Elizabeth Pierce Yerkes: Pennsylvania's Oldest Woman
- Emma Leuschner
- Apr 26, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 26, 2025
Few hold the title of centenarian. Mrs. Elizabeth Pierce Yerkes held that title plus seven years. At the time of her death, she was reportedly Pennsylvania's oldest woman.
Elizabeth was born on July 2nd, 1818, in Concord Township, Pennsylvania, to Worrall Pierce and Margaret Mendenhall. She married Job Roberts Yerkes (1817-1888) on December 28th, 1842. They lived in New Garden Township and later East Bradford Township, where they raised their eight children: John, William, Benjamin, Lewis, Harry, Walter, Margaret, and Mary. Job worked as a farmer, and Elizabeth stayed within the home. Job Yerkes died in June 1888 after having a stroke at the dinner table a week earlier.
By 1900, the newly widowed Elizabeth moved in with her youngest child, Mary Yerkes Hill, and her son-in-law, William W. Hill Sr., the proprietor of a grist mill in Markham Village, Concord Township. There she lived with her three grandchildren, Roy Linden Hill, William W. Hill Jr., and Helen E. Hill, as well as a boarder and a housekeeper.
Roy Linden Hill photo; Mary Yerkes Hill photo; article from Daily Local News on 11 June 1900
Elizabeth was keen and sprightly, and her elderly escapades and goings-on were often recorded in the local newspapers. In 1913, Elizabeth took an automobile trip to Newtown Square Friends Meeting to visit her husband's grave and spend her 95th birthday.
Elizabeth remained in Concord for the next twenty years until she relocated to Market Street in West Chester to live with her older daughter, Margaret Yerkes Darlington, and her son-in-law, Elsworth Darlington. She often divided her time between her two daughters, reportedly spending summers in Markham and winters in West Chester.
Elizabeth died at the age of 107 on March 18th, 1926, due to complications from a fall weeks earlier and, ultimately, pneumonia. She is buried at Newtown Friends Meeting with her husband.
In her 107 years of life, Elizabeth lived through the American Civil War, the end of slavery, the discovery of electricity, the invention of the automobile, the Spanish-American War, World War 1, the Spanish Flu pandemic, and more than half of the roaring 20s. She saw the country move through its darkest chapters and embraced change and progress. She buried her husband, a few of her children, and even a great-grandchild during her life. Yet, she reportedly maintained a sense of humor and a hunger for experience in all her long years.
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