US Congressman. He was born one of thirteen children (he also had one stepbrother) in Berlin, Ohio, to Yost Yoder (1805-1850), and Anna Nancy Hochstetler Miller Yoder (1810-1883), and was educated at and attended the local common public schools and the prestigious Mount Vernon Seminary in Mount Vernon, Ohio. He then entered Wooster University in Wooster, Ohio, and later graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Following the outbreak of the American Civil War, he enlisted in the Union Army with the One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, on April 19, 1862, and rose to the rank of Lieutenant and continued serving until the Civil War ended in 1865. Following the Civil War, he studied medicine and opened up a practice in Bluffton, Ohio. He then was elected the Mayor of Bluffton, Ohio, and served in that position from 1868 to 1878. He then moved to Lima, Ohio, and began studying law in 1878. He was admitted to the bar in 1880, and then commenced to practicing law in Lima, Ohio. He served as a Member of the Ohio Democratic State Executive Committee from 1883 to 1885, and as a Judge of the Probate Court of Allen County, Ohio, from February 1882 to October 1886, when he resigned. He then decided to run for a seat in the United States Congress and was elected to succeed United States Representative Charles Marley Anderson (1845-1908), on March 4, 1887. A Member of the Democratic Party, he then served Ohio's 4th District (Fiftieth Congress and Fifty-First Congresses) in the United States House of Representatives from March 4, 1887, to March 3, 1891. He was not a Candidate for renomination in 1890. After his term in the United States Congress expired on March 3, 1891, he was succeeded in office by United States Representative Martin Kissinger Gantz (1862-1916), on March 4, 1891. He lastly served in the position of Sergeant at Arms of the United States House of Representatives from December 8, 1891, to August 7, 1893. He retired from public service shortly thereafter. He then continued with his practice of law while also engaging in the real estate business in Prince Georges County, Maryland, and in the Washington, D.C. area until his death. He was married to Minerva Ellen Maxwell in Berlin, Ohio, on October 6, 1870, and the couple had five children together including an infant who was born in 1872 and died in 1874, Leon Maxwell Yoder who was born in 1873, Early David Yoder who was born in 1875, Effie Ada Yoder who was born in 1878, and Samuel S. Yoder Jr. who was born in 1886. He passed away after years of ill health at his home at 208 Maryland Avenue in Washington, D.C., on May 11, 1921, at the age of 79. His funeral was held by the Masonic Orders. His wife Minerva Ellen passed away exactly two years earlier on May 11, 1919, at the age of 57, and the two are buried together at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. He was a longtime member of several fraternal organizations during his lifetime including Commander and Chief of the Union Veterans Union, Loyal Legion, Valley of Cincinnati, Orient of Ohio, Knights Templar, Knights of the Pythias, Patriarchs Militant of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Almas Temples, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, and most notably as a Member of the Association of Oldest Inhabitants of the District of Columbia.