Samuel I. Yarnell

    Samuel I. Yarnell, M. D., a prominent practicing physician of Ooltewah, was born in Hamilton (now James) County, December 30, 1852. He is the eldest of five children of Dr. Jackson B. and Sophronia T. Yarnell. The father was of English descent, born in Knox County about l8l5. For more than twenty years he was a practicing physician.. He was a believer in the doctrines of the Baptist Church , and was a Whig. His death occurred in 1865 at Nashville , whither he had gone to be treated for paralysis. His ancestors came to America with William Penn. The mother of our subject, is of Irish extraction, born in Hamilton County, Tenn., about 1832. She was married in her native County, in 1850. She is a resident of James County, and a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. The subject of our sketch received an excellent education at Sequatchie College . In 1874 he was elected circuit court clerk of James County, and re-elected in 1878 and 1882. September 25, 1886, he became the Democratic nominee for joint representative of Rhea, Meigs and James Counties. He was defeated by only forty-nine votes, although the Republican nominee for governor carried the three counties by 253 majority. Subject devoted his spare time to the reading of medicine under Dr. T. H. Roddy. In 1878-79 he attended a course of medical lectures at the Vanderbilt University ; the fall of 1886 he returned to the university, and in the spring of 1887 received his diploma as an M. D. Since that time he has been actively engaged in the practice of his profession at Ooltewah. He is an esteemed and worthy member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.

“Goodspeed’s History of East Tennessee,” James County , 1887.