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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/19117-h.zip b/19117-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6be5291 --- /dev/null +++ b/19117-h.zip diff --git a/19117-h/19117-h.htm b/19117-h/19117-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd1a477 --- /dev/null +++ b/19117-h/19117-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5478 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> + +<title> + Sergeant York and his People, + by Sam K. Cowan +</title> +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + body { margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; } + p { text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + font-size: 100%; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { text-align: center; } + hr { width: 50%; } + hr.full { width: 100%; } + .foot { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 85%; } + .poem { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left; } + .poem .stanza { margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em; } + .poem p { margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; } + .poem p.i2 { margin-left: 1em; } + .poem p.i4 { margin-left: 2em; } + .poem p.i6 { margin-left: 3em; } + .poem p.i8 { margin-left: 4em; } + .poem p.i10 { margin-left: 5em; } + .toc { margin-left: 15%; font-size: 80%; margin-bottom: 0em;} + center { padding: 0.8em;} + // --> +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sergeant York And His People, by Sam Cowan + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Sergeant York And His People + +Author: Sam Cowan + +Release Date: August 25, 2006 [EBook #19117] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERGEANT YORK AND HIS PEOPLE *** + + + + +Produced by Don Kostuch + + + + + +</pre> + + +<br /> +<br /> + +<h1> + SERGEANT YORK AND HIS PEOPLE +</h1> +<center><b> +BY SAM K. COWAN +</b></center> + +<center> + +GROSSET & DUNLAP<br /> + +PUBLISHERS NEW YORK<br /> + +By Arrangement with Funk & Wagnalls Company +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +[Stamped: 1610<br /> + +Capital Heights Jr. High School Library<br /> + +Montgomery, Alabama] +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +Copyright, 1922, By<br /> + +FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY<br /> + +[Printed in the United States of America]<br /> + +Copyright Under the Articles of the Copyright Convention of the<br /> + +Pan-American Republics and the United States<br /> + +August 11, 1910. +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +To<br /> + +FLOY PASCAL COWAN<br /> + +THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED, WITH A LOVE THAT WANES NOT, BUT<br /> + +GROWS AS THE YEARS ROLL ON + +</center> +<pre> + + + [Transcribers's Notes] + + This book complements "History of The World War" (Gutenberg 18993)—a + broad view of many events and persons—with a personal and dramatic view + of an Ideal American Soldier: thoughtful, brave, modest, charitable, + loyal. +</pre> +<pre> + www.archives.gov/southeast/exhibit/popups.php?p=4.1.11 +</pre> +<pre> + Here are some unfamiliar (to me) words. + + badinage + Light, playful banter. + + Chapultepec + Hill south of Mexico City, Mexico; site of an American victory on + September 13, 1847 in the Mexican War. + + condoling + Express sympathy or sorrow. + + currycomb + Square comb with rows of small teeth used to groom (curry) horses. + + enured + Made tough by habitual exposure. + + fastness + Strongly fortified defensive structure; stronghold. + + kamerad + Comrade [German]. + + lagnappe + Trifling present given to customers; a gratuity. + + levee + Formal reception, as at a royal court. + + predial + Relating to, containing, or possessing land; attached to, bound to, or + arising from the land. + + puncheon + Short wooden upright used in structural framing; Piece of broad, + heavy, roughly dressed timber with one face finished flat. + + scantlings + Small timber used in construction. + + tho + Though + + [End Transcribers's Notes] + + +</pre> +<br /> + +<a name="image-0001"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/photo-4-1-11.jpg" height="1543" width="600" title="SERGEANT ALVIN C. YORK" +alt="A Photograph from the National Archives +"> +</center> +<br /> +<br /> + + + + + +<hr> +<br /> +<br /> + + +<h2>Contents</h2> +<center> +<table summary=""> +<tr><td> + + +<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0001"> +SERGEANT ALVIN C. YORK +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0002"> +I — A FIGHT IN THE FOREST OF THE ARGONNE +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0003"> +II — A "Long Hunter" Comes to the Valley +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0004"> +III — The People of the Mountains +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0005"> +IV — The Molding of a Man +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0006"> +V — The People of Pall Mall +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0007"> +VI — Sergeant York's Own Story +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0008"> +VII — Two More Deeds of Distinction +</a></p> + +</td></tr> +</table> +</center> + + +<br /> +<br /> +<hr> +<br /> +<br /> + + + + +<a name="2H_4_0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + SERGEANT ALVIN C. YORK +</h2> +<p> +From a cabin back in the mountains of Tennessee, forty-eight miles from +the railroad, a young man went to the World War. He was untutored in the +ways of the world. +</p> +<p> +Caught by the enemy in the cove of a hill in the Forest of Argonne, he +did not run; but sank into the bushes and single-handed fought a +battalion of German machine gunners until he made them come down that +hill to him with their hands in air. There were one hundred and +thirty-two of them left, and he marched them, prisoners, into the +American line. +</p> +<p> +Marshal Foch, in decorating him, said, "What you did was the greatest +thing accomplished by any private soldier of all of the armies of +Europe." +</p> +<p> +His ancestors were cane-cutters and Indian fighters. Their lives were +rich in the romance of adventure. They were men of strong hate and +gentle love. His people have lived in the simplicity of the pioneer. +</p> +<p> +This is not a war-story, but the tale of the making of a man. His +ancestors were able to leave him but one legacy—an idea of American +manhood. +</p> +<p> +In the period that has elapsed since he came down from the mountains he +has done three things—and any one of them would have marked him for +distinction. +</p> +<center> +SAM K. COWAN. +</center> +<a name="2H_4_0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + I — A FIGHT IN THE FOREST OF THE ARGONNE +</h2> +<p> +Just to the north of Chatel Chehery, in the Argonne Forest in France, is +a hill which was known to the American soldiers as "Hill No. 223." +Fronting its high wooded knoll, on the way to Germany, are three more +hills. The one in the center is rugged. Those to the right and left are +more sloping, and the one to the left—which the people of France have +named "York's Hill"—turns a shoulder toward Hill No. 223. The valley +which they form is only from two to three hundred yards wide. +</p> +<p> +Early in the morning of the eighth of October, 1918, as a floating gray +mist relaxed its last hold on the tops of the trees on the sides of +those hills, the "All America" Division—the Eighty-Second—poured over +the crest of No. 223. Prussian Guards were on the ridge-tops across the +valley, and behind the Germans ran the Decauville Railroad—the artery +for supplies to a salient still further to the north which the Germans +were striving desperately to hold. The second phase of the Battle of the +Meuse-Argonne was on. +</p> +<p> +As the fog rose the American "jumped off" down the wooded slope and the +Germans opened fire from three directions. With artillery they pounded +the hillside. Machine guns savagely sprayed the trees under which the +Americans were moving. At one point, where the hill makes a steep +descent, the American line seemed to fade away as it attempted to pass. +</p> +<p> +This slope, it was found, was being swept by machine guns on the crest +of the hill to the left which faced down the valley. The Germans were +hastily "planting" other machine guns there. +</p> +<p> +The Americans showered that hill top with bullets, but the Germans were +entrenched. +</p> +<p> +The sun had now melted the mist and the sky was cloudless. From the pits +the Germans could see the Americans working their way through the +timber. +</p> +<p> +To find a place from which the Boche could be knocked away from those +death-dealing machine guns and to stop the digging of "fox holes" for +new nests, a non-commissioned officer and sixteen men went out from the +American line. All of them were expert rifle shots who came from the +support platoon of the assault troops on the left. +</p> +<p> +Using the forest's undergrowth to shield them, they passed unharmed +through the bullet-swept belt which the Germans were throwing around +Hill No. 223, and reached the valley. Above them was a canopy of lead. +To the north they heard the heavy cannonading of that part of the +battle. +</p> +<p> +When they passed into the valley they found they were within the range +of another battalion of German machine guns. The Germans on the hill at +the far end of the valley were lashing the base of No. 223. +</p> +<p> +For their own protection against the bullets that came with the whip of +a wasp through the tree-tops, the detachment went boldly up the enemy's +hill before them. On the hillside they came to an old trench, which had +been used in an earlier battle of the war. They dropped into it. +</p> +<p> +Moving cautiously, stopping to get their bearings from the sounds of the +guns above them, they walked the trench in Indian file. It led to the +left, around the shoulder of the hill, and into the deep dip of a valley +in the rear. +</p> +<p> +Germans were on the hilltop across that valley. But the daring of the +Americans protected them. The Germans were guarding the valleys and the +passes and they were not looking for enemy in the shadow of the barrels +of German guns. +</p> +<p> +As the trench now led down the hill, carrying the Americans away from +the gunners they sought, the detachment came out of it and took skirmish +formation in the dense and tangled bushes. +</p> +<p> +They had gone but a short distance when they stepped upon a forest path. +Just below them were two Germans, with Red Cross bands upon their arms. +At the sight of the Americans, the Germans dropped their stretcher, +turned and fled around a curve. +</p> +<p> +The sound of the shots fired after them was lost in the clatter of the +machine guns above. One of the Germans fell, but regained his feet, and +both disappeared in the shrubs to the right. +</p> +<p> +It was kill or capture those Germans to prevent exposure of the position +of the invaders, and the Americans went after them. +</p> +<p> +They turned off the path where they saw the stretcher-bearers leave it, +darted through the underbrush, dodged trees and stumps and brushes. +Jumping through the shrubs and reeds on the bank of a small stream, the +Americans in the lead landed in a group of about twenty of the enemy. +</p> +<p> +The Germans sprang to their feet in surprize. They were behind their own +line of battle. Officers were holding a conference with a major. Private +soldiers, in groups, were chatting and eating. They were before a little +shack that was the German major's headquarters, and from it stretched +telephone wires. The Germans were not set for a fight. +</p> +<p> +Out from the brushwood and off the bank across the stream, one after +another, came the Americans. +</p> +<p> +It bewildered the Germans. They did not know the number of the enemy +that had come upon them. As each of the "Buddies" landed, he sensed the +situation, and prepared for an attack from any angle. Some of them fired +at German soldiers whom they saw reaching for their guns. +</p> +<p> +All threw up their hands, with the cry "Kamerad!" when the Americans +opened fire. +</p> +<p> +About their prisoners the Americans formed in a semicircle as they +forced them to disarm. At the left end of this crescent was Alvin +York—a young six-foot mountaineer, who had come to the war from "The +Knobs of Tennessee." He knew nothing of military tactics beyond the +simple evolutions of the drill. Only a few days before had he first seen +the flash of a hostile gun. But a rifle was as familiar to his hands as +one of the fingers upon them. His body was ridged and laced with muscles +that had grown to seasoned sinews from swinging a sledge in a +blacksmith-shop. He had never seen the man or crowd of men of whom he +was afraid. He had hunted in the mountains while forked lightning +flashed around him. He had heard the thunder crash in mountain coves as +loud as the burst of any German shell. He was of that type into whose +brain and heart the qualm of fear never comes. +</p> +<p> +The Americans were on the downstep of the hill with their prisoners on +the higher ground. The major's headquarters had been hidden away in a +thicket of young undergrowth, and the Americans could see but a short +distance ahead. +</p> +<p> +As the semicircle formed with Alvin York on the left end, he stepped +beyond the edge of the thicket—and what he saw up the hill surprized +him. +</p> +<p> +Just forty yards away was the crest, and along it was a row of machine +guns—a battalion of them! +</p> +<p> +The German gunners had heard the shots fired by the Americans in front +of the major's shack, or they had been warned by the fleeing +stretcher-bearers that the enemy was behind them. They were jerking at +their guns, rapidly turning them around, for the nests had been masked +and the muzzles of the guns pointed down into the valley at the foot of +Hill No. 223, to sweep it when the Eighty-Second Division came out into +the open. +</p> +<p> +Some of the Germans in the gun-pits, using rifles, shot at York. The +bullets "burned his face as they passed." He cried a warning to his +comrades which evidently was not heard, for when he began to shoot up +the hill they called to him to stop as the Germans had surrendered. They +saw—only the prisoners before them. +</p> +<p> +There was no time for parley. York's second cry, "Look out!" could carry +no explanation of the danger to those whose view was blinded by the +thicket. The Germans had their guns turned. Hell and death were being +belched down the hillside upon the Americans. +</p> +<p> +At the opening rattle of these guns the German prisoners as if through a +prearranged signal, fell flat to the ground, and the streams of lead +passed over them. Some of the Americans prevented by the thicket from +seeing that an attack was to be made upon them, hearing the guns, +instinctively followed the lead of the Germans. But the onslaught came +with such suddenness that those in the line of fire had no chance. +</p> +<p> +The first sweep of the guns killed six and wounded three of the +Americans. Death leaped through the bushes and claimed Corporal Murray +Savage, Privates Maryan Dymowski, Ralph Weiler, Fred Wareing, William +Wine and Carl Swanson. Crumpled to the ground, wounded, were Sergeant +Bernard Early, who had been in command; Corporal William B. Cutting and +Private Mario Muzzi. +</p> +<p> +York, to escape the guns he saw sweeping toward him, had dived to the +ground between two shrubs. +</p> +<p> +The fire of other machine guns was added to those already in action and +streams of lead continued to pour through the thicket. But the toll of +the dead and wounded of the Americans had been taken. +</p> +<p> +The Germans kept their line of fire about waist-high so they would not +kill their own men, some of whom they could see groveling on the ground. +</p> +<p> +York had seen the murder of his pals in the first onset. He had heard +some one say, "Let's get out of here; we are in the German line!" Then +all had been silence on the American side. +</p> +<p> +German prisoners lay on the ground before him, in view of the gunners on +the hilltop. York edged around until he had a clear view of the gun-pits +above him. The stalks of weeds and undergrowth were about him. +</p> +<p> +There came a lull in the machine gun fire. Several Germans arose as +though to come out of their pits and down the hill to see the battle's +result. +</p> +<p> +But on the American side the battle was just begun. York, from the +brushes at the end of the thicket, "let fly." +</p> +<p> +One of the Germans sprang upward, waved his arms above him as he began +his flight into eternity. +</p> +<p> +The others dropped back into their holes, and there was another clatter +of machine guns and again the bullets slashed across the thicket. +</p> +<p> +But there was silence on the American side. York waited. +</p> +<p> +More cautiously, German heads began to rise above their pits. York moved +his rifle deliberately along the line knocking back those heads that +were the more venturesome. The American rifle shoots five times, and a +clip was gone before the Germans realized that the fire upon them was +coming from one point. +</p> +<p> +They centered on that point. +</p> +<p> +Around York the ground was torn up. Mud from the plowing bullets +besmirched him. The brush was mowed away above and on either side of +him, and leaves and twigs were falling over him. +</p> +<p> +But they could only shoot at him. They were given no chance to take +deliberate aim. As they turned the clumsy barrel of a machine gun down +at the fire-sparking point on the hillside a German would raise his head +above his pit to sight it. Instantly backward along that German machine +gun barrel would come an American bullet—crashing into the head of the +Boche who manned the gun. +</p> +<p> +The prisoners on the ground squirmed under the fire that was passing +over them. Their bodies were in a tortuous motion. But York held them +there; it made the gunners keep their fire high. +</p> +<p> +Every shot York made was carefully placed. As a hunter stops in the +forest and gazes straight ahead, his mind, receptive to the slightest +movement of a squirrel or the rustle of leaves in any of the trees +before him, so this Tennessee mountaineer faced and fought that line of +blazing machine guns on the ridge of the hill before him. His mind was +sensitive to the point in the line that at that instant threatened a +real danger, and instinctively he turned to it. +</p> +<p> +Down the row of prisoners on the ground he saw the German major with a +pistol in his hand, and he made the officer throw the gun to him. Later +its magazine was found to have been emptied. +</p> +<p> +He noted that after he shot at a gun-pit, there was a break in the line +of flame at that point, and an interval would pass before that gun would +again be manned and become a source of danger to him. He also realized +that where there was a sudden break of ten or fifteen feet in the line +of flame, and the trunk of a tree rose within that space, that soon a +German gun and helmet would me peeking around the tree's trunk. A +rifleman would try for him where the machine guns failed. +</p> +<p> +In the mountains of Tennessee Alvin York had won fame as one of the best +shots with both rifle and revolver that those mountains had ever held, +and his imperturbability was as noted as the keenness of his sight. +</p> +<p> +In mountain shooting-matches at a range of forty yards—just the +distance the row of German guns were from him—he would put ten rifle +bullets into a space no larger than a man's thumb-nail. Since a small +boy he had been shooting with a rifle at the bobbing heads of turkeys +that had been tethered behind a log so that only their heads would show. +German heads and German helmets loomed large before him. +</p> +<p> +A battalion of machine guns is a military unit organized to give battle +to a regiment of infantry. Yet, one man, a representative of America on +that hillside on that October morning, broke the morale of a battalion +of machine gunners made up from members of Germany's famous Prussian +Guards. Down in the brush below the Prussians was a human machine gun +they could not hit, and the penalty was death to try to locate him. +</p> +<p> +As York fought, there was prayer upon his lips. He was an elder in a +little church back in the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf" in the +mountains of Tennessee. He prayed to God to spare him and to have mercy +on those he was compelled to kill. When York shot, and a German soldier +fell backward or pitched forward and remained motionless, York would +call to them: +</p> +<p> +"Well! Come on down!" +</p> +<p> +It was an earnest command in which there was no spirit of exultation or +braggadocio. He was praying for their surrender, so that he might stop +killing them. +</p> +<p> +His command, "Come down!" at times, above the firing, was heard in the +German pits. They realized they were fighting one man, and could not +understand the strange demand. +</p> +<p> +When the fight began York was lying on the ground. But as the entire +line of German guns came into the fight, he raised himself to a +sitting position so that his gun would have the sweep of all of them. +</p> +<p> +When the Germans found they could not "get him" with bullets, they tried +other tactics. +</p> +<p> +Off to his left, seven Germans, led by a lieutenant, crept through the +bushes. When about twenty yards away, they broke for him with lowered +bayonets. +</p> +<p> +The clip of York's rifle was nearly empty. He dropped it and took his +automatic pistol. So calmly was he master of himself and so complete his +vision of the situation that he selected as his first mark among the +oncoming Germans the one farthest away. He knew he would not miss the +form of a man at that distance. He wanted the rear men to fall first so +the others would keep coming at him and not stop in panic when they saw +their companions falling, and fire a volley at him. He felt that in such +a volley his only danger lay. They kept coming, and fell as he shot. The +foremost man, and the last to topple, did not get ten yards from where +he started. Their bodies formed a line down the hillside. +</p> +<p> +York resumed the battle with the machine guns. The German fire had +"eased up" while the bayonet charge was on. The gunners paused to watch +the grim struggle below them. +</p> +<p> +The major, from among the prisoners crawled to York with an offer to +order the surrender of the machine gunners. +</p> +<p> +"Do it!" was his laconic acceptance. But his vigilance did not lessen. +</p> +<p> +To the right a German had crawled nearby. He arose and hurled a +hand-grenade. It missed its objective and wounded one of the prisoners. +The American rifle swung quickly and the grenade-thrower pitched forward +with the grunt of a man struck heavily in the stomach pit. +</p> +<p> +The German major blew his whistle. +</p> +<p> +Out of their gun-pits the Germans came—around from behind trees—up +from the brush on either side. They were unbuckling cartridge belts and +throwing them and their side-arms away. +</p> +<p> +York did not move from his position in the brush. About halfway down the +hill as they came to him, he halted them, and he watched the gun-pits +for the movement of anyone left skulking there. His eye went cautiously +over the new prisoners to see that all side-arms had been thrown away. +</p> +<p> +The surrender was genuine. +</p> +<p> +There were about ninety Germans before him with their hands in air. This +gave him over a hundred prisoners. +</p> +<p> +He arose and called to his comrades, and several answered him. Some of +the responses came from wounded men. +</p> +<p> +All of the Americans had been on York's right throughout the fight. The +thicket had prevented them from taking any effective part. They were +forced to protect themselves from the whining bullets that came through +the brush from unseen guns. They had constantly guarded the prisoners +and shielded York from treachery. +</p> +<p> +Seven Americans—Percy Beardsley, Joe Konotski, Thomas G. Johnson, +Feodor Sak, Michael A. Sacina, Patrick Donahue and George W. Wills—came +to him. Sergeant Early, Corporal Cutting and Private Muzzi, tho wounded, +were still alive. +</p> +<p> +He lined the prisoners up "by twos." +</p> +<p> +His own wounded he put at the rear of the column, and forced the Germans +to carry those who could not walk. The other Americans he stationed +along the column to hold the prisoners in line. +</p> +<p> +Sergeant Early, shot through the body, was too severely wounded to +continue in command. York was a corporal, but there was no question of +rank for all turned to him for instructions. The Germans could not take +their eyes off of him, and instantly complied with all his orders, given +through the major, who spoke English. +</p> +<p> +Stray bullets kept plugging through the branches of the trees around +them. For the first time the Americans realized they were under fire +from the Germans on the hill back of them, whom they had seen when they +came out of the deserted trench. The Germans stationed there could not +visualize the strange fight that was taking place behind a line of +German machine guns, and they were withholding their fire to protect +their own men. They were plugging into the woods with rifles, hoping to +draw a return volley, and thus establish the American's position. +</p> +<p> +To all who doubted the possibility of carrying so many prisoners through +the forest, or spoke of reprisal attacks to release them, York's reply +was: +</p> +<p> +"Let's get 'em out of here!" +</p> +<p> +The German major looking down the long line of Germans, possibly +planning some recoup from the shame and ignominy of the surrender of so +many of them, stepped up to York and asked: +</p> +<p> +"How many men have you got?" +</p> +<p> +The big mountaineer wheeled on him: +</p> +<p> +"I got a-plenty!" +</p> +<p> +And the major seemed convinced that the number of the Americans was +immaterial as York thrust his automatic into the major's face and +stepped him up to the head of the column. +</p> +<p> +Among the captives were three officers. +</p> +<p> +These York placed around him to lead the prisoners—one on either side +and the major immediately before him. In York's right hand swung the +automatic pistol, with which he had made an impressive demonstration in +the fight up the hill. The officers were told that at the first sign of +treachery, or for a failure of the men behind to obey a command, the +penalty would be their lives; and the major was informed that he would +be the first to go. +</p> +<p> +With this formation no German skulking on the hill or in the bushes +could fire upon York without endangering the officers. Similar +protection was given all of the Americans acting as escort. +</p> +<p> +Up the hill York started the column. From the topography of the land he +knew there were machine guns over the crest that had had no part in the +fight. +</p> +<p> +Straight to these nests he marched them. As the column approached, the +major was forced by York to command the gunners to surrender. +</p> +<p> +Only one shot was fired after the march began. At one of the nests, a +German, seeing so many Germans as prisoners and so few of the enemy to +guard them—all of them on the German firing-line with machine gun nests +around them—refused to throw down his gun, and showed fight. +</p> +<p> +York did not hesitate. +</p> +<p> +The remainder of that gun's crew took their place in line, and the major +promised York there would