Term: Yawkey, Cyrus Carpenter 1862 - 1943

Definition: lumberman, businessman, paper manufacturer, b. Chicago, Ill. He graduated from Michigan Military Academy at Orchard Lake (1881) and, after working for several years in Michigan, moved to Wisconsin in 1889, settling at Hazelhurst. There he helped to organize the Yawkey and Lee Lumber Co., which in 1893 became the Yawkey Lumber Co. Yawkey served as secretary-treasurer, general manager, and, after 1903, president of this company. In 1899 he moved to Wausau, and in 1909 was one of the organizers and incorporators of the Marathon Paper Mills (now the Marathon Corp.), serving as president of this firm (1909-1938) and as a member of the board of directors until his death. He was also president of the Wisconsin Valley Electric Co., the Hazelhurst and Southeastern R.R. Co., and the Yawkey and Bissell Lumber Co., and was vice-president of the Wisconsin Box Co., the Wausau Paper Mills Co., and the American National Bank of Wausau, as well as serving in executive capacities with numerous other paper-making and business enterprises throughout Wisconsin and the Midwest. In later years Yawkey owned extensive business and timber interests in the South and West. During World War I, Yawkey served as colonel in the Wisconsin state guards. A Republican, he was state assemblyman (1895-1896). Who's Who in Amer., 22 (1942); M. M. Quaife, Wis. (4 vols., Chicago, 1924); Wausau Daily Record-Herald, May 19, 1943.