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The Yeaw Family
The Yeaw family traces its roots in America back to the
late
1600's or early 1700's, when Captain David Yaugh brought
his
family to the New World from the British Isles aboard
his ship.
David had six sons, from whom the entire family in America
is
descended. Mostly due to the rampant illiteracy abounding
at the time,
none ended up spelling the name that way. Many times,
some scribe spelled it phonetically from the owner's pronunciation during
the making of some record, such as a deed or court proceeding. This phonetic
spelling became official from that point, and the most common spelling
became Yaw, followed by Yeaw, Yew, Yeo and Yow. In tracing the Yeaw (Yawl
genealogy, it was noted that the family has a long tradition of serving
in the military. Oliver, William, David, Moses, Andrew, Amos (Sr. &
jr·), and two Johns served in the Revolutionary War. Alonzo fought
in the Mexican War ("Remember the Alamo"). Robert, james, Andrew, William,
Jesse, Edgar, Oliver, Henry, Franklin, John, Simeon, and two Josephs served
in the Civil War. Four of those lost their lives in combat. One spent a
year at Andersonville.
Since then, though, it seems the Yeaw family in general
has wised
up. There is record of only one Yaw fighting in World
War I,
and one in the Korean Conflict. None was found in World
War
II. The only (in-country) Viet Nam veteran of which I
have re-
cord was a Navy Seal. Now there could be the clue to
it.
Perhaps the Yeaws quit enlisting in the damned army and
getting
their asses shot off. Instead, they joined the Navy,
where you
can shoot at folks with impunity from somewhere over
the
horizon.
In fact, looking back through the family history I find
there is a
rich record of the Yeaw family associated with the sea,
either
sailing or at least generally behaving like sailors.
Take the case
of Samuel Yee. On 29 September, 1653 in a Salem. MA court.
he was
found guilty and fined for, "being much in drink and
disturbing
the neighbors in the night." Now that had to be a sailor.
As
could have been Thomas Yow. He appeared in a Yorke Co.
court in the early 1700's charged with selling liquor
to the
Indians .
Then there was David Yaw, who served on a schooner out
of
Boston. When their ship was overrun in late March of
1724, one
of the pirates, a Frenchman named John Baptis, demanded
and
took David's boots. Considering the general demeanor
of the
privateers of that era, he was fortunate that his feet
weren't still
in them.
Indeed, seamanship still runs in the veins of the Yeaw
Yaw)
family, as evidenced by such worthy seamen Robert E.
Yaw. As
a merchant seaman working the west coast, he was swept
off the
deck of his ship and drowned in San Francisco Bay in
1946.
My brother and I have tried to carry on the heavy burden
of this
family Naval tradition. I served in the US Navy and am
a
veteran of the Lunatic Wars. Well, wards, actually. Lunatic
wards. The first ship I ever set foot on was at the Naval
Park
last year.
My brother, on the other hand, served in the Marine Corps.
Sort of. Actually, he did a 12-week course at Quantico
for some
OCS-type program he joined in college. Upon graduation
he
turned down his commission and went home with his fingers
crossed. He never heard from them again until his six
years was
up, when his discharge came in the mail. We were all
so proud.
He hung it on the wall.
NAVetsUSA members Dave Yeaw and Laura
Honor departed Veterans during the Brockport 2001 Memorial Day
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