Emma Yocum ^{1 2 3}

   Another name for Emma was Anna Yocum.

  Noted events in her life were:

• Census, 1870, South Heidelberg Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, USA. ² Three Beechers are found on page 423 of the 1870 Census in South Heidelberg Township in Berks County. The post office is Wernersville.

William Beecher, age 52, blacksmith, is living with wife Sarah, 52; Levi, 21; and Ellen, 16. With them is a Sarah Strunk, age 4, and Harrison Beecher, 37, no occupation listed. William's real estate is valued at $1,800 and his possessions worth $400.

Reuben Beecher, 30, farm laborer, is living with wife Emma, 26, and George L., 7 months old, born in Oct. 1869. He has no real estate and $400 of possessions.
Everyone was born in Pennsylvania. They are living next to Benjamin Yocum, who is Emma's brother.

• Census, 1900, Lower Heidelberg Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, USA. ¹ George L. Beecher, age 30, farm laborer, born Nov. 1869, is living with wife Emma, 32, born Jan. 1868. They had been married 8 years and had one child who was no longer living. Also with them is his mother, Emma, born Sep. 1843. She was married 21 years and had 3 children, 2 still living. She could not read or write. Everyone and their parents were born in Pennsylvania.

• Book: Historical and Biographical Annals of Berks County Pennsylvania, 1909. ⁴
The name Yocum is quite common in the lower end of Berks county. Late in the seventeenth century a colony of Swedes settled at Wissahickon, near Philadelphia. In 1701 a number of these Swedes, including three Yocum brothers, located along the eastern bank of the Schuylkill, near Douglassville, Berks county. Surveys of land were made for these settlers Oct. 21, 1701, and patents issued between 1704 and 1705. The name is variously spelled in the early records, being Jocum, Yocomb, Yokham, Yocom and Yocum.

Nicholas Yocum (Yocom), the founder of the Cumru branch of the family, was born in Oley township, Sept. 3, 1776. As a young man he went to Lancaster county, and learned to make gun-barrels. When ready to begin for himself, he chose Cumru township, Berks county, as this location, bought the old Seidel forge, and there prepared his own iron for the manufacture of his gun-barrels.

He followed this calling many years with great profit, but he was of so generous and sympathetic a disposition that he was remembered for his benefactions rather than his wealth, and many were the men in financial straits whom he helped. In person he was tall, powerful and of commanding presence. He died April 23, 1857, aged eighty years, seven months, twenty days. His wife, Catherine (Lorah) Yocum, whom he married March 14, 1801, was born Oct. 3, 1783, and she died Feb. 13, 1851.

They had four children: George, born 1803; Daniel, 1805, who married Miss Catharine Thompson, and died in 1864; Moses; and Samuel, who married a Miss Spohn, and settled in Sinking Spring.

George Yocum, son of Nicholas, was born in Cumru township Oct. 3, 1803. He was an iron worker by trade, and he and his father bought the old Spohn estate in Lower Heidelberg township, consisting of 101 acres of the best land in the county. Here he engaged in farming until his son Benjamin took charge and he then retired to Sinking Spring, where he died Aug. 17, 1881. He is buried in the cemetery at Sinking Spring.

He married Catharine Hemmig, who was born Dec. 23, 1805, daughter of John and Susanna Hemmig. She died April 21, 1874. Their children were: William, a farmer near Stouchsburg, is now deceased; Aaron, a flour merchant in Reading, m. (first) Hannah and (second) Kate Heffer; Sarah m. Frederick Graeff; Amanda died unmarried; Amos, a shoemaker and farmer, m. Isabella Miller (1843-1885); Benjamin, born Nov. 7, 1836, now lives retired at Sinking Spring; Lizzie m. Aaron Fox, a butcher at Sinking Spring; Anna m. Reuben Beecher, formerly of Wernersville.

Emma married Reuben Beecher, son of William Beecher and Sarah A. Reifsnyder, <1879>.¹ (Reuben Beecher was born about 1839 in , Berks County, Pennsylvania, USA ^{2 5 6} and was buried in Sinking Spring: Sinking Spring Cemetery, Berks County, Pennsylvania, USA ⁷.)