CONTENTS

• Origins of The Yost Family
• Hans Casper Yost  - History
• Ships Lists - Yost Passengers 1727 – 1775
• The Aunt Mollie Letter
• The Aunt Mollie Tales

If heraldry is considered. as fact origin of the surname, its origination occured in the ranks of the Templars.  The early banner of the Yosts-Josts are of the field of silver, charged with a cross of gold - and a significant one having a third bar to cross in such a manner as to form the Star of the East in its center.

If the structure of the anatomy of our earliest forefathers of record is to determine our earliest known origin, we decended from the "highlanders" who dwelt in the mountainous regions of the Black Forest country and subsequentlymigrated to the Valley of Omaramagrau.  The Yosts of old were·tall, rugged Tuetons, with rounded heads and high fore-heads light of hair and blue of eye - not of the strain of the northern tribes from which the Huns came, those flatheads of Mongol blood.

The inter-mixtures of blood, it is said that the Yosts-Josts preferred their mates from the lowlands, especially those from the valleys of the Rhine and thus came our Dutch strain.  But prior to the Yost migration to America, branches of the family intermarried with French and people from “the British Isles" and many are the drops of blood of Irish, Welch, Scotch as well as English coursing through the veins of the American Yosts.  For a half century the Yost settlers in America intermarried among their own people, but after the Revolutionary War, a few of them mated with German stock.

The earlier American Yosts were farmers by necessity but as soon as they were financially able, they abandoned their farms and moved in to the “market places and opened shops.”  Early records prove that they did not indulge in the art or trading with the Indians or trap for skins; they were born tanners, saddlers, harness makers, waggoners, smithies and expert gunsmiths.  It is not until after 1800 that a Yost is found as a merchant of other wares, or in other sciences and professions.

Our record in patriotism is a glorious one: there is no najor conflict from 1740 to the present, that our Yost family is not included in the rank and file of patriots  "They were not born soldiers, but tenacious fighters for the protection of their peace and the safety·of their·country,"

Our name origin is from the·word Just,  The German modern name is Jost.  But the change of spelling of our name from ''J" to ''Y'' originated in America and was the result of illiteracy of the immigrant Josts and in the ignorance of the early English port registers.  The Jost not being able to write their names, orally names themselves Jost with the pronunciation of the German "J" as· the English “Y”. and thus the English clerk ignorant of German set the name down on the first legal document, their Oath of Allegiance to the·reigning ruler of England, as Yost, and every legal transaction there-after was signed Yost.  With the last Jost who arrived in 1823, to whom this legal change of name was accorded is the last of the name Jost to be so changed.  The Jost who arrived after 1825 and there were but a few who arrived prior to 1850, came over in a more enlightened age and their foreign name was entered as Jost.  It can be said of our name Yost that it was born on September the 18th 1727,  at the Port of Philadelphia  the date of the arrival of the first Jost settler in America of record, and that the legal change of the name Jost ceased with the last Jost that arrived in 1823.

It would seem that if the name Yost, as of English origin, would be found in the early census of England and in the late ones as well, but a careful intensive research has proved that the name Yost was unknown in England prior to 1800 and but three families of that name listed prior to 1925 resided in England and the directory of London for 1927 does not list a Yost.  Whereas, the directories of the.larger cities of the Unites States list about four thousand Yosts in twenty-eight states with Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and California leading the Iist.

There; were only· thirty-two Yosts listed as head of families in the first census of the United States, taken from. 1782 to 1790 residing in the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina,
 

ANCESTRAL HISTORY OF THE YOSTS

The Yost are of Teutonic origin.  Prior to the invention of surnames, our ancient ancestors were called "Strivers of the Just”.  Jodocus the Just, is the earliest record of the family, and it is written that he was living in the mountainous regions of the Black Forest during the ninth century, “a peace-maker” the tribe."  It is not untill the twelfth century that the name appears as the surname Jost, Joust and Jobst in southern Germany, Bavaria and Ober Valley.  In the fourteenth century, a Jost is in the royal family of the Hesse-Cassels, as a Count, and Count Jost's grandson of direct inheritance "became the Baron Von Rosenberg.  But a record said of this Baron, he was the last male·descendent of his line''.  In the seventeenth century, the name appears more frequently in  the provinces along the Rhine, especially the Upper Rhine, in the historical annals of the Protestant Reformation period.

