joseph Arthur ever lived in Tennessee and, likewise, no evidence that Alexander P ever lived in Kentucky. Alexander and his early sons consistently reported being born in Tennessee. Why, then, the wild guess?

There were two coincidences. Firstly, while Joseph was not a family name, Arthur came to be used in one branch. Alexander’s son James had a grandson named James Arthur Lewis (Alexander P’s great grandson) who named a son John Arthur, whose son Olan Lewis researched family history in the late 1900s. It might have been natural for Olan to suppose that his great, great grandfather, the Rev. James Yates, Alexander’s son, also had the middle name Arthur. Posthumous middle names are very common in amateur genealogy. Every record of Rev. James Yates used only his first name, never with a middle initial, and no story about the Reverend mentioned a middle name, but for one which named several, Arthur not among them. See the profile, Note 1, of Rev. James Yates for an amusing (and perhaps as improbable) tale about how Alexander P named him.

Secondly, some have confused Alexander P’s son Andrew Jackson Yates with a different man. The 1860 census listing of Andrew in Gentry, Mo is missing, and his marriage record hasn’t been found. So some have been drawn to the 1860 census listing and marriage record for an Andrew Jackson Yates, born around the same time, who lived in Floyd Co, Kentucky, not far from where Joseph Arthur Yates had lived in Fleming Co., though they probably weren’t related, either. Now, with multiple records just a few clicks away, it’s obvious that this was a different Andrew Jackson Yates.

5. Mistakenly Alleged Children of Alexander P Yates

William B Yates, b ~1825, and Joshua Yates, b 1833, apparently were sons of Levi Yates, b 1800, and his wife Celia "Seely" Durham, who had moved from North Carolina. Putting William B and Joshua as sons of Alexander P and Easter probably was a guess from the 1860 census, when they lived nearby, but Levi Yates and Celia were also nearby, and in 1850, Joshua lived in Levi's home, while William was 2 doors away, and our Alexander P Yates wasn't in their area. Also, no connection through DNA has been found to Joshua and William B Yates.