Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Jacob E. Yoder Diaries, 1861-1870. Accession 27680, Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Sterling N. Yoder, Norfolk, Virginia, 28 December 1971.

Biographical/Historical Information

Jacob Eschbach Yoder was born 22 February 1838 in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, to Jacob Maurer Yoder (d. 1854) and Anna Eschbach Yoder. He attended local Mennonite schools and the Millersville Normal School where he was educated to become a teacher. He enlisted in the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Emergency Militia in 1863, but apparently returned to teaching after the unit was disbanded. He taught school in Berks County, Pennsylvania, and Montgomery County in 1864 and returned to Millersville Normal School in 1865. In 1866, Yoder became a teacher for the Freedmen's Bureau and traveled to Lynchburg, Virginia to teach the newly freed African Americans. He went to Pennsylvania in 1867 to continue his own education, but returned to Lynchburg to continue teaching in 1869. Yoder became superintendent of schools for the Freedmen's Bureau. By the end of the 1870s, Yoder had become an administrator for Lynchburg's African American schools. In 1881, he was appointed supervisor of Lynchburg's African American schools. Yoder married Anna Whitaker 28 June 1871 and they had 7 children. He died in Lynchburg 15 April 1905.

Scope and Content Information

Diaries, 1861-1870, of Jacob E. Yoder (1838-1905) of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and Lynchburg, Virginia, consisting of: a) diary, 25 January-25 February 1864, detailing Yoder's teaching in a school in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, describing the performance of his students; recording the weather; commenting on his personal and religious life; also containing notes on lectures on teaching taken in 1861, accounts, 1862- 1864, class lists and grades of students, and miscellaneous notes; b) diary, 1866-1867, recording his experiences teaching in a Freedmen's Bureau School for African Americans in Lynchburg, Virginia, commenting on the sentiments of the local white population on the end of the Civil War and Union occupation, and his personal experiences while teaching; and c) diary, 1869-1870, continuing his experiences as a teacher for the Freedmen's Bureau, recounting trips he made as school superintendent to various African American schools in central Virginia, and commenting on his personal experiences in Lynchburg, also containing a list of names and copies of receipts for money given to Alex Wharton of Lynchburg. The diaries for 1866-1870 were published as THE FIRE OF LIBERTY IN THEIR HEARTS: THE DIARY OF JACOB E. YODER OF THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU SCHOOL, LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA, 1866-1870.