GEORGE
K. YOURT
George K. Youart was a youth of fifteen when
he came with his father to Tippecanoe City. He assisted in the operation
of his father's steam saw-mill and learned the business of engineering.
He was engineer in the mill for a period of six years and when his father
closed out business he was given the position of engineer by his successor,
filling the place for seven years longer. He was also at one time employed
as engineer by the Smith Bridge Company, of Toledo, and in 1869 he came
to Tippecanoe City to set up the first engine owned by Mr. Ford, who in
that year began business as the senior partner of the firm of Ford &
Company. Mr. Youart operated that engine for twenty-one years and in 1869
it was replaced by a one-hundred-and-twenty-five-horsepower Buckeye engine,
of which he has had charge up to the present time, making a period of thirty
years, which has been continuous, with the exception of about three years
spent in other factories. During the forty-four years in which he has carried
on engineering work he has never met with an accident by which he has sustained
an injury. On one occasion, while he was chief engineer in the sugar factory,
the boiler exploded, destroying the entire battery of four one- hundred-horsepower
boilers, but Mr. Youart was not on duty at the time. On the 7th of September,
1862, Mr. Youart was united in marriage to Miss Candace Karn, who was reared
by an aunt upon a farm which is now theirs. Four children have been born
to them: John R., an engineer in the employ of the Street Railway Company
, of Kansas City, Missouri; Alva George, who is clerk in the Hotel Cordova,
in Kansas City; Harry A., an engineer in the Union depot in Kansas City,
and Lucian Lester, an engineer in the water power house at Tippecanoe City.
The sons were all instructed by their father in the business, which he
has made his life work, and were therefore well fitted for the practical
duties of business life. Since 1874 Mr. Youart has been chief engineer
of the fire department, which owns a Silsby engine. He has invested in
a farm near the village and also in village property, which indicates his
thrift and enterprise, all having been ac-quired as the result of his earnest
and persevering effort. He is a most trusted and reliable employee and
fully merits the confidence reposed in him.
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