Death took another from the dwindling ranks of the Kittitas Valley's early pioneers yesterday. Alva W. Yocom, 86-year-old former West Side farmer, died Tuesday in Tacoma. His life span stretched from the Civil War and he had lived in the Kittitas Valley more than half a century before moving to the coast seven years ago.
Born in Rochester, Minn. in 1862, he came here with his parents in 1876. The family came to the Northwest by way of San Francisco, traveling to Seattle by boat and across the Snoqualmie trail on horseback. His parents homesteaded on the West Side and he farmed the place after their deaths. He moved to Auburn in 1941 and to Tacoma this year.
He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Mary Yocom; two sons, Everett of Oak Grove, Ore., and Ward of Shelton; five grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held at the Honeycutt-Evenson's Chapel here Friday afternoon at 1 o'clock with Rev. Fred Hall officiating. Burial will be in the IOOF cemetery.
