Born in North Carolina, he later emigrated to Alta California, where he became a Mexican citizen and acquired substantial property holdings in the Napa Valley, largely due to the influence of his friendship with General Mariano G.

Yount was a farmer but in 1826, after business difficulties, left his wife and three children in Missouri, and went to Santa Fe and became a fur trapper.

Through the influence of Vallejo, Yount received the Rancho Caymus land grant in 1836, and became the first permanent settler in the Napa Valley.

He may have heard of the plight of the Donner Party, which had been widely-publicized by James Reed in San Francisco that winter.

His two daughters, Elizabeth Ann and Frances, along with her husband William Bartlett Vines, came west with the Walker-Chiles Party of 1843.