When Rev. Cornelius Yager passed away, at the residence of Mrs. Sarah Coldwell [sic, Caldwell], in the city of Fresno, Cal., July 13, 1895, California lost one of its most distinguished citizens, and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church one of its most consecrated pioneers. He was better known to the masses, and certainly more beloved, than the great majority of our civil officers, including governors, statesmen and diplomats, since the year 1850. He won his fame by an untiring presentaion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people, and won their hearts by a life that daily exemplified the claims of our holy religion. His spiritual children are numbered by thousands, embracing all denominations; his friends by tens of thousands, including all races and classes. The death of no man was more generally mourned.

Rev. C. Yager was the son of Ananias and Rachel Yager, having a brother older and a sister younger than himself. He was born near Springfield, Ky., August 12, 1811. His mother reared him very tenderly, teaching him the vital principles of spiritual religion, and which he observed to his dying day. She died before he reached his 13th year, and his father passed away two years afterward. Being left without parental care, he frequently changed his place of abode, and had no place he could call home, yet the early impressions were not marred by contact with the changing and cruel circumstances of the world.

Early in January, 1833, he was married to Miss Susan Frances Berry, daughter of Francis and Elizabeth Berry. On June 10, 1833, to use his own words, "I was born again of the spirit of God. My conversion I never doubted. I am just as certain of my conversion as I am of my own existence." Near this time he was raised a Master Mason. In the month of August, 1833, hearing of the meetings being held by some of our fathers, and, having learned something of our doctrines, with his young wife, he rode over forty miles to services, and connected himself with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He has been a consistent member, and, most of the time, a wise presbyter, during all these years. He has lived in entire harmony with the church, heartily embracing all her doctrinal positions; never had a church difficulty with any of his brethren, never had a church trial, and died as he lived--at peace with God and all men. In 1833 he was made a ruling elder in the church, in 1836 was taken under the care of the Presbytery, which body at once licensed and sent him into the work of the Gospel ministry. During his long ministry of nearly sixty years, he was never without a pulpit, and only ceased his work, as pastor or evangelist, when compelled to take his bed during his last illness.

In 1836 Father Yager and his wife moved to Jackson County, Mo., hoping to be of service in building up the church in the then West. He remained in Missouri, doing successful work as a minister, until the spring of 1850. Himself and wife had, after much deliberation and prayer, decided that their duty to God and man led them westward, so they determined to start for California in 1850. But, in the summer of 1849, that dreadful scourge of cholera raged from shore to shore, and, after a painful illness, the wife died of that disease on June 16, 1849, leaving him with seven children, ranging in age from sixteen months to thirteen years. Notwithstanding the death of his joble, Christian wife, companion in all the trials and joys of his ministry, Father Yager felt in honor bound to carry out his agreement. So, on April 13, 1850, he started, with a large wagon-train under his care, from West Port, Mo, and arrived, after a most dangerous and trying journey of five months, in Mountain View, September, 1850.

It may be of interest to notice the faith of this man of God. The cholera was behind and before them on their journey, hostile savages had murdered and robbed others all around them, and frequently they passed the bleaching bones of the dead, or met those almost dying under the fearful trials of this wilderness journey. But, morning, noon and night, this preacher of righteousness carried the condition of his company to the throne of grace and left it with the Lord. He took the promises of the 91st Psalm, and called on God to verify them; yea, he rested his hope, his travel, his very soul upon them. The entire train was landed in California without serious illness or death, without much suffering, and without much loss. Surely, God still lives, and loves and guides his servants.

Father Yager's labor as a minister on the Pacific coast began when he landed in Mountain View, Sept. 28, 1850, and continued, within a few days, for forty-five years. And, even in his affliction, forgetting the bodily pain in his great soul-enthusiasm, he ministered to friends and brethren in spiritual things.

He went to Nevada in 1861, which was then a wild country, and stopped for a while in Aurora, where he built up a church and began active services in surrounding neighborhoods. The zeal for sould burned as fire in his very soul. He visited most of the new mining camps, preaching everywhere--in tents, in open air, in private houses, dives, dance halls and saloons. In his ministrations he visited all classes, counseling the prisoner in jail, fallen women and degraded men, standing by the murderer on the gallows to whisper spiritual admonition and prayers for divine mercy, though sustaining human justice, and never wilfully neglecting a soul for whom Jesus died. Glory to God for such a life! No wonder merchant prince and pauper alike wept over his ashes. No wonder old and young loved him. No wonder God honored him with divine power.

