John Lapsley Yantis, D. D., P. O. Brownsville. Was born September 14, 1804, in Lancaster, Garrard county, Kentucky, where he spent his early life, and was educated. His first intention was to become a physician, and he studied medicine for nearly two years. A change occurred that resulted in his abandoning the medical profession, and studying for the ministry of the Presbyterian church. He was licensed to preach in 1829, and ordained in 1832. The next year, 1833, he moved to Missouri, and spent the winter in Saline county. He then went to Liberty, in Clay county, and spent nearly two years there, thence to Columbia, in Boone county, and while there his father died. He then spent about five years in Fulton, Callaway county, and from there moved to Lexington, in 1841. In 1848 he moved to Brownsville, in Saline county, where he established a school, which he continued to manage until 1851. In 1852 he moved to Oregon, where he continued three years, and then returned to Missouri and established a college in Richmond, Ray county; after four years, 1859, he left Richmond and returned to Kentucky, where he continued about three years and then returned to this county and settled at Sweet Springs, where his family lived, he having purchased, in 1848, the eighty acres of land, including the Sweet Springs property, at $10 per acre, and built upon it. During the last two years of the war he preached at Kansas City and at Westport, Missouri. In August, 1866, he sold the thirty acres of land including the springs property to Leslie Marmaduke, for $10,000. In 1828 Dr. Yantis was married to Miss Eliza Ann Montgomery, of Stanford, Kentucky. They have had eleven children, seven now living; Mrs. Kate Y. Bean, Wm. L. Yantis, J. Marshall Yantis, Rev. E. M. Yantis, Mrs. Elizabeth Lapsley, Van Court Yantis, and James A. Yantis. Dr. Yantis is the oldest Old School Presbyterian minister in Missouri, and has several times been a member of the general assembly of his church. The college of South Hanover, Indiana, conferred on him the title of Doctor of Divinity. He has still a handsome property near the Sweet Springs.