Our earliest related family history dates into a Jacob Joust, who was born prior to 1634 and died prior to 1707.  Be was a "Burgesse" in the District of Meintz, in the Duchy of Franconia.  Related to him was a wife called, Rachel and sons Jacob and Peter.  Jacob, son of Jacob, appears in a record dated 1710 as a member of a Protestant Colony· in Franconia with wife Chartharine and sons Christian and Klaus (Nicklaus).   In 1714, Christain and Klaus are recorded in a religious migration to the Kingdom of Wurtemberg and in 1727-28, they·are named in a "war on the Protestants" in Emmen Valley of Switzarland "near Lagnau".  In this record it mentions that Christian is killed, his wife, Barbara, imprisoned at Berne where shortly after she died, and the land and property of Christian was confiscated leaving his children destitute.  At a meeting early in 1728, held at Berne, Switzeriand, a resolution was passed to "transport these provident and destitute religous agitators to a Dutch port for tranrsport to England".  Queen Anne of England had issued a proclamation offering religious freedom to all the persecuted religious refugees along the Rhine, in her American Colonies. In the list of impoverished religious agitators pf the Emmen Valley Valley were given the sons and daughters of Christian with their ages: Jacob, age 18; Gasper, age 16; Chartharine, age 14; Heinrich, age 11; Barbara, age 8; and John, age 4.

The Dutch and English histories describing the immigration of the German and Swiss immigrants to America, relate that thousands upon thousands of these harassed and distressed people flocked to the Dutch ports for passage to England.  Their history consumes volumes of records that according to the historian, Eshelmann “are the darkest pages of the annals of Christian people”.  Even after every available ship was pressed into service to relieve the stress of ever increasing horde of these “Palatines”, hundreds died from exposure and starvation in Holland and England, awaiting transportation to America.  In the effort to relieve the situation, many were bound out as servents in England and as early American immigration records do not list a female Yost, it can be construed that they remained in England, for a record says “these German and Swiss females are industrious housekeepers”.  Another record states that the Palatine females on marrying were freed of their bondage.

The settlement of the Fennsylvania German forms an epic tale of faith and zeal, of sacrifice and achievement in the development of America.  The story has been told and the Pennsylvania German Pioneers have come into their rightful place as builders of our nation.

The land that came to be known as Pennsylvania was granted by King Charles II of England to William Penn in 1681 in exchange of a debt of 16,000 pounds which the British Crown owed to Penn's father.  It was the largest tract ever granted in America to a single individual, he had simple title to more than 60,000 square miles of territory.  Under his Charter, Penn was governor of the Province, which he and his sons held as proprietaries, with the exception of about two years under William III, until the Revolution of 1776.  Pennsylvania was not a colony of any foreign power, as a British subject Penn owed his allegiance to the crown while the government of.Pennsylvania was proprietary in form, it was English in substance and all non-British subjects were known as foreigners.

In order to obtain settlers for his land, Penn visited the Rhine Provinces, whose once peaceful valley's, thriving fields and vine clad hills had become the hunting ground of political and religious fanatics, Penn and his agents told the news of his acquisition and invited the Rhinelanders, the suffering Palatines, to help him found a State in which religious and civil liberty would prevail.  From the Germantown settlement in 1683, to the revolution a large scale immigration followed.

When the pioneers arrived, Pennsylvania was in the hands of British subjects.  Penn's agents were Englishmen, the English language was used; English Common law was in force.  It soon became a matter or concern to these Englishmen that such a large body of Continentals, speaking another language and accustomed to another form of government, should be admitted to the land, even though they came at the invitation of Penn, himself.

In 1727, the Provincial Council, passed a law requiring  all Continentals who arrived at Philadelphia to take oaths of allegiance to the British Crown.  Two years later they were required to take oaths of abjuration and fidelity to the proprietor and laws of the province.  The oaths were administered and subscribed to before public officials.

