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J. S. YAROUS

A man who has earned well-merited success and at the same time has established himself in the good graces of his fellow citizens is J. S. Yarous, one of Union township’s best known citizens and whose family has long been influential in Fayette county, Iowa, and Knox county, Ohio, he himself being a native of the latter, having been born there August 7, 1853. He is the son of Charles and Katherine (Peters) Yarous, the former having been born in Germany and the latter in Pennsylvania. The paternal grandfather of the subject was Fred Yarous, who spent his life in the fatherland. The maternal grandparents, Christian and Susan Peters, were also natives of Germany, and they came to America in an early day, first settling in Pennsylvania, and in 1859 came on to Iowa and settled in Clayton county, where they took up forty acres of land, but later moved to the southern part of the state where Mr. Peters died; his widow removed to Fayette county and died here at the advanced age of ninety-five years.

When a young man Charles Yarous, father of J. S. of this review, came to America and settled in Ohio and there followed farming until he moved to Clinton county, Iowa, where he took up three hundred and thirty acres of land which he improved and on which he lived until his death, and on which his widow still lives with a host of friends. To Mr. and Mrs. Charles Yarous ten children were born, all sons but one. The father of these children lived a quiet life, never seeking public display. He was a member of the Evangelical church and was a good man in his every day life.

J. S. Yarous was educated in Clayton County, this state, attending the common schools and receiving a fairly good education. He worked on his father’s farm when a boy, in fact he has always followed farming, and he has been unusually successful in its various phases and also in stock raising. He became the owner of six hundred and forty acres in Clayton county, on which he carried on general farming, and he still owns one hundred and twenty acres there. In 1903 he moved to Fayette county, Iowa, and bought the Fuller farm in the edge of West Union, this farm of three hundred and thirty acres being one of the model places in the county. He has brought it up to the standard in the way of improvements and everything on it indicates that a gentleman of excellent taste, good judgment and industry has its management in hand. Mr. Yarous has a splendid and beautifully located dwelling, large and commodious outbuildings, good orchard and all that goes to make a desirable farmstead. He handles a good grade of livestock and no small part of his annual income is derived from this source, he being an excellent judge of stock and knowing how to best prepare them for market.

Mr. Yarous was married in June, 1879, to Rebecca Doty, the daughter of an influential old family, and to this union the following children have been born: Artha, Blanche, Clifton, Mary, Rebecca, Jerome, Jacob, Cornelius (deceased), Cornelia, James and Susan.

Fraternally, Mr. Yarous belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America, and, politically, he is a Republican, and he has long taken more or less interest in political affairs, but has been too busy with his individual business to seek office; however, he served very acceptably as school director while living in Clayton county, Iowa, and also as road overseer. He and his family are pleasant and popular in this vicinity.

~transcribe for Fayette Co IAGenWeb Project by Kathy Moore