Charles Yeatts

About a year or so ago, while working at the Visitors Center in Gettysburg, a woman came up to me, map in hand, with questions about her great grandfather. The gentleman in question was a Charles Yeatts. Now, I don't claim to be an expert on the civilians of Gettysburg at the time of the battle, but I have read enough and looked at enough maps, to have a good feel for the names of a lot of the civilians of 1863. This was a name I had never heard of before.

So I took a look at the map that this woman had and was able to determine that his house was located on Table Rock Road....but where??? I wasn't sure. I didn't remember any old houses along that stretch of road....but that didn't mean anything. It's not like I drive that road everyday.

The next day, I got a really nice note from this lady telling me that she found the house and gave me a little background on it and the people who currently live there. From the sound of it, I think she actually went up to the house and talked to the current owners. She thanked me for the help. I was more than happy to help her in her quest. After all, that's what I do.

As time has gone on, I started to wonder "who exactly was Charles Yeatts (or Yeats)?" So I did some snooping around and this is what I found out:

He was born in 1829. Married Catherine Bream (any relation to the Breams of Breams Mill fame????). They had 7 children. He was a farmer and owned $2500 in real estate (probably the farm on Table Rock Road) and $1200 in personal property.

He was drafted into the Civil War. He enlisted and was mustered into service on Feb. 28, 1865 (pretty darn close to the end of the war). He was in the 91st PA Co. G. He was described as being 5 feet 9 inches tall, with a dark complexion, hazel eyes, and dark hair. He was discharged on May 20, 1965.

At some point after the war, he moved to Tyrone Township. He was a merchant of dry goods. So evidently he had a grocery store.

He died Aug 29, 1890 in Mechanicsburg, PA of Bright's Disease. It says that he was "engaged in the mercantile business" in Heidlersburg for many years. So he did, indeed, have a grocery store.

It's funny how one name or one house and lead you on a chase to find what you can about a person or place. That's what happened here. In my efforts to help a person locate their great grandfather, I found a new person who is more than just a name.....he was a real person, with a real life, with a real family. And here is what I was able to find out about this real person.