Father Yager returned to California in 1868, where he has devoted the rest of his years for Christ and his church. He was present at the organization of the first Presbytery in the State, and has taken active part in every religious movement of the church until the day of death. Besides attending the various church courts with rigid regularity on this coast, he was commissioner to the General Assemblies at Murfreesboro, Tenn., 1869; Evansville, Ind., 1880, and Union City, Tenn., 1890.

The last years of his active life were spent in the great San Joaquin valley, and mostly in Fresno County. Here he traveled from city to village, from communities on the plains to mountain camps or hamlets, from district to district, from home to home, preaching the blessed gospel. In many of these places, strange as it may seem, and only a few years ago, he found men and women from sixteen to forty years old who had never heard a gospel sermon nor attended divine services. And, even while very feeble, I have known him to drive in his buggy nearly fifty miles to be with brethren in sore afflictions, to minister to the dying, or perform the sacred sacraments of the church. Indeed, until last January he kept up his regular preaching appointments, and would not surrender his charges until weary nature could no longer respond to his iron will or great soul. He fell asleep at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Sarah Coldwell, [sic: Caldwell] who, for fifty years, had endeavored to take the place of her sainted mother in sharing the trials and sacrifices in Father Yager's life. A worthy daughter of a sainted minister, and to whom the church owes a debt of gratitude that cannot be paid on this earth.

A few words in regard to the closing hours of this grand life. With his hand in mine, and his eyes heavenward, slowly and reverently, Father Yager said: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness." "I am still trusting my Savior." "I feel myself ready to be offered up, and the time of my departure is at hand." He looked upon death as a great blessing, because it would release a tired spirit from bodily pain, and give in return the perennial life-pleasures of heaven; hence, he once joyfully exclaimed: "Oh, God, our Heavenly Father, I think thee that I was born to die." When he spoke of the heaven-coming, his eyes sparkled with the light of glad joy. He dwelt upon the pleasure of meeting the wife of his youth, who had gone to heaven forty-five years before, of his reunion with the fathers and brethren who had shared the trials and sacrifices of the early ministry of our church with him, but, most of all, that glad time of meeting the blessed Savior, who had pardoned his sins sixty years and more ago, and who had gloriously kept his promise, "Lo, I am with you always."

Thus passed away one of the best men in Cumberland Presbyterian history--as pure a man as lived on earth, and as earnest a preacher as ever traveled these Western slopes--a man of God, who, amid the cravings and fever of god excitements, the fires and hate of civil strife, and, despite social, political and financial crises and revolutions, knew but one theme: "Jesus Christ, and him crucified." Rest in peace, our sainted father, but may the Lord let thy mantle fall on the present ministry. Again I say, Glory to God for such a life.

Fresno, Cal.
[Source: The Cumberland Presbyterian, October 3, 1895, pages 15-16.]

The subject of this sketch was born near Springfield, Ky., Aug. 12, 1811. He was the second of three children--two sons and a daughter--born to Ananias and Rachel Bromfield Yager. His parents were of German extraction, and devout Presbyterians. They reared their children very carefully, and early committed them to the care and protection of the Heavenly Father. The result of their training and influence is seen in the lives and characters of their children. James B. Yager, the elder son, held the office of under-sheriff in his native county before he attained his majority. He was afterward justice of the peace, then a legislator for four years, and then county judge of Jackson County, Mo., which office he held until his death. He was for many years a ruling elder in the church of his choice. The daughter, Mary E., who was several years younger then Cornelius, became afterwards Mrs. Lobb, and died near Independence, Mo., honored and loved as a most charitable Christian woman. Soon after the birth of this daughter the mother of these three children was stricken with consumption. Realizing soon afterward that death had marked her for his prey, she resolved to spend her remaining days upon earth in supreme motherly devotion to the spiritual interests of her children. She would every day take them separately into her room and faithfully teach them the things pertaining to godliness and true holiness, and then commit them to God in earnest prayer. The impressions made upon those child-hearts in those hours with mother and God were never effaced, and the seed sown has richly yielded the hundred fold.

