He attended the public schools and Jedediah Hotchkiss's Mossy Creek Academy in Augusta County, where he learned about cartography and mining.
After the American Civil War, his father Samuel M. Yost lived with his family (including his second wife, Catherine) in Linville, Rockingham County, Virginia.
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 (b.
After leaving Congress, Yost engaged in the management and development of iron ore and coal lands.
This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress