George Yule

GEORGE YULE, one of the leading business men of Kenosha, was born Aug. 31, 1824, in Rathen, near Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, son of Alexander and Margaret (Leeds) Yule.

Alexander Yule will be remembered by many of the old residents of Kenosha county as one of the early settlers in Somers township, where he was a large landowner, and for many years an extensive farmer. Here he established a family whose members for over sixty years have been useful and prominent in the life of the community, diligent in attending to their own affairs and active in the promotion and support of worthy public enterprises. Several members of the Yule family are now prominent in commercial circles in Kenosha, connected with the Bain Wagon Company, one of the important industrial concerns of the city. The family is of Scotch lineage, and Mr. Yule's ancestors came from farming stock of Scotland, where his parents livedand died.

Alexander Yule was the only one of a small family to come to America. He was born in Scotland about 1795 or 1796, and was twice marriejJ, his first wife dying in Scotland in the year 1835. By this union he had a family of eight children, namely: William, who died in Somers township, Kenosha Co., Wis., at the age of seventy-six; James, who died at the age of seventy-one, in Millburn, In.; Alexander, who was a professor in Ireland, where he died when a young man; George, of Kenosha; Beatrice. Mrs. George Smith, of Evanston, Ill.; John T.. of Kenosha, and Cutes and Marv, both of whom died in infancy. Mr. Yule's second union, also contracted in Scotland, was to Miss Jane Watson, and to this marriage were also born eight children, namely: Mary, now the widow of David Heddle, of Somers township, Kenosha county; Joseph, of California; Henry, of Seattle. Wash.; Anna, of Somers township; Thomas, deceased; Frank, of Somers township; Robert, of Chicago, and Edward, of Sergeant Bluff, Iowa.

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About 1840 Mr. Yule brought his family to America, coming by way of Quebec, and settling in Kenosha county, Wis., near Southport, as Kenosha was then known, he bought 257 acres of land in Somers township, which he improved and occupied for a number of years. Here he reared his family and when the children were grown Mr. Yule sold the property to his sons, George and William, while he moved to a small farm in the same section, known as "Sunnyside," which was his home until he died, in 1871, aged seventy-six. His widow lived to be seventy-eight years old, passing away in 1896. Mr. Yule was a Presbyterian in religious faith.

George Yule, son of Alexander by his first wife, received all his schooling in his native land, being sixteen years of age when he came to America with his father. For three years thereafter he worked on the farm with his father, when nineteen entering the employ of Henry Mitchell, a wagonmaker of Kenosha, learning the trade and remaining with him until i8s2. After the factory passed in that year into the hands of Edward Bain. Mr. Yule became superintendent, and occupied that responsible position for thirty years. In 1882. when the company was incorporated, Mr. Yule was chosen vice-president, continuing to act in that capacity until 1900, since which vear he has filled the office of president of the corporation, which bears the title of the Bain Wagon Company. \Vhen Mr. Yule was first employed in the works everything was done in the place by hand, and his first job was sawing out plow-beams. At that time not more than ten or fifteen new wagons a year were turned out, together with a small number of plows, the principal w'ork being repairing. From that modest beginning the business has grown to large proportions, the establishment at present being one of the largest of its kind in this section, and about sixteen thousand wagons are manufactured annually, employment being given to about four hundred people. The market is principally in the West, although the product is known all over the world.

Personally Mr. Yule deserves all the prosperity he has won. His policy has always been that of hard work, and the results in his case justify the means. However, he has been fortunate in the possession of good health; and though he has worked one stretch of twenty-five years without a dav's vacation he is unusually active for a man past eighty, his appearance being that of a man at least fifteen years younger. He has always been content to let his work speak for itself, being modest and unassuming in all things.

[This passage is too damaged in the scanned book to reproduce. See the original book.]

Public-spirited in the trust sense of the word, Mr. Yule has been identified with the growth of Kenosha from the very early days, and has helped financially nearly every important institution in the city. In addition to his responsibilities in the Bain Wagon Company he holds the position of vice-president of the First National Bank and also of the North Western Loan & Trust Company. He enjoys a commanding position in both social and business circles.

George A. Yule, son of George, born in Kenosha June 13, 1838, is connected with the Bain Wagon Company in the capacity of superintendent and is also president of the Badger Brass Company — the first to manufacture the acetylene bicycle and automobile lamps. George A. Yule married Miss Harriet Head, daughter of Orson and Mary (Treadwell) Head, and one son has been born to their union, William Head Yule.

As printed in Commemorative biographical record of prominent and representative men of Racine and Kenosha counties, Wisconsin, containing biographical sketches of business and professional men and of many of the ea (1906). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.