Before Cornelius reached his thirteenth birthday this godly mother passed to her reward. Her death broke up the family. The daughter went to live with an aunt; the elder son, already entering upon his life of public service, was away from home, and Cornelius and his father were left alone at the now desolate home. Seeking relief from the oppressive loneliness that now pressed upon him as a mighty burden, the father determined upon a business venture down the river to Vicksburg. Accordingly all their personal effects were loaded in the boat for the trip, and the father and son were to start next day. Before that day dawned another great calamity came to this motherless boy,--to its light he awoke to find his father cold in death, and he realized himself, more than ever, alone in the world. A guardian was appointed for the lonely boy and he was apprenticed to a blacksmith, at which trade he worked for one year. After that he engaged with a river boar captain who had a contract with the government for work on the river channel. This was a very rough experience, and would have led to his undoing had it not been for the remembrance of his mother, and, as he often said, God's answer to her faithful prayers. Returning from this perilous venture, he went to his grandfather's home, where he remained until he was married, at the age of 21, to Miss Susan Frances Marion Berry. This occurred Jan. 8, 1836, and with his bride he moved at once into the home where his parents had lived. The summer following his marriage (Aug. 10, 1833,) he was graciously converted. This experience of divine grace, and its corroboration of his knowledge of the scriptures, pressed home upon his soul the glorious doctrine of the unlimited atonement, and he went forty miles into another county to unite with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, in whose membership he continued with unswerving faithfulness until the day of his death.

In the early fall of 1836 he with his family moved to Jackson County, Mo., settling near Independence. Having been made a ruling elder soon after his conversion, he and his wife entered zealously into the work of the church in that then frontier country. He became a candidate for the ministry under the care of Lexington Presbytery, at Independence, Mo., Oct. 4, 1843. He was licensed to preach at Clinton, Mo., April 7, 1845. He labored in the bounds of this presbytery and under its orders among the Indians and elsewhere for five years as a licentiate. On March 20, 1850, the presbytery being in session at Lexington, Mo., he was ordered to preach a trial sermon for ordination, from Jer. xvii. 9, which he did on the 21st, and on the 22d he was ordained, Rev. R. D. King preaching the sermon, from 2 Cor. v. 20, and Rev. N. W. Calhoun giving the charge. He was granted a letter of dismission on the day of his ordination, and soon after (April 13, 1850) started "across the plains" by wagon train.

During his stay in Missouri he buried two children, and on June 16, 1849, while he was laboring as a missionary to the Delaware Indians, his faithful wife was stricken down with cholera. Thus bereft he undertook the tedious journey overland to California with seven helpless children. He arrived at the place where Mountain View, Cal., now stands, Sept. 28, 1850, and at once began work as a consecrated minister of the gospel, preaching the first Protestant sermon in the now famous Santa Clara Valley. With Revs. J. E. Braley and Wesley Gallimore he organized California Presbytery, April 4, 1851. In June of that year he organized Union (Mountain View) congregation, now the oldest of our churches in California. Oct. 11, 1860, he participated in the organization of Sacramento, now Pacific Synod. The next year he went as a missionary to Nevada, remaining seven years. As his work there was altogether among the miners, no permanent organizations resulted from it. Returning to California in 1868, he entered actively into the work of the church and continued therein until January, 1895, when for the first time in a long and eventful life as a minister of the gospel he relinquished regular ministerial work. From this time he went into a decline, and the disease from which he had long though patiently suffered soon wrought its work, and this noble veteran of the cross fell asleep in Jesus at the home of his daughter Mrs. Sarah E. Caldwell, in Fresno, Cal., Aug. 13, 1895. Requiescat in pace.

Mountain View, Cal.
[Source: The Cumberland Presbyterian, July 23, 1896, pages 5-6.]

Rev. Cornelius Yager died in Fresno, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Sarah E. Caldwell, on the 12th inst., at the advanced age of 84 years. He was troubled with diabetes and a complication of diseases, but the infirmities of old age were the direct cause of his death. Father Yager was at one time a prominent resident of this county. In 1856 and 1857 he served as county clerk, and in1860 he was elected member of the Legislature. He was well known by the older residents of the county and very much respected.

