Thomas T. Yeatman Sr. (1787–1833) was the owner of an iron foundry and was a prominent cotton trader, banker, steamboat owner, and commission business partner in Nashville, Tennessee.[2] His son James E. Yeatman had a charitable career and business career in St. Louis, Missouri. Another son, Thomas Yeatman Jr., continued in the cotton business.
Yeatman's father was a boatbuilder in Brownsville, Pennsylvania.[3]
Yeatman remarried after his first wife died. After his death, his second wife married John Bell, who would run for U.S. president.[4]