These immigrant ancestors of ours came not to a ready-made republic of opportunity but to a virgin land inhabited by savages. Many were men of eminence in the father-land, others came up from the penury and virtual slavery of the redemptioner system.  Together they worked, fought and won America's battles and led in public service, industry, science, education, invention and in the art; of agriculture which is the foundation of our national wealth and of human progress.

The journey to Pennsylvania was not an easy journey.  This journey began in May and ended in October, fully half a year amid much hardship.  The Rhine boats had to pass 26 custom houses, where the ships were examined as it suits the convenience of the customhouse officials.  The ships were detained long and the passengers had to spend much money.  The trip down the Rhine took from four to six weeks before arriving at Holland where they were detained from five to six weeks, while the ships were waiting to be passed through the custom-house or waiting for favorable winds.  Unless they had the right winds the ships sailed from eight to twelve weeks before reaching Philadelnha.  Even with the best wind the voyage lasted seven weeks.

The passengers being packed densely, without proper food and water were soon subject to all sorts of disease, such as, dysentery, scurvy, thyphoid and small-pox.  The children were the first to be attacked and died in large numbers.  The terrors of disease, were much aggravated by frequent storms through which ships and passeneers had to pass.

One ship after another arrived in the port of Philadelphia just when the rough and severe winter was before the door.  One or more merchants received a list of the freights and the agreement which the emigrants signed in their own hand in Holland, as well as the bills for their travel down the Rhine and the advances of the new-landers for provisions they received on the ships "on account".  Formerly the freight for a single person was six to ten Louis d'ors, but now it amounts to fourteen to seventeen Louis d'ors (the equivalent of the Louis d'or is about $4.50, though its purchasing power at that time was much greater).

According to the law in force before the ship is allowed to cast anchor at the harbor, the passengers are all examined by a physician, as to whether any contagious disease exists among them.  Then they are led in procession to the City Hall and must render the oath of allegiance to the king of Great Britain.  After that they are brought back to the ship.  Then announcements are printed in the newspapers, stating how many of the new arrivals are to be sold.  Those who still had money were released.  The ships became the market place.  The buyers made their choice among the arrivals and bargains with them for a certain number of years and days.  They are taken to the merchant, where their passage and other debts are paid and receive from the government authorities a written document which makes the newcomers their property for a definite period.  In a few years of service, in spite of all difficulties and hardships, they emerged as successful farmers.  It only shows of what sturdy stock these pioneers were made.

Nearly 50,000 embarked for the land of Penn, nearly 20,000 who sailed died at sea, the remainder reached their goal.  Southeastern Pennsylvania was settled almost exclusively of Swiss and German settlers.  They filled the valleys of Susquehanna and Schuylkill and their tributnries.  Before the Revolwtion some moved down the Shenandoah, crossed the Alleghenies and into the Cumberland.  They multiplied and drifted into the Ohio valley and at the beginning of the 19th century they settled in lower Canada.  They also went into Indiana, Illinois region, Kansas and the Dakota section and the northwest.  Their descendents moved into all the vast area of middle-west and far-western America as well as eastern America.

The Swiss and German labored under many problems and difficulties which people of today would find it hard to believe.  They were foreigners and as such were held in disfavor by the English government of this providence even though Penn gave them a special invitation to come and settle here.  The Swiss and Germans were hard workers and by being thrifty they began to make progress and money and were looked upon with jealousy by other settlers among them.  It is believed that the noble life and struggles of the Swiss and Germans of eastern Pennsylvania, and especially of Lancaster County, were the very backbone of Industrial Lancaster County.

They were persecuted for their religious faith for many years in their homeland and in this new land.  The were known by their plain dress, moral life, their temperate living and their refusal to take part in government and oaths.  They did not believe in infant baptism, transsunstantiation fors, war or political affairs, as far back as 1009, they were called Anabaptists, Waldenseans and many suffered martyrdom for their faith. In 1203, these Anabaptists or Waldenseans had the Holy Scriptures translated into their own language and they did not practice any other doctrine.  They carefully followed the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount.

