1890 Buchanan and Delaware Counties History pgs. 375-377
CALVIN YORAN, attorney-at-law, of Manchester, Delaware county, is a native of Herkimer
county, N.Y., a son of Jacob and Mary (Timmerman)Yoran, and a descendant of old York State ancestry, originally of
German extraction. His parents were
both natives also of Herkimer county.
His grandfather, whose Christian name was Jacob, was a New Yorker
by birth, being a son of the first ancestor of the name of Yoran on American soil,
the last-named being a lad who, as family tradition has it,
came to this country about 1750, and settled in the Mohawk valley of New
York. Mr. Yoran's mother was a
daughter of John Timmerman, who was also a native of New York, but his father a native of Germany. Jacob Yoran, father of the subject
of this sketch,
was born March
25, 1801, and died September 4, 1876. He was a
farmer, an industrious, useful citizen, one who, having inherited the strong,
sturdy elements of the thrifty German stock from which he was descended, devoted his life strictly to the
pursuit of his own personal affairs, in which he was reason ably
successful. Mr. Yoran's mother was
born August 22, 1806, and died July
1, 1870.
She was a frugal housewife, diligent in her labors, devoted to her family, a
pious, exemplary woman. There were nine children in the
family to which Calvin Yoran belonged, he being the
youngest of the nine, the others, five girls and three
boys-Armenia, Elmira, Kate, Maggie, Silas M.,
Amy, Oliver and Enos.
Calvin Yoran was born June 5, 1844. He was reared on his father's
farm, receiving a good common-school education, and being trained to the habits
of industry and usefulness common to farm life. Quitting the farm at the age of
eighteen he entered the academy at Little Falls, N. Y.,
from which he passed to Fairfield Seminary, at Fairfield, N. Y., and thence to
the Eastman Business College at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., where he graduated
in 1866, and returning to Fairfield Seminary, finished his education there,
serving also as professor of the commercial department of that institution
during the last year of his connection with it.
Having
determined on a professional career, his mind turned to the great West, as the
land of promise and the best field for his talents, and he came to Iowa in 1867, settling in Manchester, Delaware county,
and at once entered the law office of Griffen & Satterlee, where he was prepared for admission to the bar.
He was admitted the next year, and in 1870 began the practice, since which time
he has continued actively at it. Mr. Yoran is a
lawyer in the strictest sense of the word. He has never aspired to public office
and has never filled any public place beyond a few unimportant local ones, the
onerous duties of which far exceed the honors connected with them. But in his
office, among his books, and in the preparation of his cases, he is thoroughly
at home, and finds work which to him is most congenial. He is a student,
diligent in his labors, and faithful in the discharge of his duties to his
clients. Yet happily the citizen is not lost in the lawyer, and while he meets
his professional
obligations with conscientious exactitude, he is equally alive to the claims of
his community upon him for a reasonable share of his time, talent and labor,
and it can be recorded without a suspicion of flattery to him, or a suggestion
of discourtesy to others, that no one in the community where he lives exceeds
him in the part he takes in promoting the social, educational, moral and
religious interests of that community. He has labored with tongue and pen, and
has contributed otherwise, by his personal exertion, to the fostering of a
spirit of liberal education for the youth of his adopted home, having served
frequently on the school board and advocated at all times a high standard of scholarship,
with corresponding rewards of merit for the diligent, as well as strong
measures to secure strict attendance from the slothful and incorrigible. On the
great question of intemperance, concerning which Iowa has taken stand in the forefront, Mr.
Yoran possesses decided views, having been for years
one of the leaders against the liquor traffic in his county. He took sides with
the prohibitionists at the outset, and he has since fought their battles in council,
on the public platform, and through the press in every campaign, local and
state, where the liquor issues were either directly or remotely involved.
Delaware is a strong prohibition county, and it owes its strength of sentiment
in a considerable measure to Mr. Yoran and a few
other stout-hearted and ready-tongued citizens who have taken on themselves to stamp
out, so far as they can by, public speeches and by the influencing of popular
votes, the iniquitous liquor traffic. For the cause of Christianity and the upbuilding of the church's interests, regardless of
denomination, Mr. Yoran has been no less zealous than
he has in his advocacy of temperance, sobriety and the purification of the
moral atmosphere. He has been almost a life-long member of the Methodist
church, in which for a layman he has borne a conspicuous and efficient part not
only in the church's ministrations but all subsidiary labors. He has been
superintendent of Sunday-schools in his church for the past twelve years, still
occupying that position. He is a strict observant of the social amenities, and
being of a genial, affable disposition, he has a large circle of friends, in
whose society he finds a great deal of the pleasures of this life.
Mr. Yoran has a. pleasant home and a family composed of himself, wife and two children. He married August 10, 1870,
taking for a life companion Miss Phrone Chase, a
native of Middleville, Herkimer county, N. Y., and a daughter of Melvin A., and
Elvira (Carpenter) Chase, natives also of New York. Mr. and Mrs. Yoran have two children, both sons, Melvin J. and Clarence,
around whom their chief interests, sympathy, and affections naturally cluster,
growing closer and closer as the years roll by. Perhaps it is in no small
measure on account of these that the name of Calvin Yoran
stands pledged for the help and encouragement of all that goes to build up schools,
churches, home and society, and is itself a tower of strength to weaker natures
which find in its friendly shelter the protection so necessary to their
healthful and efficient action.
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