US Congressman. He was born one of five children (he also had five brothers, as well as five half-siblings) in Catawissa, Pennsylvania, to Isaiah Jesse Yocum and Martha Mears Yocum and was educated at the rural area schools. Following his education, he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he learned the printers' trade in 1850. He then taught school for many years before graduating from the prestigious Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1860. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, he put his teaching career on hold to fight for his country. He entered the Civil War and enlisted on July 26, 1861, with the rank of Private with Company C, 5th Calvary Regiment Pennsylvania, Union Army. He was then given the rank of Full Second Lieutenant on March 31, 1862, and promoted to Full First Lieutenant on November 21, 1862. He was mustered from military service with the rank of First Lieutenant on September 8, 1864. Following his military service, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, in 1865. On January 16, 1867, he married Lucinda Horton and the couple had seven children (Charles Horton Yocum was born in 1867, John Hanna Yocum was born in 1870, Melvin Yocum was born in 1873, Betsey Yocum was born in 1876, Joseph Grant Yocum was born in 1877, Frank Horton Yocum was born in 1879, and Martha Mears Yocum was born in 1886). He commenced to practicing law in Ashland, Pennsylvania, and then relocated to Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, in 1873. He continued his practice of law in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, and was then named the District Attorney of Center County, Pennsylvania, and served in the position from 1875 to 1879. He then decided to run for a seat in the United States Congress and was elected. A member of the Republican Greenback Party, he then served Pennsylvania's 20th District (Forty-Sixth Congress) in the United States House of Representatives from 1879 to 1881. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1880. After his term in the United States Congress expired on March 3, 1881, he was succeeded by United States Representative Andrew Gregg Curtin. He then moved to Johnson City, Tennessee, where he engaged in the tanning business and continued his political pursuits. He ran for the office of Mayor of Johnson City, Tennessee, and was elected and served in that position in 1885. He then moved from Tennessee to Pasadena, California, in 1889, on account of his health. While in California he became involved in the orange-growing business. He passed way in Santa Monica, California, on April 19, 1895, at the age of 60. His funeral was presided over by the Masonic Order and he was laid to rest in the Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum in Altadena, California. His wife Lucinda passed away on June 25, 1897, at the age of 53, but she was buried in the Hillside Cemetery in Middletown, New York. He was a lifelong member of the Masonic Fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi, and the Grand Army of the Republic. His brother Reverend Doctor Ezra H. Yocum was the pastor of the Grace M.E. Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, from 1888 to 1891, and one of the ablest and most respected theologians in the Methodist Church at that time.