Jesse Youkum

Submitted by Elizabeth Burns, Aug 2002

Arizona, The Youngest State, 1913, pg 309

Jesse Youkum, a well known resident of Cochise County, is prominent in realty circles in Warren and is an active member of the Bisbee Board of Trade. He is a native of Decatur Illinois, his birth occurring on the 15th of March 1871. He is a son of B.F.T. and Sally Youkum, who were born and reared in Ohio, the mother having come from Pickaway County, that state. The father entered the Union Army as a private in the Ninety-ninth Illinois Cavalry during the early days of the Civil War and was mustered out three years later with the rank of Sergeant. In his family were four children, out subject being the third in order of birth. The eldest member of the family, F.B. is a resident of Los Angeles, California, while Mrs. Nellie Magee makes her home in Inglewood, California and Fannie died in 1881 at Genoa Nebraska.

Jesse Youkum was reared in Nebraska and acquired his education in the old Indian school at Genoa and also at Columbus. His energies were early directed along commercial lines and at the age of fifteen he engaged in the grocery and butcher business at Omaha with his father and brother, F.B. Youkum. They conducted this enterprise for four years, then disposed of it and removed to Ellenwood Nebraska where Jesse Youkum bought an interest in a drug store but was connected with that business only a brief time. In 1886 he removed to California and later located in San Diego where for three years he held the position of assistant steward at the Coronado Hotel. Resigning that position in 1891 he went to Santa Monica California and established a wholesale and retail liquor store and also engaged in the ice business.

Leaving there in 1899 Mr. Youkum removed to Prescott Arizona but after a year's residence he went to Tucson. Six months later he went to Clifton Arizona, where he engaged in the manufacture of soda and also established a bakery and grocery business there and at Morenci. In 1903 he disposed of his interests at both points and went to Bisbee. Immediately after his arrival he established himself with real estate interests, becoming a partner in the firm of J.E. Thompson and Company until 1908. He next became an agent for the Warren Company and has ever since been connected with them. He was superintendent of the Warren and Bisbee Railroad from September 1911 until January 1914. Mr. Youkum resides in Warren where he owns an attractive home and takes an active interest in community affairs. He is connected with the Landlord Company and is assistant secretary of the Cochise Building and Loan Association.

In 1892 Mr. Youkum married Miss Emilia Vache, a native of San Bernardino California, and a daughter of Adolph Vache, a well known wine maker of southern California, who now resides in Santa Monica. Mrs. Youkum who is the eldest in a family of seven children kept house for her father after the death of her mother when she was fifteen and cared for the other children.

To Mr. and Mrs. Youkum have been born a son and a daughter: Jessie who was born in 1893 and is completing her education in a convent; and Emile B. whose birth occurred in 1895. After leaving high school he spent the year 1913 in the employ of Thompson Towle Company, brokers of New York City and in 1914 entered the University of Arizona where he remained one year. In the fall of 1915 he matriculated to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material must obtain written consent of the archivist or submitter.

---