Ernest Muller tells that among the Mennonite families living in and around Langnau, Switzerland in 1621, were a family of Christian Yost and a daughter of Stinnis Gibbel was living with them, also a Klaus Yost and his wife.  Others by surname of Baumgardner, Probst or Brobst, Moritz, Bichsel or Bixler, Ruch or Reich, Studder (a powerful youth), Utzenberger, Dellenbach, Raeber or Reber, Kreyenbuel or Craybill, Greber or Garber and Rothlispergee.  Among the families of eastern Pennsylvania we find the familiar names of Baumgardner, Probst or Brobst, Ruch, Yost, Raeber or Reber, Kreyenbuel or Graybill, Bixler, Gibbel or Garber.  This shows that some of most families in Switzerland helped to establish the land of Penn.  Muller was a preacher in Langnau and the city had a population of 7,000 about 18 miles directly east of Berne in the Emmen Valley, which extends from the northeast to southeast of Berne.

In 1714 a Barbara Yost from Landau was taken to prison as the government still kept up its persecution of these people.
 

Hans Gasper Yost (Jost) arrived at the Port of Philadelphia on August 17, 1733 at the age of 21 years.  He was a Redemptioner passenger on the Ship Samuel of London, mastered by Huqh Percy.  The ship’s original clearance on this passage, was out of Rotterdam, Holland, with one stop at Deal, London.  It took eleven weeks to cross the Atlantic and en-route forty-one died of a fever said to have been caused by the fouling of drinking water stored in old wine casks.

On arrival at the Delalware River anchorage off Philadelphia, over one hundred immigrants were too sick to land at once, but Hans Gasper Yost was named with one hundred and seventy others, who disembarked on the day of the ship’s arrival and signed the Oath of Allegiance to the King of England.  The first legal document in our American Ancestral Records,

The Ship Saniuel of London was or eighty ton register, about sixty feet long and thirty feet at its widest, in the class of sailing ships of those days, called Brigatines.  The passenger list in its original clearance, records "eighty-six females and eighty-nine males above the age of sixteen, and sixty-two females and fifty-four males under sixteen - in all, two hundred and ninety-one passengers from the Provinces of Franconia, chiefly and from other districts contingent to the Rhine.

Hans Gasper Yost was born in the year 1712, near Meintz, Duchy of Franconia (close to what is now Frankfort-on- the-Main, Germany).  Hans Gasper Yost was bound out to William Moerschel (Marshall) of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and served him two years to redeem his foreign transportation debt.  William Moerschel (Marshall) was the son of Toby Moerschel (Marshall) who immigrated from Holland prior to 1700.  William Marshall had a daughter, Eleanor, who married Casper Yost shortly after his freedom from his redemption.

The first property tax record of Casper is dated 1742, in which year he paid "$l.6.0  on a farm of forty acres, 1 horse and 1 cattle."  In 1756, he and his family abandoned their clearing on account of numerous murdering, burning raids of the Indians.  In 1765, he again flees with his family from “the wholesale slaughtering by the Indians in Lebanon Towne (Township) where all around Yost's Mill were massacred" - and evidently gives up pioneering on farms.  It is stated in this last Indian raid, that Casper "rode the valley warning the approach of the Indians”.   No record could  be found giving the owner of this "Yost Mill” and what Yost family was “wiped out”/  Whether or not Casper and his family suffered any physical harm is not of record.

In 1765, Casper Yost paid a provincial business tax in Lancasterboro, Lancaster County, Pennsylvannia of $4.10.0 as a tanner.  Sometime prior to 1769 or the spring of that year, Casper and family removed to the Antietam Valley of Maryland, no doubt answering the solicitation of Rev. Funk who recently established a church near Eizabeth Towne (now Hagerstown).