be no more delays in the surrenders if he +would kill no more of them. +</p> +<p> +As a great serpent the column wound among the trees on the hilltop +swallowing the crews of German machine guns. +</p> +<p> +After the ridge had been cleared, four machine gun-nests were found down +the hillside. +</p> +<p> +It took all the woodcraft the young mountaineer knew to get to his own +command. They had come back over the hilltop and were on the slope of +the valley in which the Eighty-Second Division was fighting. They were +now in danger from both German and American guns. +</p> +<p> +York listened to the firing, and knew the Americans had reached the +valley—and that some of them had crossed it. Where their line was +running he could not determine. +</p> +<p> +He knew if the Americans saw his column of German uniforms they were in +danger—captors and captives alike—of being annihilated. At any moment +the Germans from the two hilltops down the valley—to check the +Eighty-Second Division's advance—might lay a belt of bullets across +the course they traveled. +</p> +<p> +Winding around the cleared places and keeping in the thickly timbered +section of the hillslope whenever it was possible, Sergeant York worked +his way toward the American line. +</p> +<p> +In the dense woods the German major made suggestions of a path to take. +As York was undecided which one to choose, the major's suggestion made +him go the other one. Frequently the muzzle of York's automatic dimpled +the major's back and he quickened his step, slowed up, or led the column +in the direction indicated to him without turning his head and without +inquiry as to the motive back of York's commands. +</p> +<p> +Down near the foot of the hill, near the trench they had traveled a +short while before, York answered the challenge to "Halt!" +</p> +<p> +He stepped out so his uniform could be seen, and called to the Americans +challenging him, and about to fire on the Germans, that he was "bringing +in prisoners." +</p> +<p> +The American line opened for him to pass, and a wild cheer went up from +the Doughboys when they saw the column of prisoners. Some of them +"called to him to know" if he had the "whole damned German army." +</p> +<p> +At the foot of the hill in an old dugout an American P. C. had been +located, and York turned in his prisoners. +</p> +<p> +The prisoners were officially counted by Lieut. Joseph A. Woods, +Assistant Division Inspector, and there were 132 of them, three of the +number were officers and one with the rank of major. +</p> +<p> +When the Eighty-Second Division passed on, officers of York's regiment +visited the scene of the fight and they counted 25 Germans that he had +killed and 35 machine guns that York had not only silenced but had +unmanned, carrying the men back with him as prisoners. +</p> +<p> +When York was given "his receipt for the prisoners," an incident +happened that shows the true knightliness of character of this untrained +mountaineer. +</p> +<p> +It was but a little after ten o'clock in the morning. The Americans had +a hard day's fighting ahead of them. Somewhere out in the forest York's +own company—Company G—and his own regiment—the 328th Infantry—were +fighting. He made inquiry, but no one could direct him to them. He +turned to the nearest American officer, saluted and reported, "Ready for +duty." +</p> +<p> +What he had done was to him but a part of the work to be done that day. +</p> +<p> +But York was assigned to the command of his prisoners, to carry them +back to a detention camp. The officers were held by the P. C.—for an +examination and grilling on the plans of the enemy. +</p> +<p> +Whenever they could the private soldiers among the prisoners gathered +close to York, now looking to him for their personal safety. +</p> +<p> +On the way to the detention camp the column was shelled by German guns +from one of the hilltops. York maneuvered them and put them in double +quick time until they were out of range. +</p> +<p> +Late in the afternoon, back of the three hills that face Hill No. 223, +the "All America" Division "cut" the Decauville Railroad that supplied a +salient to the north that the Germans were striving desperately to hold. +As they swept on to their objective they found the hill to the left of +the valley, that turns a shoulder toward No. 223—which the people of +France have named "York's Hill"—cleared of Germans, and on its crest, +silent and unmanned machine guns. +</p> +<p> +Americans returned and buried on the hillside—beside a thicket, near a +shack that had been the German officer's headquarters—six American +soldiers. They placed wooden crosses to mark the graves and on the top +of the crosses swung the helmets the soldiers had worn. +</p> +<p> +Out from the forest came the story of what York had done. The men in the +trenches along the entire front were told of it. Not only in the United +States, but in Great Britain, France and Italy, it electrified the +public. From the meager details the press was able to carry, for the +entire Entente firing-line was ablaze and a surrender was being forced +upon Germany, and York's division was out in the Argonne still fighting +its way ahead, the people could but wonder how one man was able to +silence a battalion of machine guns and bring in so many prisoners. +</p> +<p> +Major-General George B. Duncan, commander of the Eighty-Second Division, +and officers of York's regiment knew that history had been made upon +that hillside. By personal visits of the regiment's officers to the +scene, by measurements, by official count of the silent guns and the +silent dead, by affidavits from those who were with York, the record of +his achievement was verified. +</p> +<p> +Major-General C. P. Summerall, before the officers of York's regiment, +said to him: +</p> +<p> +"Your division commander has reported to me your exceedingly gallant +conduct during the operations of your division in the Meuse-Argonne +Battle. I desire to express to you my pleasure and commendation for the +courage, skill, and gallantry which you displayed on that occasion. It +is an honor to command such soldiers as you. Your conduct reflects great +credit not only upon the American army, but upon the American people. +Your deeds will be recorded in the history of this great war and they +will live as an inspiration not only to your comrades but to the +generations that will come after us." +</p> +<p> +General John J. Pershing in pinning the Congressional Medal of Honor +upon him—the highest award for valor the United States Government +bestows—called York the greatest civilian soldier of the war. +</p> +<p> +Marshal Foch, bestowing the Croix de Guerre with Palm upon him, said his +feat was the World War's most remarkable individual achievement. +</p> +<p> +A deed that is done through the natural use of a great talent seems to +the doer of the deed the natural thing to have done. A sincere response +to appreciation and praise, made by those endowed with real ability, +usually comes cloaked in a genuine modesty. +</p> +<p> +At his home in the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf," after the +war was over, I asked Alvin York how he came to be "Sergeant York." +</p> +<p> +"Well," he said, as he looked earnestly at me, "you know we were in the +Argonne Forest twenty-eight days, and had some mighty hard fighting in +there. A lot of our boys were killed off. Every company has to have so +many sergeants. They needed a sergeant; and they jes' took me." +</p> +<p> +In the summer of 1917 when Alvin York was called to war, he was working +on the farm for $25 a month and his midday meal, walking to and from his +work. He was helping to support his widowed mother with her family of +eleven. When he returned to this country to be mustered out of service +he had traveled among the soldiers of France the guest of the American +Expeditionary Force, so the men in the lines could see the man who +single-handed had captured a battalion of machine guns, and he bore the +emblems of the highest military honors conferred for valor by the +governments composing the Allies. +</p> +<p> +At New York he was taken from the troop-ship when it reached harbor and +the spontaneous welcome given him there and at Washington was not +surpassed by the prearranged demonstrations for the Nation's +distinguished foreign visitors. +</p> +<p> +The streets of those cities were lined with people to await his coming +and police patrols made way for him. The flaming red of his hair, his +young, sunburned, weather-ridged face with its smile and its strength, +the worn service cap and uniform, all marked him to the crowds as the +man they sought. +</p> +<p> +On the shoulders of members of the New York Stock Exchange he was +carried to the floor of the Exchange and business was suspended. When he +appeared in the gallery of the House of Representatives at Washington, +the debate was stopped and the members turned to cheer him. A sergeant +in rank, he sat at banquets as the guest of honor with the highest +officials of the Army and Navy and the Government on either side. +Wherever he went he heard the echo of the valuation which Marshal Foch +and General Pershing placed upon his deeds. +</p> +<p> +Many business propositions were made to him. Some were substantial and +others strange, the whimsical offerings of enthused admirers. +</p> +<p> +Among them were cool fortunes he could never earn at labor. +</p> +<p> +Taking as a basis the money he was paid for three months on the farm in +the summer before he went to France, he would have had to work fifty +years to earn the amount he was offered for a six-weeks' theatrical +engagement. For the rights to the story of his life a single newspaper +was willing to give him the equivalent of thirty-three years. He would +have to live to be over three hundred years of age to earn at the old +farm wage the sum motion picture companies offered, as a guarantee. +</p> +<p> +He turned all down, and went back to the little worried mother who was +waiting for him in a hut in the mountains, to the gazelle-like mountain +girl whose blue eyes had haunted the shades of night and the shadows of +trees, to the old seventy-five acre farm that clings to one of the +sloping sides of a sun-kissed valley in Tennessee. He refused to +capitalize his fame, his achievements that were crowded into a few +months in the army of his country. +</p> +<p> +There was one influence that was ever guiding him. The future had to +square to the principles of thought and action he had laid down for +himself and that he had followed since he knelt, four years before, at a +rough-boarded altar in a little church in the "Valley of the Three Forks +o' the Wolf," whose belfry had been calling, appealing to him since +childhood. +</p> +<p> +Admiral Albert Gleaves, who commanded the warship convoy for the +troop-ships, himself a Tennesseean, made a prediction which came true. +"The guns of Argonne and the batteries of welcome of the East were not +to be compared to those to be turned loose in York's home state." +</p> +<p> +The people of Tennessee filled depots, streets and tabernacles to +welcome him. Gifts awaited him, which ranged from a four-hundred acre +farm raised by public subscriptions by the Rotary Clubs and newspapers, +to blooded stock for it, and almost every form of household furnishings +that could add to man's comfort. It took a ware-room at Nashville and +the courtesies of the barns of the State Fair Association to hold the +gifts. +</p> +<p> +He was made a Colonel by the Governor of Tennessee, and appointed a +member of his staff. He was elected to honorary membership in many +organizations. As far away as Spokane the "Red Headed Club" thought him +worthy of their membership "by virtue of the color of his hair and in +recognition of his services to this, our glorious country." +</p> +<p> +The nations of Europe for whom he fought had not forgotten nor had they +ceased to honor him. After he had returned to the mountains of +Tennessee, another citation came from the French Government for a +military award that had been made him, and in a ceremony at the capital +of Tennessee the Italian Government conferred upon him the Italian Cross +of War. +</p> +<p> +The "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf," where Alvin York was born +and lives, which has been the home of his ancestors for more than a +hundred years, is a level fertile valley that is almost a rectangle in +form. Three mountains rising on the north and south and west enclose it, +while to the east four mountains jumble together, forming the fourth +side. It seems that each of these is striving for a place by the valley. +</p> +<p> +It is down the passes of these mountains on the east that the three +branches of the Wolf River run, and it is their meeting and commingling +that gave the quaint name to the valley. +</p> +<p> +The forks of the Wolf rush down the passes, but the river runs lazily +through the valley. It flows beside a cornfield, then wanders over to a +meadow of clover or into a patch of sugar-cane, turning the while from +side to side as the varying mountain vistas come into view. At the far +end where it is pushed over the mill dam and out of the valley, the Wolf +roars protestingly; then rushes on to the Cumberland River a silver line +between the mountains. +</p> +<p> +Pall Mall, the village, is co-extensive with the "Valley of the Three +Forks o' the Wolf." As a stranger first sees Pall Mall it is but a +half-mile of the mountain roadway that runs from Jamestown, the county +seat of Fentress county, to Byrdstown, the county seat of Pickett. +</p> +<p> +The roadway comes down from the top of "The Knobs," a thousand feet +above, and it comes over rocks of high and low degree, a jolting, +impressive journey for its traveler. It reaches the foot of the mountain +along one of