Birth: in 1735 or 1736 in Germany
Death: April 19, 1832 near Stouffville, Ontario
Burial: Yake Cemetery
list of cemeteries

The surname was changed to Yake probably when Daniel arrived in America. The most probable spelling to that time was Jäk.. Other people have different possibilities but I was told the only spelling in German that would translate into Yake in English is Jäk.

In the early 1770s Daniel Yake, his wife and family of two to five children left Germany where they lived about ten miles east of Strasbourg for the journey to America. During the trip Daniel's wife and at least one child, one report says three daughters, died and were buried at sea. A daughter Esther and possibly a son Jonathan survived the trip.

Daniel and his wife were to each work two years to pay their passage, the boat captain selling their labor to someone in America to pay their passage. After his wife's death, the captain insisted Daniel for three years. After paying his passage Daniel settled near Lancaster Pennsylvania and at some time lived in or near Philadelphia. Daniel was Roman Catholic and he married Mary Nicely, an English Protesant. Altogether Daniel may have had as many as twelve children.

Later they moved to Canada settling near Dundas Ontario before moving to Stouffville Ontario where they purchased land in 1804. Daniel fought on the British side at the battle of Lundy's Lane at Niagara Falls Ontario during the war of 1812. During this time Daniel sent some flour across Lake Ontario by boat for his family, but when Daniel returned home in the spring he learned his family never received the flour and had lived all winter on wild game and pumpkins. Daniel walked back to Toronto, got a bag of flour and carried it the thirty some miles home on his back. At this time Daniel was in his mid to late seventies.

from: Jacob Yake and Family