On August 16, 1771, Casper purchased from Beatty and Hawkins of Prince George County, Maryland, a lot in the addition to George Towne, Frederick County, subdivided in a tract known as “Knave’s Disappointmet” – being lot no. 88, having a frontage on high street of 90 feet with a variable depth of 150 feet extending toward the Potomac River.  (About 1333 this lot is now being used as an oil station and fronts on Pennsvlvania Avenue, about 50 feet east of the Rock Creek Park bridge, in the business section of Georgetown which is in the western part of Washington, D.C.).

On June 23, 1772, Casper's son, Henry, purchased lot No. 142 in the same tract, adjoining Casper's lot in the rear and bordering on Rock Creek.  This lot was later purchased from Henry by his brother, John, who built on it a furnace and forge for making guns.  The price of both lots was the same, f6 sterling and assuming "an alienation rent of ½ penny per annum".

In the George Towne Hundred census of 1776, the house of Casper is listed as follows:  Casper, age 64; Eleanor, age 58; Tobias, age 21; Susannah, age 17; Philip, age 14.  In the same list, by the same census taker and but one family removed, proving them close neighbors, was Casper's son, John 33; his wife, Rebecca, age 27;  and children, Katherine, age 7; Mary, age 4;  Elizabeth, age 2 and John Jr., age 5.

On August 4, 1777, an inventory of the estate of Casper Yost was filed at George Towne, amounting to f216.10.4.  As such inventories were filed, with few exceptions, within thirty days after death, it can be reasonably presumed that he died in the early part of July.  As the record of his inmigration gave him as 21 on arrival in 1733, he was about 65 years old when he died.

Of his wife, Eleanor, a descendent through her son, John, says that Eleanor died in 1780 at the home of John, in Fairfax Court House, Va., which is a short distance south of the Potomac River from George Towne of that time.  Eleanor's pet name was Patsy.

Miss Rachel A. Yost and concerned related
1008 Penn. Ave. N. E., Wash. D. C.

Dear old young "Aunt Mollie"—

     My Yost gen. Researches of Pr. Geo. Co. Md. Uncovered the following data, part of which proves your agile memory and no doubt some of it will be news even to all you ancients.

     John Yost, the George Town gunsmith, married Rebecca, daughter of Henry & Rebekah Waggoner of Lancasterboro, Pa. Henry Waggoner died in 1781, intestate at Lancasterboro, a widower. John Yost’s brother Henry Yost, gunsmith of Hagerstown, married Mary, daughter of Jacob & Elizabeth Waggoner. Jacob died at Lancaster 1782 and Elizabeth 1792. Henry 1749-1805 & Mary Waggoner Yost 1752-1818 were my gt. gt. grand parents—John 1743-1805 & Rebecca Waggoner Yost 1749—living 1811 but deceased 1815, your ancestor.

     John & Rebecca Yost had seven children in 1783 & 1785. In 1776 their children were—Katherine, age 7, Elisabeth age 2, Martha age 4, and John age 5. Your grandfather Henry Waggoner Yost was age 21 in 1803, therefore born in 1782 and his parents were then living at George Town, Md. that place was Henry’s birthplace. John & Rebecca Yost moved to Alexandria early of 1783.

     When and with whom or by what incentive Henry left Alex. Va. for Bladensburg,Md. is not evident on Pr. Geo. Co. records—altho Rachel Sheriff’s parents moved from Fairfax Co. Va. to Pr. Geo. Co. Md. in 1800—no doubt Henry knew her in Va. & on marrying her at Bladensburg remained there.

     Henry W. Yost m. 3-18, 1804 Rachel Sheriff at Bladensburg.
On Nov. 8, 1836, John Brookes, Esq. – Chief Judge of the Orphens Court of Pr. Geo. Co. Md. authorized Wm. Scott and Benj. Wilson to appraise the estate of Henry W. Yost, deceased, late of Pr. Geo. Co. The appraisement & inventory was taken on Dec. 5, 1836 & sworn to be correct by Rachel Yost, relict of Henry W. Yost — her oath taken on Jan. 15, 1837. Inventory filed Jan. 10, 1837, which fixes Henry’s demise about Oct. 1836. The inventory proves Henry was a blacksmith—I give it in detail as an ancestral document of interest. The sale was confined to the family—no outsiders bidding. Henry W. Yost therefore born 1788, married 1804, died 1836, age 54. Rachel was of lawful age when married (18 in Md.) therefore born 1786 & died as you stated at age 65 in 1852.

