Clarence Yonk Biography



As published in
"The City of Kenosha and Kenosha County Wisconsin: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement"
by Frank H. Lyman Vol. 2, The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, 1916.




Clarence Yonk, who is successfully engaged in general merchandising in Woodworth and also owns land within the town limits, was born in Amsterdam, Holland on the 13th of December 1869, a son of Henry and Annie (Dexter) Yonk, who emigrated to the United States and located at Union Grove, Wisconsin, when our subject was but three and a half years old. He entered the public schools at the usual age and devoted much of his time to the acquirement of an education until he was fifteen years old. For the following nine years he worked as a hired hand but at the end of that time rented one hundred and sixty acres in Bristol Township which he cultivated for three years. For a similar period of time he operated an eighty-acre farm belonging to a Mrs. Joslyn and then rented two hundred and forty acres of L. P. Devlin. After farming that place for five years he purchased eight acres of land in Woodworth. In addition to cultivating this he ran a threshing machine for three years, but at the end of that time disposed of his outfit and built a business block, in which he has since conducted a general store. His stock is selected with a view to the needs of his community and as his business policy is liberal and reliable, and he has built up a good patronage.

Mr. Yonk was married on the 23d of November, 1893, to Miss Anna Lindquist, a daughter of Victor and Johanna Lindquist, natives, respectively, of Sweden and Denmark. In 1869 they came to the United States and located in Pleasant Prairie Township, Kenosha County, Wisconsin, but after farming for four years the father went to Truesdell and built a feed mill patterned after the mills of Holland. He operated this for many years and it became one of the landmarks of the locality. He died in 1905 but was survived by his wife until 1912. Both are buried in the cemetery at Kenosha. They were the parents of four children, namely: Victoria, now the wife of John Clausen; Sarah, deceased; Anna; and Oscar, a resident of Laporte, Indiana, who married Miss May Bronson, a native of London, England. Mr. and Mrs. Yonk have two children, Jessie and Grace Victoria.

Mr. Yonk is an advocate of Republican principles, but believes that the qualifications of a candidate are of greater importance than his political allegiance and accordingly votes independently. He is identified with the Masons at Bristol and belongs to the Modern Woodmen. He has demonstrated his enterprise and sound judgment, for he began his career empty-handed and has through his own unaided efforts gained a substantial measure of prosperity.

Typed by: Michelle Laycock