the prongs of the Wolf, crosses them at the base of the +eastern mountains and passes on to the northern side of the river. +</p> +<p> +At the post office of Pall Mall, which is also the store of "Paster" +Pile—a frame building upon stilts to allow an unobstructed flow of the +Wolf when on a winter rampage—the road turns at right angles to the +west. Through fields of corn it goes, across a stretch of red clover to +the clump of forest trees which is the schoolhouse grounds and in which +nestles the little church that has played such a prominent part in the +life of the village. Then the road goes beside the graveyard and again +through corn to the general store of John Marion Rains, which with five +houses in sight—and one of these the York home—marks the western +confine of Pall Mall. +</p> +<p> +One can be in the center of Pall Mall and not know it, for the residents +live in farm houses that dot the valley and in cabins on the +mountainsides. The little church, which sits by the road with no homes +near it, is the geographical as well as the religious center of the +community—it is the heart of Pall Mall. +</p> +<p> +Passing the Rains store the roadway tumbles down to the York's big +spring. A brook in volume the stream flows clear and cool from a low +rock-ribbed cave in the base of the mountain. +</p> +<p> +Across the spring branch, up the mountainside in a clump of honey-suckle +and roses and apple trees is the home to which Sergeant York returned. +</p> +<p> +It is a two-room cabin. The boxing is of rough boards as are the +unplaned narrow strips of batting covering the cracks. There is a +chimney at one end and in one room is a fireplace. The kitchen is a +"lean-to" and the only porch is on the rear, the width of the +kitchen-dining room. The porch is for service and work, railed partly +with a board for a shelf, which holds the water-bucket, the tin wash +basin and burdens brought in from the farm. +</p> +<p> +Parts of the walls of the two rooms are papered with newspapers and +catalog pages; the rough rafters run above. The uncovered floor is of +wide boards, worn smooth in service, chinked to keep out the blasts of +winter. +</p> +<p> +The porch in the rear is on a level with the mountainside. To care for +the mountain's slope a front stoop was built. The sides of it are +scantlings and the steps are narrow boards. +</p> +<p> +The house has been painted by Poverty; but the home is warmed and lit by +a mountain mother's love. The front stoop is a wooden ladder with flat +steps but the entrance to the home is an arbor of honey suckle and +roses. +</p> +<p> +On summer nights the York boys sat on that stoop and sang, and their +voices floated on the moonbeams out over the valley. The little mother +"pottered" about, with ever a smile on her face for her boys. They were +happy. +</p> +<p> +It was from this home that Alvin went to war, and it was to it he +returned. +</p> +<p> +Visitors know, and it is well for others to realize, that Pall Mall and +the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf" are back among the rising +ranges of the Cumberland Mountains forty-eight miles from the railroad. +</p> +<p> +Alvin York came from a line of ancestors who were cane-cutters and +Indian fighters. The earliest ancestor of whom he has knowledge was a +"Long Hunter," who with a rifle upon his shoulder strode into the Valley +of the Wolf and homesteaded the river bottom-lands. Here his people +lived far from the traveled paths. Marooned in their mountain +fastnesses, they clung to the customs and the traditions of the past. +Their life was simple, and their sports quaint. They held +shooting-matches on the mountainside, enjoyed "log-rollings" and +"corn-huskings." Strong in their loves and in their hates, they feared +God, but feared no man. The Civil War swept over the valley and left +splotches of blood. +</p> +<p> +Friends of Sergeant York, knowing that the history of his people was +rich in story, and that the public was waiting, wanting to know more of +the man the German army could not run, nor make surrender—and instead +had to come to him—urged that his story be told. +</p> +<p> +He had been mustered out of the army and come back to the valley wanting +to pick up again the dropped thread of his former life. He was striving +earnestly and prayerfully to blot from recurrent memory that October +morning scene on "York's Hill" in France. +</p> +<p> +His friends and neighbors at Pall Mall waited eagerly for his return. +They wanted to hear from his own lips the story of his fight. +</p> +<p> +No man of the mountains was ever given the home-coming that was his. It +was made the reunion of the people, with the neighbors the component +parts of one great family. +</p> +<p> +When home again, Alvin wanted no especial deference shown him. He wished +to be again just one of them, to swing himself upon the counter at the +general store and talk with them as of old. He had much to tell from his +experience, but always it was of other incidents than the one that made +him famous. +</p> +<p> +Months passed. He lived in that mountain cabin with his little mother, +whose counsel has ever influenced him, and yet not once did he mention +to her that he had a fight in the Forest of Argonne. +</p> +<p> +His consent was gained for the publication of the story of his people, +but it was with the pronounced stipulation that "it be told right." +</p> +<p> +Weeks afterward—for I had gone to live awhile among his people—the two +of us were sitting upon the rugged rock, facing to the cliff above the +York spring, talking about the fight in France. +</p> +<p> +He told of it hesitatingly, modestly. Some of the parts was simply the +confirmation of assembled data; much of it, denial of published rumor +and conjecture—before the story came out as a whole. +</p> +<p> +I asked the meaning of his statement that he would not "mind the +publication if the story were done right." +</p> +<p> +"Well," he said with his mountain drawl, "I don't want you bearing down +too much on that killing part. Tell it without so much of that!" +</p> +<p> +A rock was picked up and hurled down the mountain. +</p> +<p> +I then understood why the little mother was "jes' a-waiting till Alvin +gits ready to talk." I understood why the son did not wish to be the one +to bring into his mother's mind the picture of that hour in France when +men were falling before his gun. I saw the reason he had for always +courteously avoiding talking of the scene with anyone. +</p> +<p> +"But," and he turned with that smile that wins him friends, "I just +can't help chuckling at that German major. I sure had him bluffed." +</p> +<p> +According to the code of mountain conversation there followed a silence. +Another rock bounded off the sapling down the cliff. +</p> +<p> +"You should have seen the major," he resumed, "move on down that hill +whenever I pulled down on him with that old Colt. 'Goose-step it', I +think they call it. He was so little! His back so straight! And all +huffed up over the way he had to mind me." +</p> +<p> +I had watched the rocks as they went down the cliff and it seemed nearly +every one of them bounced off the same limb. I commented on the accuracy +of his eye. +</p> +<p> +"Aw! I wasn't throwing at that sapling, but at—that—leaf." +</p> +<p> +He straightened up and threw more carefully; and the leaf floated down +to the waters of the York spring. +</p> +<p> +Down by the spring I met the little mother bringing a tin bucket to the +stone milk-house which nature had built. Her slender, drooping figure, +capped by the sunbonnet she always wore, reached just to the shoulder of +her son, as he placed his arm protectingly about her. +</p> +<p> +I asked if she were not proud of that boy of hers. +</p> +<p> +"Yes," she answered, with pride in every line of her sweet though +wrinkled face, "I am proud of all of them—all of my eight boys!" +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0003"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + II — A "Long Hunter" Comes to the Valley +</h2> +<p> +The "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf" is more than a fertile space +between two mountain ranges. It is a rectangular basin of verdure and +beauty in the glow of a Southern sun, around which seven mountains have +grown to their maturity. Generously, for uncounted years, this family of +the hills has given to the valley the surplus products of their timbered +slopes, and the Wolf River has gone through the valley distributing the +wealth the mountains brought in, brightening and adding touches of +beauty here and there, ever singing as she came down to her daily task. +The mountains and the river have worked unceasingly together to make the +spot a place of comfort and beauty. +</p> +<p> +On the bare rock-shoulder of one of these mountains, in the closing +years of the eighteenth century, stood one of the last of the "Long +Hunters," that race of stout-hearted, sturdy-legged men who when the +Atlantic Coast was dotted with sparsely settled British colonies climbed +the mountains and went down the western slopes on the long hunts in the +unknown land that lay below. They were the pioneers of the pioneers, who +in their wanderings found a spot rich in game, in nuts and soil—such a +home as they had wished—and they beckoned back for their families and +their friends. +</p> +<p> +The figure upon the rock-ledge rested upon a long, muzzle-loading, +flint-lock rifle as he looked out over the valley. His legs were wrapped +in crudely tanned hides made from game he had killed. His cap was of +coon-skin. His search for adventure and game had carried him across the +crest of the Cumberlands and along many weary, lonely miles of the +western wooded slopes of those mountains. Years afterward he is known to +have said that the view from the crag that day was the most appealing in +its calmness and its beauty that he had seen upon his hunts. +</p> +<p> +Below him stretched a grove of trees. Their waving tops told of their +size and to his trained woodsman's eye the quivering oval leaves were +the leaves of the walnut. It was assurance that the soil was rich. And +through the length of the valley, twisted irregularly, lay a wide ribbon +of saffron cane, from which at times the silver surface of a stream +showed—a further evidence of the soil's fertility. Over the western +edge of this tableland of green and yellow and silver the mountains cast +a shadow of purple and the sun filtered slanting rays through the forest +slopes on the north and east. +</p> +<p> +Down the mountainside he came, and into the valley; never to leave it, +except when in bartering with the Indians he went to their +camping-places for furs, or in the years of prosperity that followed he +was upon a trading mission. +</p> +<p> +He first made his way through "Walnut Grove" in search of the caned +banks of the river. As he pushed through the reeds that swayed above him +he came suddenly upon a well-beaten path. In its dust were the prints of +deer-hoofs, and he followed them. The path threaded the length of the +valley beside the river's winding course, but he knew from the crests of +the mountains above him the direction he was taking. +</p> +<p> +It led him to the base of one of these mountains, to a spring which +flowed clear and cool, a brook in size, from a low rock-ribbed cave. +</p> +<p> +By the spring he cooked his meal. His bread was baked upon a hot stone +and he drank water from a terrapin shell. As he ate his meal there came +the sound of breaking cane, a familiar welcomed vibration to a hunter. A +stone, that is still by the spring side, was used as a shelter and a +resting-place for the rifle, and a deer fell as it stopped, astonished +at the curling smoke that rose from its watering-place. +</p> +<p> +This was the first meal of the white man at the York spring or in the +"Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf," and for more than fifty years +the hunter lived within a hundred yards of where he camped that day. He +was Conrad Pile—or "Old Coonrod," as he is known, the descriptive +adjectives and byname ever coupled as though one word. He was the +great-great-grandfather of Sergeant Alvin Cullom York, and the earliest +ancestor of which he has account. +</p> +<p> +Above the spring in the rock-facing of the cliff is a large cave. Here +Coonrod Pile spread a bed of leaves and made his home. The camp-fire was +kept burning and its smoke was seen by other hunters, and Pearson +Miller, Arthur Frogge, John Riley and Moses Poor came to Coonrod in the +valley, and they too made their homes there, and Pall Mall was founded +and descendants of these men are today eighty per cent of the residents +in the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf." +</p> +<p> +This is but one of the many valley settlements made by "Long Hunters" in +the Appalachian Mountains. Adventurous families in the last days of the +Colonies and in the years that came after the Revolution, followed the +hunters, and log cabins and "cleared spaces" appeared in the valleys and +on the mountainsides. And from them sprang another race of long hunters +who went out from the mountains down into the valleys of the Ohio and +the Mississippi, returning to tell of the land and the game they had +found. Not far from Pall Mall, as the crow would rise and journey, is a +carving upon a tree that is believed, to historically mark the path of +the most noted of the "Long Hunters," and it says: +</p> +<p> +"D Boon CillED a BAR On Tree in ThE yEAR 1760." +</p> +<p> +Emigrants of those days settled as Coonrod Pile and his companions took +up their "squatter's rights" in the Valley o' the Wolf. As +canvas-covered mountain-schooners carrying families of the settlers +moved westward they followed the trails of the hunters and stopped where +it appealed to