Inventory & Appraisement of Henry W. Yost’s estate.

1 cupboard and crock ware ................... $ 10.00
1 desk ......................................    5.00
1 looking glass .............................    1.25
1 Razor Hone & Shaving Apparatus ............    1.50
1 small folding table .......................    1.00
9 chairs ....................................    3.00
1 stove & pipe ..............................    4.00
1 pair candlesticks .........................     .25
5 Pitchers & Flower pots ....................     .68
1 Pair Snuffers & Tray ......................     .25
2 Shovels & Tongs & Hearth Brush ............    2.50
1 Pair andirons .............................     .87
3 Glass lamps ...............................    1.25

7 Window curtains ...........................    5.50
1 Bible .....................................)
3 Candlesticks & Oil Pot ....................)   1.50
*1 Old Sword ................................     .25
1 8 day clock ...............................   25.00
1 old gun ...................................     .50
Lot of Iron, etc., ..........................)
Smith’s Tools ...............................)  17.50
Anvils & Bellows ...............................12.00
                      Total not given.

Widow’s claims not appraised.

Other marriages on file at Marlborough—
John H. Yost 6-21, 1887 Ann Suit dau. of Nathaniel.
    (A Nathaniel Suit m. 1826 Mary Magruder)
John H. Yost 2-15, 1864 Ruth E. Burroughs
Mary Ann " 12-6, 1839 Daniel Barron
Emmiline " 12,22-1852 Geo. W. Taylor
Emma " 10,25-1862 James W. L. Wilson
Emma Jones " 10,6- 1862 Chas. W. Harvey
Mary Susan " 1,26-1852 Richard "
Sarah Yost 5.18-1868 Henry T. Scott
Wm. " 9,15-1877 Elizabeth Barron

In 1812 Thos. Hays, sheriff of Pr. Geo. Co. advertised that Henry W. Yost of Bladensburg was in possession of a stray gelding (Horse), waiting its owner. On 7,7-1818 Henry Yost purchased lot #14 in Bladensberg from the heirs of Adam Craig viz, Chas. Page & wf. Of Alex. Va. for $800 – lot being 120 feet broad & 153 feet deep with buildings thereon. On 11,7,1822 Henry Yost sold to Adam C. Brown for $100 a part of said lot without structures on it.

The estate of John H. Yost, first acct. was filed 2,15,1881 by Augustus Yost & C. C. Magruder. J. H. Y. farmer, died 1879 funeral expenses $110.20, only item.

     2^nd acct. filed 3-15-1881 giving heirs & shares, viz.

Will of Benedict Yost, dated 10.16, 1882 probated 10.16, 1883
  Wf. Elizabeth C.
  Children -- Rachel Amelia, Robt. Vinton, Franklin Pearce, Wm. Henry, Emma Jane, Harvey, Benj. Dallas, John C., & Amos S.

For D. A. R. & S. A. R. memberships

John Yost, patriot.

Made guns, musquettes, cannon & armorial accessories for Maryland militia & Continental line.

Swore to patriot oath of Maryland, 1778 on list of Richard Thompson of George Town, Montgomery Co. Md.

Ref. -- Committee of Safety minutes, Md. Archives. Scharf's Hist. of W. Md. Smithsonian Institute, Indexes, Wash. D. C.

John Yost son of Casper & Elizabeth Yost, was born at Lancasterboro, Pa. 1743 married at Lancasterboro, 1767 Rebecca (Rebekah) Waggoner, d. of Henry & Rebekah Waggoner. From 1770 to 1782 he lived at George Town, now part of Wash. D. C. and had a gunsmithery at First & High Sts, (Now Wisconsin & N. Sts.) In 1783 he moved to Alexabdria, Va. where he died intestate 1806 & buried in Christ Ch. Yard in lot of Jacob Wess, in Alexandria.

