[2] Ernest Dumas, writing for the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, wrote that Yonley "traveled to Missouri, where he supposedly joined the Federal army, although little is known about his actual service on either side".
They were described as having been "in office but a short time, and produced no great impression",[5] and Yonley in particular was described as "preferring the active practice of his profession" to serving on the court.
[2] Yonley was noted, however, as the author of one consequential opinion, in the case of Rison et al. v. Farr, which restored the right to vote to many former Confederate soldiers, and which inadvertently "contributed to a harsh retribution from the federal government, which imposed martial law on Arkansas and other Southern states for several years".
[1] Upon the establishment of the Constitution of 1868, Yonley was made Chancellor of the Pulaski Chancery Court, a state office, which he resigned in 1872, to run for Attorney-General on the ticket with Elisha Baxter, as the Republican nominee for Governor.
[1] In September 1857, shortly before coming to Little Rock, Yonley married Margaret LeSuer in Omaha, Nebraska.