them. Wagon-tracks grew into roads as the travel +increased. And the roads unvaryingly led to the passes and the gaps in +the mountains that offered the least resistance to progress. So +scattered throughout the ranges of the Appalachians are many homes and +settlements off from the old, beaten, wagon-trails, far distant from the +railroads of to-day, reached only over rocky, rarely-worked roadways. +</p> +<p> +Those who dwell there are the direct descendants of pioneers. Here they +had lived for generations unmolested by the rush and hurry for homes to +the more fertile West. Often in those days a mountain neighbor was forty +miles away, and they were long rugged miles. To-day a traveler distant +on the mountainside can be recognized by the mountaineers while the +man's features are still untraceable, by the droop of a hat or a +peculiar walk, or amble of the mule he rides. In the case of any +traveler along those remote roads the odds are long that the man, his +father, his grandfather—as far back as anyone can remember—all were +born and raised in the neighborhood, and the neighborhood is the valleys +and the cleared spaces on the sides of all the mountains near around. +</p> +<p> +So the mountaineer of to-day is the transplanted colonist of the +eighteenth century; he is the backwoodsman of the days of Andrew +Jackson; his life has the hospitality, the genuineness and simplicity of +the pioneer. It has been said of the residents of the Cumberland +Mountains that they are the purest Anglo-Saxons to be found to-day and +not even England can produce so clear a strain. +</p> +<p> +The mountain families have intermarried and because of the +inaccessibility of their homes have remained marooned in their mountain +fastnesses. They are Anglo-Saxon in their blood and their customs. They +are Colonial-Americans in their speech and credences. +</p> +<p> +They have a love for daring that comes from the wildness and freedom of +their surroundings. They have a directness of mind that is the result of +unconscious training. They must be sure of the firmness of each footstep +they take, and it is through and past obstructions that they locate +their game. They are keen of observation, for the movement of a shadow +or the swaying of a weed may mean the presence of a fox, or a dropping +hickory-nut indicate the flight of a squirrel. They are physically +brave, for it is the inheritance of all who live in mountains. Their +word is accepted, for they wish the good will of the few among whom they +must spend their lives; and to them lying is a form of cowardice. +</p> +<p> +They are sensitive because they are observant and realize they have been +criticized and misunderstood—misclassed as a rare race of "moonshiners" +and "feudists." +</p> +<p> +Quickly and clearly they see through any veneer of democracy the +stranger may assume, to conceal an assumption of superiority. Yet for +the stranger on the roadside, in answer to the halloo at their gate, the +mountaineers are willing to go out of their way to do a favor, and they +will cheerfully share such food and comforts as they may have, with any +man. But they give their confidence only in proportion to demonstrations +of manhood and genuineness, and as humanists they are not in a hurry. If +there is an aura of caste, the distinctions must be created by those who +have come as strangers into the mountains and not by the mountaineer. +</p> +<p> +They know they are not ignorant, except as everyone is ignorant who +lacks contact with new customs and changes in world progress. They are +fully cognizant of their lack of that knowledge which "comes only out of +a book." But whatever their educational shortcomings, no one has ever +laid at their door the charge of stupidity. +</p> +<p> +Raised in nature's school they are masters of its non-elective course. +They know by the arc the baying hounds make the size of the circle the +fox will take and where to intercept him. They can tell by the distance +up the mountain's side where the dogs are running whether the fox is red +or gray. They know by the sound a rock makes as it is dropped into the +stream the depth of the ford. They have even a classical finish to their +woodland schooling and they find a pleasure in noting that the bullfrog +sits with his back to the water as the moon rises and faces it as the +moon sets. +</p> +<p> +They know the signs of changing weather that will affect their crops. +The tints of the clouds that float above them convey a meaning. There +are cause and effect in the wind that continues in one direction. They +watch the actions of wild animals and fowls, and they are wise enough to +attribute to beast and bird an intuitive protective sense superior to +their own. They note when the moss has grown heavier on the north side +of the tree. +</p> +<p> +The steadiness of their poise and their silence in the presence of +strangers is not due to moroseness or the absence of active thought. +They have learned in the woods, if they are to be successful in their +hunts, to be personally as unobtrusive as possible, often to remain +motionless, and all the while to watch and listen alertly. Whenever they +can be of real assistance, no one can more quickly or more generously +respond. +</p> +<p> +They have their own standard of values in personal intercourse, and they +can wait patiently and in impressive silence. They are always willing +for someone else to hold the spotlight on their rural stage. +</p> +<p> +About themselves they are naturally taciturn, and public and unfriendly +criticism has been proved to be a hazardous diversion. If the thought +and comment of the stranger upon the mountaineer could be compared with +the keen and often humorous analysis of the stranger the score would be +found in surprizing frequency on the side of the calm and silent +mountaineer. +</p> +<p> +They give but little heed to the clothes a man wears but look clear-eyed +at the man within the clothes. They have no criticism for the way a man +says his say, so he has something to say. A noted college professor, +himself a mountain boy, maintains: +</p> +<p> +"I would rather hear a boy say 'I seed' when he had really seen +something, than to hear a boy say 'I saw' when he had not seen it." +</p> +<p> +Old Coonrod Pile lived in the valley until his life spanned from the +days when it was a hunting-ground of the Indians to the time when he can +be remembered by some of the men and women now living in Pall Mall, who +knew him as the most influential man of his time in the section, the +owner of the river-bottom farm land, vast acres of hardwood timber, a +general store and a flour mill worked by his slaves—a man grown to such +enormous size and weight that in his last days he went about his farm +and to oversee his workers in a two-wheeled cart pulled by oxen. +</p> +<p> +Those of the valley who now remember him were children when he died, for +he was born on March 16, 1766, and his death occurred on October 14, +1849. +</p> +<p> +He saw his valley home changed from a part of the State of Franklin to a +part of the State of Kentucky, then to Tennessee, and the abstracts to +the deeds for land he owned show that Pall Mall was first in Granger +county, later in Overton and finally in Fentress county as the State of +Tennessee developed. Pall Mall is but seven miles from the Kentucky +line, and for many years Coonrod thought he had taken up his residence +within the Kentucky border. +</p> +<p> +Settlers of those days in leaving the Carolinas and Virginia traveled +usually due west in search for a new home. It was this belief that he +had settled in Kentucky that has led many to the opinion that Coonrod's +former home was in Virginia. Others, without more definite knowledge for +foundation, maintain that as he settled in Tennessee he had lived in +North Carolina. The written word was rarely used and the stories of the +earlier days in the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf" are +tradition. +</p> +<p> +In a newly settled territory a man's birthplace and antecedents are +facts immaterial to the community's welfare and many incidents +historical in nature concerning Old Coonrod have been lost in the +waste-basket of forgetfulness and no one now at Pall Mall has "heard +tell of jes' where he come from." Yet some readily say that he came from +"over yonder," and they point back across the mountains toward North +Carolina. +</p> +<p> +In the first map of Tennessee, made by Daniel Smith, there is a dip in +the northern boundary of the state line where Fentress county is +located. But this was found to be an error of survey and later +corrected. The surveyors of those days were men of courtesy and +accommodation, for in the establishment of the Tennessee-Virginia line +they surveyed around the southern boundary of the farm of a hospitable +host and left his lands in Virginia because the old fellow maintained he +had never had any health except in the mountains of Virginia. +</p> +<p> +That Coonrod was of English descent there seems scarcely room for doubt, +and "Pile," or "Pyle" and "Pall Mall" stand as mute testimony. And +"York" too is a component part of old England. +</p> +<p> +I was never able to learn why the village was given its unique name and +there is no tradition that associates it with the noted street in +London, though even to-day Pall Mall in Fentress county is but a single +road. I asked a white-haired mountaineer how long the place had been +known as Pall Mall. With a memory-reviving shake of his head that ended +in a convinced nod, his answer was, "quite a-whit." +</p> +<p> +And that is the nearest I ever came to accuracy. +</p> +<p> +But seeing his reply did not contain the information wanted he looked at +me thoughtfully and said: +</p> +<p> +"Hit's jes' like 'Old Crow!' Every morning for eighty-two years I ha' +looked up at the rocks o' that mountain 'en they h'aint changed a-bit." +</p> +<p> +The government records show that Pall Mall was made a post-office on +April 3, 1832. +</p> +<p> +Old Coonrod was a man of Big Business for his time; one of force of +character who dominated his community and who "sized his man" by +standards that were peculiarly his own. +</p> +<p> +A man would come to him to buy a "poke" of corn or flour, or for a +favor. To the surprize of the stranger the favor might be over-granted +or the corn given without cost; or, upon the other hand, he would be +bruskly dismissed without the least effort at explanation. Unknown to +the stranger the condition of his "britches" had probably given him his +credit rating with Old Coonrod, for he held that patches upon the front +of trousers, if the seat were whole, were decorations of honor, showing +the man had torn them doing something, going forward. But, if the front +of the trousers were good and the seat of them patched, no dealings of +any nature were to be had with the dictator of the valley, for to Old +Coonrod it meant the man "was like a rabbit; he could not stop without +sitting down." +</p> +<p> +But the residents of the valley, many of them Methodists, claim this +estimate works a hardship upon members of their faith for a good +Methodist could wear the knees out at prayer and the seat out in +"backsliding." +</p> +<p> +Old Coonrod's trading with the Indians was a series of successes. He is +known to have had their confidence and friendship, and he was arbitrator +between them and his neighbors whenever disputes arose. +</p> +<p> +Fentress county lying on the western slope of the Cumberlands was part +of the great hunting-grounds of the Shawnees, Cherokees, Creeks, +Chickamaugas, Chickasaws, and even the Iroquois of New York. The basin +of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, that part now Tennessee and +Kentucky, was claimed by each of these tribes as its own, not as home +but as a hunting-ground, and when bands of hunters of rival tribes met +in the territory each fought the other as an invader, and their battles +gave to Kentucky its Indian name, meaning in the Indian tongue the "Dark +and Bloody Ground." +</p> +<p> +But Old Coonrod kept pace with all of them and prospered from their +friendship, and an Indian trail turned and led close to where he lived. +The last of the Indians passed through the valley in 1842. +</p> +<p> +As Old Coonrod prospered he bought land and slaves, and was a large +owner of both in his day. He was a cautious and judicious purchaser of +realty. The court records show that at some time or other he was the +owner of the most desirable parts of Fentress county. He held title to +the land upon which Jamestown, the county seat, now stands, which is the +"Obedstown" of Mark Twain's "Gilded Age." He owned "Rock Castle," a +tract of hardwood timber that is enclosed by mountains and can be +reached by but one passageway, a place that became famous during the +Civil War. He bought and sold much of the county's best farming-land +along Yellow Creek. +</p> +<p> +Fentress was made a county of Tennessee in 1823 and the first four pages +of the new county's records of deeds show that within eighteen months +Conrad Pile had added, through a number of trades, over six hundred +acres to his already large holdings. +</p> +<p> +So cautious in land titles was he that at the time of his death he owned +three rights to his home-place including the farming-land along Wolf +River. The first was his squatter's rights, which he had homesteaded. +But against this, North Carolina in ceding the territory of Tennessee to +the United States Government reserved title to the land grants the state +had offered to her soldiers of the Revolutionary War, and "one Henry +Rowan" of North Carolina entered warrants given him on March 10, 1780. +The Revolutionary soldiers had twenty years to locate their grants, and +in 1797 Rowan appeared with surveyors, claiming by his entry of 1780 the +"Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf." He operated under two land +warrants of 320 acres each, and in his registry of one of them he +specified "a tract on the north side of Spring Creek (now Wolf River), +together with the improvements of Coonrod Pile." +</p> +<p> +Old Coonrod traded with him, and Rowan took up his residence in what is +now Overton county. As late as 1817 there appeared "one Vincent Benham" +with title under a conflicting grant dated in 1793. Old Coonrod traded +with him and with "$10 in hand" Benham went his way. +</p> +<p> +But the deeds which Coonrod recorded were voluminous, with corners as +explicitly marked as any land title of to-day. Up on one of the +mountainsides upon a rock there is a crudely carved "X" which was made +by Coonrod to mark a corner which called for a "beech tree" that has +disappeared, and this mark and the forks of Wolf River, corners in +Coonrod's titles, stand to-day as survey points for the boundaries of +the farms now in the valley. +</p> +<p> +Coonrod built his home beside the spring, now known as "York Spring." +Its yard includes the spot where he made his first camp and where he +killed his first deer. Characteristic of him, he built well. The house +was hewn logs, large logs, some of them over fifty feet in length. And +the dwelling is now owned and occupied by one of his great +grandchildren, William Brooks, the only brother of the mother of +Sergeant York. The house is to-day one of the most substantial in the +valley. Just across the spring branch and up the mountainside is the +York home. +</p> +<p> +Old Coonrod built one of the rooms without windows and with only one +door. That door led into his own room and opened by his bedside. In this +windowless room he kept his valuables and it was both a safe and a bank +for him. Into a keg covered carelessly with hides he tossed any gold +coin that came to him in his trades. His rifle was kept there. He had +the prongs of a pitchfork straightened and sharpened. The latter was his +burglar insurance and he felt amply able to take care of his savings. +And in those days men frequently passed through the valley whose +occupations were unknown and whose countenances were often evil to look +upon. +</p> +<p> +Pall Mall is not without its legend of the hidden keg of gold. It is +known that Old Coonrod had his keg and kept in it his gold pieces. It is +not known just when and why this method of saving was abandoned by him. +But after his death no trace of the keg was found and it is said that +upon his deathbed he tried to give his sons a message which was never +completed, and it is believed he wished to reveal where his gold was +hidden. +</p> +<p> +There are some who say he was seen to go up a ravine with a mysterious +bundle and to return without it. The ravine is pointed out. It opens on +the roadway about halfway between the Rains' store and the old home of +Coonrod. +</p> +<p> +But there is no myth to the present-day side of the story. More than +squirrels and rabbits have been hunted up that ravine. +</p> +<p> +But the legend of the hidden keg of gold is popular in many of the +valleys of the Appalachians, and it will even be found to have leaped +the valley of the Mississippi and almost identical in form appear and +appeal to the impressionable imaginations of those who live in the Ozark +Mountains to the west of that river. +</p> +<p> +There was but one thing in which Old Coonrod stood really in fear, +something not made or controlled by man. It was lightning. Whenever a +heavy thunder-storm broke over the mountains Coonrod, even in the last +years of his life when he had grown so fat, ran with all the speed he +could command for the cave above the spring, Here he would stay, +muttering and unapproachable, until the storm abated. Then he would come +from the cave swearing in that deep voice that carried both power and +terror, and, as the story goes, "for hours 'niggers' would be hopping +all over the valley." +</p> +<p> +Coonrod had a genuine admiration for the man or beast willing to fight +for his rights. Once finding one of his jacks eating his growing corn, +he put his dog upon him. The jack was old and small and shaggy. He +turned upon the dog sent after him and seizing the aggressor by the hair +at his back lifted him from the ground and maintaining his dignity +trotted out of the corn-field carrying the squirming dog. That jack was +pensioned. He was given his full supply of corn in winter and granted +the freedom of the meadows and the mountainsides in summer. Old Coonrod +would never sell him. +</p> +<p> +John M. Clemens, Mark Twain's father, lived in Jamestown when his +"dwelling constituted one-fifteenth of Obedstown." He and Coonrod Pile +were close friends, Pile helping elect Clemens to be the first Circuit +Court Clerk of Fentress county. Both were firm believers in the future +value of the timber, coal, iron and copper to be found in the mountains. +In the 30's both acquired all the acreage their resources would permit. +</p> +<p> +Mark Twain makes "Squire Si Hawkins" of "The Gilded Age," +</p> +<pre> + [Footnote: Copyright by Clara Gahrilowitsch and Susan Lee Warner. + Harper & Bros., Publishers, N. Y. Permission is also granted by the + Estate of Samuel L. Clemens and the Mark Twain Co.] +</pre> +<p> +conceded to be drawn from the life of his father, struggle to keep the +value or the land unknown to the "natives." Squire Hawkins confides to +his wife that the "black stuff that crops out on the bank of the branch" +was coal, and tells of his effort to keep a neighbor from building a +chimney out of it. +</p> +<p> +"Why it might have caught fire and told everything. I showed him it was +too crumbly. Then he was going to build it of copper ore—splendid +yellow forty per-cent ore. There's fortunes upon fortunes upon our land! +It scared me to death. The idea of this fool starting a smelting furnace +in his house without knowing it and getting his dull eyes opened. And +then he was going to build it out of iron ore! There's mountains of iron +here, Nancy, whole mountains of it. I wouldn't take any chance, I just +stuck by him—I haunted him—I never let him alone until he built it of +mud and sticks, like all the rest of the chimneys in this dismal +country." +</p> +<p> +Again "Squire Hawkins'" appreciation of the speculative value of his +lands is shown in a talk with his wife: +</p> +<p> +"The whole tract would not sell for even over a third of a cent an acre +now, but some day people will be glad to get it for twenty dollars, +fifty dollars, a hundred dollars an acre." (Here he dropped his voice to +a whisper and looked anxiously around to see there were no +eavesdroppers—"a thousand dollars an acre!") +</p> +<p> +To-day many of the acres owned by Coonrod Pile and John M. Clemens have +passed the hundred-dollar mark and are climbing toward that whispered +and seemingly fabulous figure. And this, too, before the coming of the +railroad for which "Squire Hawkins" could not wait. +</p> +<p> +Twain delighted to have "Squire Hawkins" sit upon "the pyramid of large +blocks called the stile, in front of his home, contemplating the +morning." But John M. Clemens had his practical side, and the +specifications for the first jail for Fentress county, drawn by Clemens +and in his own handwriting made part of the county's records in 1827, +show a very substantial strain: +</p> +<p> +"To wit, for a jail, a house of logs hewed a foot square, twelve feet in +the clear, two stories high, and this surrounded by another wall +precisely of the same description, with a space between the two walls of +about eight or ten inches, and that space filled completely with skinned +hickory poles, the ground floor to be formed of sills hewed about a foot +square and laid closely .... the logs to extend through the inner wall +of the building"—etc. +</p> +<p> +And that jail was standing serviceable and strong until a few years ago +when the prosperity of Fentress county called for an edifice of red +stone. +</p> +<p> +Clemens and Pile remained friends and competitive land owners until +"with an activity and a suddenness that bewildered Obedstown and almost +took away its breath, the Hawkinses hurried through their arrangements +in four short months and flitted out into the great mysterious blank +that lay beyond the Knobs of Tennessee"—to Missouri, where a few months +afterward "Mark Twain" was born. +</p> +<p> +Another friend of Coonrod Pile was David Crockett. The "Hero of the +Alamo" had many hunts in Fentress county, upon the "Knobs" and along the +upper waters of the Cumberland. The old Crockett home still stands a few +miles to the north of Jamestown beside the road that leads to Pall Mall. +It was in a house upon land owned by Coonrod Pile that "Deaf and Dumb +Jimmy Crockett" spent the last years of his life, and from which he made +so many journeys to locate the silver mine of the Indians who had held +him captive and who pinioned him to the ground while they dug their ore, +never allowing him to see where they worked, but using him to help carry +the mined product. David Crockett in his autobiography tells the story +of "Deaf and Dumb Jimmy" but he places the scene in Kentucky, making +probably the same mistake in the location of the state-line boundary +which Coonrod Pile had made. +</p> +<p> +Coonrod Pile lived to the age of eighty-three and at the time of his +death was the most powerful personality in Fentress county. His business +interests had grown to such proportions that he had economic problems to +solve and the simple practical methods he used are followed in the +valley to-day. +</p> +<p> +He dug only so much coal as he could use, the transportation problem +preventing its sale. He could only market the poplar, the cedar and such +woods as he could float on the rises of the Wolf to the Cumberland river +to be rafted. He raised cotton, but only the amount the women needed for +their looms. He grew wheat and corn, but no more than was necessary for +flour and meal for the neighborhood and to feed the stock he owned, +laying aside a portion for use in time of need for the improvident and +unfortunate. +</p> +<p> +He was ready at any time to trade with anybody for almost anything. In +the last score of the years of his life, the most successful +financially, he found that the money he could accumulate came only from +the sale of products that could move from the valley across the +mountains by their own motive power—something that could go on foot. So +he turned to stock-raising and with his own slaves cut the present +roadway from Pall Mall to Jamestown, there to join with the old Kentucky +Stock road which ran from Atlanta and Chattanooga, along the Cumberland +plateau by Jamestown on to the north through Frankfort and Cincinnati. +</p> +<p> +Old Coonrod was not a one-price man on the realty he owned. If the +purchase was for speculation he was a trader with his sights set high. +If the buyer wanted a home, he was generous. It meant the upbuilding of +his community. So the people of that day lived in comradeship. There +were few luxuries and no real want. If there was "a farming patch" to be +cleared, the neighbors came from miles around and there was a +"log-rolling." If it was a home or a crib to be built, it was a +"log-raising," and everyone worked and made fun from it. +</p> +<p> +The steeple of a church arose in the valley. It was built by those of +the Methodist faith. But before that and even afterward they held +"camp-meetings" and "basket-meetings" where a community lunch was +served under the trees and where the service lasted through the daylight +hours, allowing for a mountain journey home. And the religious fervor +was so sincere and intense at these meetings that they were called +"melting sessions." +</p> +<p> +Up the mountainside above the York spring, a space was cleared for +shooting matches, where the prizes were beeves and turkeys, and where +the men shot so accurately that the slender crossing of two knifeblade +marks was the bull's-eye of the target. And everyone went on hunts, long +hunts when crops were laid by or winter had checked farm work. And as +human nature is the same the world over, there was many an upright +resident of the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf" who left the +plow standing in the furrow because the yelp and baying of the hounds +grew warm upon the mountainside. +</p> +<p> +The families of mountain men are usually large in number, and the estate +of Old Coonrod has passed through a long division. He had eight +children, and his son Elijah Pile, the branch of the family to which +Sergeant York belongs, had eleven children. That portion of the estate +which Elijah inherited passed into good hands. He conserved his part, +handled well the talents left with him; but the second division by +eleven, together with the ravages of the Civil War and the years that +followed, left only seventy-five acres, and far from the best of it, to +Mary York, the truly wonderful little mountain mother who gave to Alvin +York those qualities of mind and heart which stood him in good stead in +the Forest of Argonne, who taught him to so live that he feared no man, +and to do thoroughly and always in the right way that which he had to +do. "Else," as she so frequently said to him, "you'll have to 'do hit +over, or hit'll cause you trouble." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0004"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + III — The People of the Mountains +</h2> +<p> +The log cabin of the pioneer influenced architecture and gave to us the +house of Colonial design, the first distinctively American type, for the +Colonial home grew around the pioneer's two rooms of logs separated by +an open passageway. +</p> +<p> +The muzzle-loading rifle—and it was the pioneer's gun—with its long +barrel and its fine sights, gave confidence to the American soldier who +carried it, for he trusted the weapon in his hands. +</p> +<p> +Progressive inventions finally displaced this rifle in military use, but +for the accuracy of the shot it has never been surpassed, and it is +to-day a loved relic and a valued hunting-piece. Men trained to shoot +with it, used to the slender line of its silver foresight and to the +delicate response of its hair-trigger, have made rare records in +marksmanship. The very difficulty of loading—the time it took—taught +its users to be accurate and not spend the shot. +</p> +<p> +This rifle stopped the British at Bunker Hill and Kings Mountain, and +over its long barrel Alvin York and some of the best shots of the +American army learned to bring their sights upward to the mark and tip +the hair-trigger when the bead first reached its object. +</p> +<p> +It was training acquired in the forest, the same manner of marksmanship, +the same self-reliance and individual resourcefulness as a soldier that +gave to Sergeant York the power to come back over the hill in Argonne +Forest, bringing one hundred and thirty-two prisoners, and to the army +under Andrew Jackson at New Orleans, more than a hundred years before, +the fighting resource to achieve victory with a loss of eight killed and +thirteen wounded, while England's records show that "about three +thousand of the British were struck with rifle bullets." +</p> +<pre> + [Footnote: From "The True Andrew Jackson," by Cyrus Townsend Brady, + Chap. IV, p. 88; published by J. B. Lippincott Co., 1906. ] +</pre> +<p> +The man trained behind the muzzle-loading rifle in all the wars America +has fought has been individually a fighter and "a shot," formerly but +little skilled in military training, who while obeying orders fought +along lines of personal initiative. In the earlier wars of the nation +this soldier was known as a "rifleman." It was with this class that +General Jackson fought his campaigns against the Indians and the +British, and at New Orleans "the bone and sinew of his force were the +riflemen of Tennessee and Kentucky." +</p> +<p> +Against Jackson, England had sent the flower of Wellington's army, +distinguished for famous campaigns on the Spanish peninsula against the +marshals of Napoleon. Wellington said of these men in his "Military +Memoirs": "It was an army that could go anywhere and do anything." +</p> +<p> +Late in life when General Jackson had grown old, had twice been +President, and was spending his declining days at the "Hermitage," his +home near Nashville, as calmly and peacefully as it was possible for the +fiery old warrior to live, he was shown this appreciation by Wellington. +</p> +<p> +"Well," he said, "I never pretended I had an army that 'could go +anywhere and do anything!' but at New Orleans I had a lot of fellows +that could fight more ways and kill more times than any other fellows on +the face of the earth." +</p> +<p> +Returning from the Indian wars and from the War of 1812, the +mountaineers and backwoodsmen, who were then rapidly settling up the +valley of the Mississippi, hung their rifles over their open fireplaces, +or between the rafters of their cabin homes and turned to the enjoyment +of the peace they had won. +</p> +<p> +In the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf" Old Coonrod Pile was +still the dominant figure. +</p> +<p> +Those who had settled in the valley were prospering on its fertile soil. +It was then, as it is to-day, remote from popular highways, but the +valley had grown into a community almost self-supporting. The owners of +the land had equipped their farms with such agricultural tools as were +in use in those days, and the Wolf river had been dammed and a +water-driven flour mill erected. +</p> +<p> +The houses tho built of logs and chinked with clay were comfortable +homes, where in winter wood-fires roared in wide chimney-places, where +there was no problem of the high cost of living—and few problems of any +kind relating to living. +</p> +<p> +The men of the valley farmed diversified crops, furnishing all that was +needed for food and clothing, and they even raised tobacco for the pipes +smoked at the general store run by Coonrod Pile in an end room of his +home. +</p> +<p> +It was the day when the weaving-loom was the piano in the home, and all +the women carded, spun and wove. The table-garden, the care of the +house, the preparation of the meals and the making of the covering and +the clothes were in the women's division of the labor. The families +usually were large and every member a producer. To the girls fell shares +of the mother's work. The boys helped in the fields, chopped the wood +and rounded up the stock, that at times wandered far into the mountains. +There were bells on the cows, on the sheep and even the hogs, and the +boys soon learned to distinguish ownerships by the delicate differences +in the browsing "tong" in the tone of the bells. +</p> +<p> +Residents of the valley sold to the outside world the live stock they +raised, and poultry and feathers and furs, and tar and resin from the +pines on the mountaintops. They purchased tea, coffee and sugar, a few +household and farm conveniences, and little else. The balance of the +trade was heavily in their favor and they were prosperous and happy. +</p> +<p> +They had no labor problems. They recognized without collective +bargaining the eight-hour shift—"eight hours agin dinner and eight +hours after hit; ef hit don't rain;" as one old mountaineer, living +there to-day, interpreted the phrase, "A day's work." +</p> +<p> +Even when the home of the mountaineer was a one- or two-room cabin, +accommodations for any stranger could be provided, and if he wished to +remain, work could be found for him. They observed without thought of +inconvenience the Colonial idea of "bundling." +</p> +<p> +When the stranger proved worthy there would be a log-rolling and a space +of ground cleared for him to till, and a log-raising in which the +community joined, and made a merry occasion of it, to give him a home. +The way was easy for his ownership of the land and the cabin. Prices for +cleared land, around the middle of the last century, ranged from +twenty-five cents to five dollars an acre. +</p> +<p> +In the valley the father never talked to the son of the dignity of +labor. Much was to be done and everyone labored and thought of it as but +the proper use of the sunlight of a day. +</p> +<p> +Their life was primitive, rugged, but contented. Deer and bears were in +the mountains, and wild turkeys were to be found in large flocks, while +the cry of wolves added zest to the whine of a winter wind. +</p> +<p> +A cook-stove was an unknown luxury, and the women prepared their meals +in the open fireplace. The men cut their small grain with a reap-hook +and threshed it beneath the hoofs of horses. +</p> +<p> +The mode of life made men of strong convictions and deep feelings. But +those feelings were seldom expressed except under the influence of +religious devotions. +</p> +<p> +The ministers were all circuit riders and venerated leaders of the +people of the mountainsides. They traveled the mountains on horseback, +constantly exposed to hardships, and they labored devoutly without +consideration of the personal cost. It was the custom for these +itinerant ministers to give free rein to their horses and read as they +rode the mountain-paths, stopping for a prayer at every home they +reached. Protracted meetings were held in almost every community they +visited, for many months would pass before they returned. Funeral +services would be held for all who had died during the absence of the +minister. The meetings lasted so long as there was hope of a single +conversion. +</p> +<p> +One of the preachers of those old days, who was born in the "Valley of +the Three Forks o' the Wolf" and preached at Pall Mall as part of his +circuit when ordained, has left a record of one year's work: +</p> +<p> +"During the conference year I preached 152 times, traveled 1,918 miles +on horseback, prayed with 424 families, witnessed 80 conversions to God, +and received 67 persons into the church. I sold about $40 worth of +books, baptized 40 adults and 18 infants ... and received less than $30 +of salary for same, and raised for benevolence $36.25. To God be all the +glory! I have toiled and endured as seeing Him who is invisible. +However, when God has poured from clouds of mercy rich salvation upon +the people, and when in religious enjoyment, from the most excellent +glory, I have been lifted to Pisgah's top, and have seen by faith the +goodly land before me, I would not exchange this work for a city +station." +</p> +<p> +Against the worldliness of some of his people, the same old mountain +minister recorded a protest: +</p> +<p> +"I have known families who had three or four hundred dollars loaned out +on interest, and not less than five hundred dollars' worth of fat cattle +on the range, who did not own a Bible, or take any religious newspaper, +nor any other kind, and did not have any books in their homes, and yet +owned two or three fiddles and three or four rifle-guns." +</p> +<p> +The day of prosperity and religious contentment at Pall Mall lasted +until the coming of the Civil War. +</p> +<p> +Fentress county had contributed its pro rata of volunteers to the +conflict with Mexico, and Uriah York, the grandfather of Sergeant York, +was among those who stormed the heights at Chapultepec. +</p> +<p> +Tho this war was declared by a President who came from Tennessee, the +Mexican conflict did not reach to the firesides and into the hearts of +the people of the mountains of the state as other wars had done. So +years passed in which there was no outward evidence of the war spirit of +Fentress county that was soon to tear families asunder, leave farms +untenanted and to obliterate graveyards under the rush of horses' hoofs. +</p> +<p> +The Yorks had come to Fentress county from North Carolina and settled on +Indian Creek. Uriah York was the son of John York, and they came from +Buncombe county in that "Old North State," the county which had a +reputation like Nazareth so far as turning out any good thing was +concerned, and the path of the cant, derisive phrase, "All bunkum," +leads directly back to the affairs of that good old county. +</p> +<p> +On Indian Creek the Yorks were farmers, but at his home Uriah started +one of the few schools then in Fentress county. His school began after +crops were laid by and ran for three months. He used but two text +books—the "blue-backed speller" and the Bible. +</p> +<p> +There are men living to-day on Indian Creek who went to school under +Uriah York, and they recall the uniqueness of his discipline as well as +his school curriculum. The hickory rod was the enforcer of school rules, +but full opportunity to contemplate the delicate distinction between +right and wrong was given to all. A three-inch circle was drawn upon the +schoolroom wall and the offending pupil was compelled to hold his nose +within the penal mark until penitent. +</p> +<p> +Young and active he took part in all the school sports in the long +recess periods, for his school lasted all day. Learning at the end of +one school term that the pupils had planned as part of the simple +commencement exercises to duck him in Indian Creek, he exposed their +plot, playfully defied them, left the schoolroom with a bound through an +open window and led them on a chase through the mountains. He circled in +his course so he could lead the run back to the schoolhouse. As evidence +of goodfellowship and as an example of the spirit of generosity in the +celebration of victory, he gave to each of the boys as they came in, a +drink of whisky, from a clay demijohn he had concealed in the +schoolroom. +</p> +<p> +But in those days whisky and apple brandy were considered a necessary +part of household supplies, and there was but little drunkenness. Whisky +and brandy were medicine, used as first aid, regardless of the ailment, +while awaiting the arrival of the doctor with his saddlebags of pills +and powders. Their social value, too, was recognized, and the gourd and +demijohn appeared almost simultaneously with the arrival of any guest. +But it was bad form—evidence of a weak will—for anyone, save the old +men, to show the influence of what they drank. This was, however, a +perquisite and one of the tolerated pleasures of old age. +</p> +<p> +In the records of a lawsuit tried in Fentress county in 1841 the +price-list of some necessaries and luxuries are shown: +</p> +<p> +"To two gallons of liquor, $1; one quart of whisky and six pounds of +pork, 80 cents; one deer-skin, 75 cents; two kegs of tar, $2; two ounces +of indigo, 40 cents; one gallon of whisky, 50 cents; five and one-half +pints of apply brandy, 31-1/4 cents." +</p> +<p> +They were almost uneventful years at Pall Mall from the days of Coonrod +Pile until the Civil War. Less than a score of years lapsed from the +death of the pioneer in 1849 until over the mountains broke the warstorm +in a fury that has no parallel except in wars where father has fought +son, and brother fought brother; where the cause of war and the +principles for which it is fought are lost in the presence of cruelties +created in personal hatred and deeds of treachery perpetrated for +revenge. A third generation had grown to manhood at Pall Mall. +</p> +<p> +In Fentress county, the polling of the vote upon secession was marked +with bloodshed. The county was on the military border between the free +and the slaveholding states. Coonrod Pile had been a slaveholder, but +few of the mountaineers were owners. Slavery as an institution did not +appeal to their Anglo-Saxon principles; poverty had prevented slavery's +advance into the mountains as a custom, and