1. John Yost 1743--1806, m. 1767 Rebeccak Waggoner 1749-1815.
2. Henry Waggoner Yost 1782--1836, m. 1804 Rachel Sheriff 1786-1851.
3. Benedict Yost as known.

Lt. Henry Yost, bro of John Yost, gunsmith at Hagerstown.

m. Mary Waggoner, d. of Jacob & Elizb. Waggoner,
took Patriot oath of Md. On John Stull's list of Wash. Co.
Com. Lt. 1778 and was in charge of the armory near Harper's Ferry in 1780.
Henry Yost 1749--1803 his wf. 1752-1818.
died Staunton, Va. died Pincastle, Va.

For detailed references-pages & items--go to Congressional Library -- ask for

Benedict Yost -- Lib. WAJJ #1, folio 314.

Note - the historian Taggart states that John & Henry Yost, Md. gunsmiths were the same man, contradicting Sharf. The will of their father Casper Yost who died at Georgetown, Md. 7-29, 1777--dated 6-23 & probated 8.4.1777 at Rockville, Md. -- Lib, A. Folio 14--& estate debts etc. will prove Taggart did not re-search very thouroughly. A Capt. John Harmon Yost died at Middletown, Frederick Co. who used Harmon only, as often as John Harmon in signing deeds from 1763 to 1788 & in his Patriot oath of Md. signed John H. D. Yost. No doubt Taggart got his Capt. John H. mixed up with John & Henry Yost of Md. gunsmiths. Capt. J. H. Y. was a blacksmith & Nailsmith.
 
 
 

The following "tales" were related by "Aunt Mollie" (Rachel Amelia Yost) to Margaret Chenworth when "Aunt Mollie" was about 90 years old. "Aunt Mollie" was the daughter of Benedict Yost and Elizabeth Cloud Benson and also William Henry Yost’s sister, thus she was Margaret’s Great Aunt. Aunt Mollie was born January 28, 1843. There has been no attempt, nor at this date is there any way of verifying the any of these stories or to what extent they may have been embellished over the years. However they have been included here, not as historical fact but as stories that provide an insight into an individual who was one of the true characters of the Yost family and they provide a personal view of times and events that are generally known only from history books.

During the Civil War the Yosts lived near Bladensberg, Maryland. For a time General (Ulysses S.) Grant had his headquarters near Bladensberg. One day Mollie and some others were watching at the target range as some of the officers were taking target practice. One of the officers asked Mollie if she would like to have a try, to which she agreed even though she had never fired a gun. She then proceeded to get a bulls eye on her first shot, but when asked, declined to try and repeat her success. General Grant then gave Mollie his silver plated pistol as a reward for her marksmanship. There is however, no record as to what eventually became of General Grant’s pistol.

In April 1865 Mollie went to Washington DC to visit friends. On the evening of April 18th, she was to return to Bladensberg however was unable to do so and had to remain in Washington because the city had been closed due to the assassination of President Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth.

On one occasion Mollie wanted to attend a dance and asked her father for the money to buy a new dress, however her father refused to give her the money. Since there was quite a big problem with rats, she asked her father if he would pay her for the rats she caught and killed so she could earn the money. When Benedict agreed, Mollie proceeded to hatch her plot. She first obtained some whiskey and then went into the pantry where needles to say the rats were the biggest problem. She then plugged up all of the holes and entryways the rats might use, except one. She then put the whiskey in a dish in the middle of the floor. As they rats came in the drank the whiskey. Mollie then proceeded to use a broom to kill the rats who were too inebriated to find their way out the one remaining hole. Mollie earned enough money to buy her new dress.

Below is a section of one of the last quilts made by Aunt Mollie shortly before her death.

The material contained on these pages is my work and that of other members of the Yost family who have contributed to the family history and archives over the years.  It is intended solely for the use of members of the Yost Family and other researchers.  It may be copied for private use and research, but may not be published or sold for profit without permission.

Patrick Daspit

© Copyright 1996, 1997, 1998
by Patrick Daspit & various members of the Daspit & Yost Families
Almond Press