The funeral services were held in the Advent church in Fresno on Monday, and were largely attended. The services were conducted by four Cumberland Presbyterian ministers, the sermon being by Rev. Johnson. The services at the grave were conducted by the Masonic order.

The following sketch of Rev. Yager's life we clip from the Fresno Republican. We desire to correct two errors which it contains. He married Miss Susan Frances Berry, not Miss Lamb; his grandchildren and great grandchildren number fifteen instead of fourteen, District Attorney O. Y. Brown of Martinez being one of his grandchildren:

Cornelius Yager, or "Father Yager," as he was more commonly known, was born in Kentucky in 1811. His parents were Americans, of German extraction.

After his marriage to a Miss Lamb, [note correction above] Father Yager settled in Missouri, in a section of what was then Indian territory, not far from the present city of Independence.

Mrs. Yager died there in 1849, leaving four children, Frank, John G., Sarah and Mary. All these are living and reside in this State. John G. has been teaching school on Pipe Ridge; Frank lives at Lafayette, Contra Costa county; Mary (Mrs. M. E. Brown) lives at Martinez, Contra Costa county, and Sarah (Mrs. Caldwell) resides in this city.

Frank has eleven children, all girls; John G. has a boy and a girl, and Mary has a son, Dr. Brown of Selma, who also has a son, so that the veteran leaves fourteen [note correction above] grandchildren and one great grandchild.

Father Yager is a pioneer of California. He came to this State in 1850, and was at one time county clerk of Contra Costa county. He afterwards resided successively in San Joaquin county, Santa Clara, Tulare and Fresno counties.

He was a member of Fresno lodge F. & A. M., and of Trigo chapter Royal Arch Masons.

Most of Father Yager's time was passed in missionary work in the foothills, where he was known in nearly all the valley counties. He was of magnificent physical constitution, and over six feet tall.

His life was marked by a singular exemption from the self-indulgence of the pioneers who accompanied him. He was temperate in all things, and was noted for a steadfast devotion to mission work that took no note of physical weariness or alternations of heat and cold. He was always at his post wherever his duty called him.

He mostly traveled in a buggy through the foothills, but his erect, stalwart form might quite as often been seen striding over the country, as if fatigue were a thing unknown, long after he had passed his 70th year.

A curious incident in the close of the veteran's life was that he had proved uphis claim as one of the heirs to an estate in Germany valued at $50,000,000, and which is now at the Bank of Hamburg awaiting settlement.

Father Yager has been a remarkable man, and his people have been remarkable for a century or more. The name of Yager is a frequent one in the early history of Kentucky, when such men as Boone, Kenton, McGary, Harrod, Logan, Bowman, and many others, were holding the frontier against the Indians and the British from the north, and the Spaniards from the south.

That State, well-named "The Dark and Bloody Ground," was held for the cause of liberty and civilization by heroes who should rank equal to those who fought at Bunker Hill or Eutaw Springs. From 1773 till 1790 Kentucky was an incessant battlefield, the war for independence raging in the remote wilderness with greater fury than around Boston or Philadelphia, because Kentucky was the objective point of the hordes of Indians armed and sent on the war path by British emissaries.

It is worthy of note that among the very first white men to set foot on Kentucky soil was George Yager, of whom Father Yager is a descendant. The date when he first saw Kentucky, as captive of the Indians, is not known, but as early as 1773 he was making his second journey there, descending the Ohio river in company with Simon Kenton and Simon Girty, two men famous, the first for his bravery and worth, the latter because, like Benedict Arnold, he turned traitor, went over to the Indians, and became the most relentless enemy of the white men in all frontier history.

Yager and Kenton soon parted company with Girty, who shortly after joined the Indians. It may be mentioned as a point in history that this same Simon Girty carried the last hostile British flag that waved over the United States during the Revolutionary War. It was shot from his hands by a rifleman during the siege of Fort Henry on the Ohio river, September 15, 1782.

Yager and Kenton, after parting with Girty, proceeded down the Ohio river to Kentucky in 1773. They joined Boone, and afterwards saved his life when he was surrounded by Indians. The story of that romantic time is filled with the deeds of bravery of these men; and special interest is given to the events of this time from the fact that the oldest descendant of one of these old Kentuckians ended a long and useful life here.
[Source: Contra Costa Gazette (Martinez, California), July 20, 1895]