Joseph Trimble Yankie: From Hillsboro, Ohio to Hillsboro, New Mexico

Jean Wallis might appreciate this one.

Chances are, Jean – thee Highland County historian – already knows about it.

But since it was news to me, courtesy of an Aug. 21 email from writer Craig Springer, I share what I can in hopes that it has some interest for local history aficionados.

Many of us know that Fort Caspar in Wyoming is named after Hillsboro's own Caspar Collins. The city of Casper, Wyoming was, according to the Fort Caspar Museum, mistakenly spelled "Casper," with an "e," rather than "Caspar," after its namesake.

"Caspar Collins spelled his name with an "a" and that is correctly preserved in the name of the fort," the museum says.

"When the town grew up around the old fort, a mistake was made in the spelling, leading to the town being spelled with an "e" (Casper). In naming the fort, the authorities chose to use his first name because his father had recently been honored at Fort Collins in Colorado.

But back to Mr. Springer's recent correspondence.

Mr. Springer emailed me two weeks ago that one of his stories from Hillsboro, New Mexico may be of local interest in Hillsboro, Ohio.

Mr. Springer writes about Joe Yankie, who "was from Hillsboro, Ohio and who named the city of Hillsboro, New Mexico. He eventually went back to Ohio and was appointed postmaster of Sinking Spring, Ohio in 1886."

The author goes on to ask if I can help him find any living relatives of Joseph T. Yankie.

"We, the Hillsboro, New Mexico Historical Society want to know more about him," Mr. Springer said. "He named our town, after all."

From his research, Mr. Springer found that Joseph Trimble Yankie married a Highland Countian named Margaret Vinton Patton.

The following is attributed to Mr. Springer.

At age 19, he enlisted in the 141st Regiment, Company K, Ohio National Guard, and was one of the famous One-Hundred Day Men from Ohio.

He mustered in at Gallipolis, on May 11, 1864 with 866 men under Col. Anderson L. Jaynes. He left Ohio on May 21, 1864 for Charleston, W.Va., to be attached to the Reserve Division of West Virginia until Aug. 25 and then mustered out on Sept. 3, 1864.

Joseph Trimble Yankie survived the Civil War and moved to Silver City in the New Mexico Territory for a 14-year adventure in the very wild West, returning to Ohio a wealthy man in 1884 to marry and raise a family of five sons.

Joseph Trimble Yankie and Margaret Vinton Patton were married on Nov. 11, 1884 in Ohio.

Yankie is listed on the Silver City, New Mexico census with his partners, John Bullard, James Bullard and John Swisshelm. John Swisshelm was an Ohio cousin of Yankie.

Brothers John Montgomery Bullard and James Barger Bullard were Confederate officers from Boone County, Missouri. John Bullard was killed in a battle with Apaches on Feb. 23, 1871 age 29 years, the first man buried in the Silver City, New Mexico cemetery.

After some 14 years of successful prospecting, ranching and hotel businesses, Joseph T. Yankie returned to Peebles, Ohio to marry and raise a family.

The marriage of Margaret Vinton Patton and Joseph Trimble Yankie produced five sons:

• Richard LeRoy Yankie, born June 18, 1887; died Feb. 27, 1973 in Long Beach, Calif.

• James Vernon Yankie, born June 28, 1889; died Sept. 12, 1966 in Sierra Madre, Calif.

• Lowell (Doc) Wilson Yankie, a "druggist in Cincinnati, Ohio." (No other information.)

• Paul Patton Yankie, born May 26, 1892; died July 24, 1968 in Peebles, Ohio.

• Samuel Trimble Yankie, born Oct. 2, 1894; died June 25, 1950 in Los Angeles, Calif.

Joseph Trimble Yankie died June 12, 1926 and Margaret Vinton Patton Yankie died in 1943, both are buried at Pleasant Hill Cemetery, Sinking Spring, Ohio.

After speaking via email with longtime Highland County Press columnist and local historian Bob Patton, I learned that Margaret Vinton Patton was the daughter of Bob Patton's great-great-grandfather, Samuel Patton, and his second wife, Henrietta Micleta Woltz.

"They are, indeed, buried at Sinking Spring, and I have seen their monument," Bob said.

"I don't know much about the descendants of Joseph Trimble Yankie, but there are hundreds of descendants of Margaret in southern Ohio."

Joseph Yankie and his brother, James, are credited with naming Hillsboro, New Mexico, in 1877 after their Hillsboro, Ohio hometown.

Yankie survived two ambushes by Apache chief Victorio in the 1879 "Victorio Wars," and eventually returned to Ohio.

Newspaper reports at that time also said the Apaches abducted Yankie's 4-year-old daughter, whose fate is not known. Yankie Street in Silver City, N.M. and in Hillsboro, N.M. are named after Joseph Trimble Yankee.

Of course, the Trimble name also is familiar in Hillsboro, as in former Ohio Gov. Allen Trimble, who is buried in the Hillsboro (Ohio) Cemetery.

Mr. Springer's recent story is not really about Joseph Yankie, and that ought to have been made clearer earlier on in this column. (My apologies.)

The author writes in the September "Enchantment" issue at www.enchantment.coop, about the Buffalo Soldiers who were stationed at numerous forts in New Mexico.

The story is entitled "A Day Long Battle 134 Years Ago," and is available online.

It is well worth reading – even without the knowledge of the Hillsboro, Ohio and Hillsboro, New Mexico connections.

Craig Springer is the co-author of the book, "Around Hillsboro," a history of the Sierra County, N.M. town. For more on Joseph T. Yankie, visit www.enchantment.coop. To reach Craig Springer, email: craig@lobo.net. If you have information about Joseph T. Yankie, he would appreciate hearing from you.

Rory Ryan is publisher of The Highland County Press.