Place of Birth: Illinois
Age at Death: 52
Date of Death: August 17, 1899
Interment source:
Bay View Cemetery Association, Corpus Christi, Texas. Record of Interments
NO HEADSTONE
1. Ad for business of husband, C. W. Yung
Source: Corpus Christi Weekly Caller, July 31, 1903, p. 7, col. 4
Research by: Michael A. Howell
2. Biography
Many of the Yung family members in Old Bayview Cemetery have no stone to mark their final resting place, and Mrs. Christian W. Yung is one of those (as well as her husband and a son named Harvey M. Yung). It appears that Mrs. C. W. Yung was born Cerro Gordo Tinney (her personal name is given with many variations in the census and other public records). Cerro Gordo Tinney was born in Illinois to Edward B. Tinney and Sarah M. Berry who married on 7 June 1837 in Morgan County, Illinois (Sarah's application for divorce states that they married 6 June 1838 and in this document she gives the name of her daughter as "Sarah G." rather than Cerro G. Tinney). Cerro Gordo appears to be named after the famous battle of Cerro Gordo during the war between Mexico and America when Santa Anna was caught off guard by the 4th Regiment of the Illinois Volunteers. It may be that her father or another family member was involved in that battle. Cerro Gordo's year of birth seems to have been right after the war, about 1847. The 1850 federal census of Tazewell County, Illinois (p. 114A) lists her as 3 years old. Her mother may be a relative of H. W. Berry who also was involved in the war and later settled in Corpus Christi. He too as well as her mother, Sarah Berry-Tinney-Rosenberg, is buried in Old Bayview Cemetery. According to Sarah's divorce application filed in Nueces County and printed in the paper (Nueces Valley of 29 May 1858), the family moved to Texas about the 15th day of March 1853. Certainly by 1860 Cerro Gordo and her siblings had moved with their parents to Corpus Christi where they are listed in the federal census of that year (p. 282). At that point their father Edward had left the state and moved to Louisiana where he eventually married again (to a Laura M. Beelman). Edward B. Tinney died in Paradise, St. Charles Parish, Louisiana on 20 April 1903. Cerro Gordo married Chris (usually given as "Christopher" or "Christian") W. Yung of Louisiana and had numerous descendents in south Texas. Her husband was a painter by trade like other members of his family, but also was active in civic affairs of south Texas where he served as city secretary and deputy sheriff in Corpus Christi. The last census record that lists Cerro Gordo is the 1880 federal census of Nueces County (p. 7A). In that record she reports herself as 32 years old and raising a family of 5 children. Ultimately she would be survived by three sons: Willie Yung, C. L. Yung, and Lucien Yung of Washington, D.C. and two daughters: Mrs. Charles (Virginia) Vetters and Mrs. Joe (Cerro G.) Lucas. According to the 1900 federal census record of Nueces County her daughter Caroline who had married J. H. Puckett died prior to 1900. Her widowed husband and daughter are living with C. W. Yung and his surviving two sons and two daughters. The local Caller (of 20 Jan. 1899 on page 5) reports that Caroline "Carrie" Yung-Puckett died in San Marcial, New Mexico on January 15, 1899 shortly after the birth of her first born (a girl) and that she had been born in Corpus Christi on September 10, 1867. Cerro Gordo's son Harvey M. Yung died in 1881 at only 8 years old and is most likely buried with her in Old Bayview even though he did not appear in early lists (because he had no stone to be surveyed nor was he included in the burial records of the Bayview Association as his death antedates the formation of the association and their keeping of records). Cerro Gordo's sons William W. Yung and Chris L. Yung are also buried in Old Bayview as well as her husband Christian W. Yung.
Research and transcription: Michael A. Howell
