Interesting Anecdotal Yarnall Info
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The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine printed an article about the Lima section of Middletown, PA on October 4, 1964.
The article covered three topics tied to the Yarnall folks.
  1. A nickname for an area of the town
  2. Some legal battles
  3. Some interesting construction
Wrangletown
Here is a quote from that article. "About a century and a half ago Lima was somewhat less than charming and certainly unquiet. It was known as Wrangletown with the accent on wrangle and was so identified on some maps." Seems that in 1806 Philip Yarnall (not the Philip who came to America) was granted a permit by the county court to establish a "public house" at what then was called Middletown Crossroads. Philip's persuasive plea to the court was that the nearest tavern was at Black Horse about 2 miles away. Yarnall built his tavern at the intersection of Baltimore Pike and Edgmont Road. (Both were dirt roads then.) There were complaints about noisy disputes in the tavern that lasted far into the night.
Yarnall's Permit
Another quote from the article. "In 1808 a number of residents went to court to have Yarnall's permit revoked. They testified that growth of the village was stunted because "decent people" refused to settle there. Yarnall's permit was revoked. In 1816 a sympathetic judge gave Yarnall another chance. The wrangling resumed. Three years later the court put Philip Yarnall out of business for keeps."
Yarnall's Trick House
A third quote from the article. "This "trick house" was built about three miles northwest of Lima on Edgmont Road (also called Middletown Road) just west of Valley Road. John Yarnall, grandfather of Philip, the tavern owner, built the "trick house" in 1720. It was called a trick house because of its exterior wall construction. The walls were a combination of brick and fieldstone."

Lineage connection to me
  • John Yarnall (owner of the trick house) and Philip Yarnall (owner of the tavern) mentioned in the Inquirer article were not in my direct family line.
  • The Philip Yarnall who came to America had 10 children (7 sons and 3 daughters). John (owner of the trick house) was one of his sons and Thomas was another.
  • My research reveals that Thomas (b: 8/10/1705) was in our direct line and probably was the great-great grandfather of William H. Yarnall (my great grandfather).

Some errors were in the 1964 Inquirer article
  • The distance from Black Horse to Middletown Crossroads is really only 8/10ths of a mile - not 2 miles!
  • The reporter confused Edgmont Road with Pennell Road.
  • No documentation of the connection of John and Philip as grand parent has been found.

Middletown Township book
There are 15 references to different Yarnall ancestors in a 345 page book written by Henry Pearson. Lots of neat pictures are in the book including a 1903 picture of "The Pineapple" building on page 28. I bought a copy of the book and I hope my descendants keep it. I recently saw two ads for the book on the Internet. A signed copy of the book for $395. Another ad for $82. I think I paid $15 for it when I went to the Middletown library to get a copy. Also on page 28 in Middletown Township there is a better explanation about the location of this tavern. There apparently was a lot of drinking, card playing, and singing plus a number of arguments. Joe Yarnall (one of Thomas' four sons) must have been a regular because he is mentioned in the book in part of a song that they sang.
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