Yost was born in Staunton, Virginia in 1853 to Major Samuel McPherson Yost and his wife Henrietta Cushing Yost. His father became Indian Agent for New Mexico in 1857, and Quartermaster Major in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Branches of the Yost family were active in Shenandoah and Rockingham Counties. A cousin was C.S.A. General John R. Jones. Samuel's cousins included Major Hunter Liggett of the 31st U.S.V. in the Philippine Islands and C.S.A. Lt. Jacob N. Liggett of Harrisonburg, Virginia. He had an elder brother Merrell Cushing Yost, a younger brother Isaac Willis Yost, younger sister Bettie, and later after his father's remarriage, several half-siblings, including and half sister Alice Yost Pipes Having lost his mother as an infant, young Jacob Yost was raised by his grandmother Kate D. Yost, aunt Mary and cousin Samuel W.P. Yost. He attended the public schools and Jedediah Hotchkiss's Mossy Creek Academy in Augusta County, where he learned about cartography and mining. After the AmericanCivil War, his father Samuel M. Yost lived with his family in Linville, Rockingham County, Virginia. Jacob Yost married Mary S. Young Yost on January 13, 1881. They had a daughter Mary born in 1882 and who became a teacher in Staunton but still lived with her parents in the 1910 census, and a son Merrill C. Yost who survived to adulthood.
Career
Yost learned the printing trade from his father and in 1875 purchased the Valley Virginian. The family enterprise also published various books. He also engaged in civil engineering involving iron and coal. Although his father Samuel participated in the National Republican Convention of 1880 and served as Staunton's postmaster under Presidents Grant, Hays, Arthur, Harrison and McKinley, Jacob Yost was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for election in 1884 to the Forty-ninth Congress. HoweverStaunton's voters elected him mayor in May 1886 and he served until January 1887, when he resigned, having been elected to Congress. He was elected as a Republican to the Fiftieth Congress but was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1888 to the Fifty-first Congress. Years later, he was elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress but he declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1898.
After leaving Congress, Yost engaged in the management and development of iron ore and coal lands. He moved to Palo Alto, California in 1925 and lived there in retirement until his death on January 25, 1933. His body was returned to Staunton for burial in historic Thornrose Cemetery.