as racial distinction was +not to be clearly defined into master and worker, the negro's presence +in the mountains was unwelcomed. A war to uphold a custom they did not +practise did not appeal to them; so as a great wedge the Alleghany +mountains, extending far into the slaveholding states, was peopled with +Union sympathizers. +</p> +<p> +Fentress county on the slope of the great mountain range and on the +border between the territory firmly held by the North and by the South +became a no-man's land, subjected successively to marauding bands from +each side, a land for plunder and revenge. +</p> +<p> +Before the war the county had been sharply divided politically, and with +few exceptions that alignment held. Those who were Union sympathizers +went north into Kentucky and joined the Federal forces, and those on the +side of the South went for enlistment in the armies of the Confederacy. +The men who remained at home were compelled by public sentiment to take +sides, and the bitterest of feeling was engendered. The raids of passing +soldiers was the excuse for the organization, by both sides, of bands +who claimed they were "Home Guards"—the Federals under "Tinker" Beaty, +and the Confederates under Champ Ferguson. These bands, each striving +for the mastery, soon developed into guerrillas of the worst type the +war produced, and anarchy prevailed. +</p> +<p> +Churches were closed, for religious services were invaded that the +bushwackers could get the men they sought. Homes were burned. Civil +courts suspended. Post-offices and post-roads were abandoned. No stores +were kept open and the merchandise they formerly held was concealed, and +there became a great scarcity of the necessaries of life. Many homes +were deserted by entire families and their land turned out as common +ground. There was waste and ruin on every hand, and no man's life was +safe. +</p> +<p> +Each deed of cruelty was met with an act of revenge, until men were +killed in retaliation, the only charge brought against them being, "a +Northern sympathizer," or "a Southern sympathizer." There is not a road +in the county not marked with the blood of some soldier or +non-combatant. +</p> +<p> +No section of the great Civil War suffered so enduringly as that which +was the boundary line between the sections, and no part of the boundary +suffered more from devastations of war in the passing to and fro of +armed forces and from the raids of marauding bands, steel-heartened in +quest of revenge, than did Fentress county. +</p> +<p> +At the outbreak of the war, Uriah York went north into Kentucky and +joined the Federal forces. Ill, he had returned to the home of his +wife's father at Jamestown, and while in bed learned of the approach of +a band of Confederates. He arose and fled for safety to a refuge-shack +his father-in-law had built in the forest of "Rock Castle." His flight +was made in a storm that was half rain and half sleet, and from the +exposure he died in the lonely hut three days afterward. Only forty +years of age, he had served his country in two wars. +</p> +<p> +The "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf" paid its tribute of blood +and money. Elijah Pile had grown old and years before had succeeded his +father, Coonrod Pile, as head of the family. All his sons had grown to +manhood. He was a non-combatant, but a Union sympathizer. His four sons +were divided in their allegiance—two upon each side. And two of them +paid the supreme price, and they paid for their convictions as they rode +along public highways. +</p> +<p> +Conrad Pile, Jr., "Rod" as he was known, like his father, Elijah Pile, +was a non-combatant, but sympathized with the North. In the autumn of +1863 for some cause, unknown to his relatives, he was taken prisoner by +Confederate troops, members of Champ Ferguson's band. As they rode along +the road with him, some shots were fired. They left him there. +</p> +<p> +In June of the following year, Jeff Pile, a brother of "Rod," was riding +along the road beyond the mill that creaks in the waters of Wolf River. +He was going to visit a brother. He had taken no active part in the war, +but was a Southern sympathizer. Some of "Tinker" Beaty's men galloped +into sight, fired, galloped on. Mountain men fire but once. +</p> +<p> +But the murder of Jeff Pile threw a red shadow across the years that +were to come after the war was ended. +</p> +<p> +The war-feuds of Fentress county did not end with the ending of the war. +There was lawlessness for years. Some of the Union men and Union +sympathizers, in the majority in the county during hostilities, assumed +to the full the new power that came to them by the war's outcome. +Conservative civic leaders sought to reestablish a condition of peace, +but the lawless and desperate element prepared personally to profit from +the situation. +</p> +<p> +Farms had been deserted and many of the owners of these lands who had +fought on the side of the Confederacy were kept away through the threats +of death should they return, and some who had remained throughout the +war were forced to flee to protect their lives from those who coveted +their property. +</p> +<p> +A series of land-frauds sprang up under the cloak of the law. Upon +vacant farms false debts were levied; fake administrators took charge of +lands whose owners had died during the conflict; other property was +hastily forced under sale for taxes. +</p> +<p> +That the proceedings should appear legal, the foreclosures were by due +process of law. But if quietly circulated warnings against a general +bidding for property when offered at court sale were not effective, some +well-known desperate character would appear at the sale and threaten +anyone who dared bid against him. +</p> +<p> +The bitterness of the feeling of the two sides subsided slowly, but +there was ever present the realization that old alinements could be +quickly and bloodily revived. Champ Ferguson, sought by the Federal +authorities, appeared suddenly upon the streets of Jamestown. That day +his old rival, "Tinker," was there. It was a personal battle the two +leaders fought, while Jamestown looked on silently, fearful of the +outcome. Beaty received three wounds, but escaped on horseback. +</p> +<p> +A short time afterward Ferguson was hanged at Nashville by order of +court martial. The charge against him was that he had entered the +hospital at Emery and Henry College and shot to death a wounded Federal +lieutenant. Ferguson claimed justification as the Federal lieutenant, +under orders to escort a war-prisoner—a Confederate officer and +personal friend of Ferguson's—to headquarters, had, instead, stood his +prisoner against a tree by a roadside and ordered a firing-squad to kill +him. And the court-martial indictment of Ferguson read—"and for other +crimes." +</p> +<p> +One of "Tinker" Beaty's men was Pres Huff, who lived in the "Valley of +the Three Forks o' the Wolf." It was generally believed that he was the +leader of the band who had ridden out of the woods and killed Jeff Pile, +as he traveled unarmed along the Byrdstown road. +</p> +<p> +Huff's father had been shot. The scene of his death was where the branch +from the York Spring crosses the public road at the Pile home. The deed +was done by a band of Confederates who had taken the elder Huff +prisoner, and neither Jeff Pile, nor his brothers, were to be connected +with it, except in the quickly prejudiced mind of the victim's son. +</p> +<p> +The desperate character of Pres Huff is evidenced by the records of the +United States Circuit Court for the Middle District of Tennessee in the +suit of the McGinnis heirs for land in Fentress county. Their bill +recites: +</p> +<p> +"Armed men who were led and controlled by one Preston Huff, who was a +brigand of the most desperate character, forced complainants' father and +themselves to leave the county to secure their lives and kept them from +the county by threats of most brutal violence. The history of these men +and the times prove clearly that these threats were not idle, nor those +who opposed them survived their vengeance." +</p> +<p> +At the foreclosure on the McGinnis property, Pres Huff rode his horse +between the court officers and those attending the sale, and pistol in +hand declared the land his by right of possession. The bill continues as +follows: +</p> +<p> +"Preston Huff, who was the desperado heretofore referred to, publicly +proclaimed that he had fought for the land, had run the McGinnises from +the county, and if anyone bid for the land against him he would kill him +on sight. Even his co-conspirators would not brook his displeasure. The +land was sold on his bid, no one dared oppose him. The history of his +career shows it was wisdom to shun him. Many have been killed by him in +the most cold and brutal manner." +</p> +<p> +There came to Pall Mall, when General Burnside was moving his Federal +forces southward, a young man by the name of William Brooks. He had +joined the Union Army at his home in Michigan. He was a daring horseman, +handsome, fair and his hair was red-a rich copperesque red. The army +moved on, but young Brooks remained in the valley. He claimed that as a +private soldier he had done more than his share in the conquest of the +South—and that the conquest that should ever go to his credit was the +conquest of Nancy Pile. +</p> +<p> +When they were married, his father-in-law, Elijah Pile, gave him a farm +and he tilled it, and he smiled his way into the favor of the community. +</p> +<p> +He lived in the valley about two years, and a baby had been born to +them. The feeling between the children of Elijah Pile and Pres Huff was +silent but tense; over it there fell constantly the shadow of the murder +of Jeff Pile. +</p> +<p> +Meeting down at the old mill one day, Pres Huff and "Willie" Brooks +engaged in an excited argument. Between the dark-browed, sullen +mountaineer and the slender, gay young man a contest seemed uneven, and +was prevented. Huff told Brooks that the next time they met he would +kill him. +</p> +<p> +They met next day, on the mountainside, on the road that leads by the +Brooks home, on across the spring-branch, up beside the York home and +then up the mountain. Huff's riderless horse galloped on and stopped in +front of a mountain cabin; his body lay dead in the road. +</p> +<p> +There was a hurried consultation at the home of Elijah Pile. Huff's +friends, it was realized, would not be long in coming. Young Brooks went +out of the house, down by the spring, and up the mountain back of it. He +was never seen in the valley again. +</p> +<p> +Huff's friends waited. +</p> +<p> +Weeks afterward, Nancy Brooks, carrying her baby, went to visit a +friend. She evaded the watchfulness of her husband's enemies, succeeded +in crossing the Kentucky line and disappeared in the mountains to the +north of it. +</p> +<p> +The friends of Pres Huff knew she would write home. Months elapsed, but +finally a letter came, and was intercepted. She and her husband were at +a logging-camp in the northern woods of Michigan. +</p> +<p> +Secretly, extradition papers for Brooks were secured, and Huff's former +partner in a mercantile business, fully equipped with warrant appeared +with a sheriff before the door of the cabin in the Michigan woods, +Brooks was brought back to Jamestown, and put into the log-ribbed jail +that John M. Clemens, "Mark Twain's" father, had built. +</p> +<p> +But there was no trial by law. The next night, through the moonlight and +the pines, a little body of men rode. Up the valley, across the plateau, +they went, and Jamestown was sleeping. +</p> +<p> +Taking Brooks from the jail they carried him three miles down the road +toward Pall Mall. Here they bound a rope around his feet, unbridled a +horse and tied the other end of the rope to the horse's tail. They +taunted Brooks. But they could not make him break his silence, until he +asked to be allowed to see his wife and baby. Rough men laughed, and +there was the report of a gun. The horse, frightened, galloped down the +road, and bullets were fired into the squirming body as it was dragged +over the rocks. +</p> +<p> +The war had steeled men for the coming of death and crime, but at the +manner of the death of "Willie" Brooks a shudder passed over the +mountainsides. To Nancy Brooks was born a son a short time afterward, +and he was named after his father. +</p> +<p> +A silent, broken-hearted woman, Nancy Brooks took up again her life at +her father's home. To the little girl she had carried on her flight to +Michigan and to the boy whose hair had the copper-red of the father, she +devoted herself. The girl had been named Mary, and she inherited the +piquancy and wit that had made her mother the belle of the valley, and +as she grew to womanhood the mountaineers saw again the Nancy Brooks +they had loved before war had come with its cold blighting fingers of +death. +</p> +<p> +At the age of fifteen Mary Brooks met William York, the son of Uriah +York, and they were married. A home was built for them, beyond the +branch, beside the spring. And Alvin York was their third son. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0005"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + IV — The Molding of a Man +</h2> +<p> +The first year after the marriage of William York and Mary Brooks, they +lived at the Old Coonrod Pile home, and William York worked as a +"cropper." Securing the farm that had been given the bride, they modeled +into a one-room home the corn-crib of Elijah Pile, that stood across the +spring-branch and up the mountainside. It was a log crib, and they +chinked it with clay, and using split logs from the walls of the old +shed, a puncheon floor was made. The coming of spring brought the +blossoms of flowers the girl-wife had planted. +</p> +<p> +Honeysuckle and roses have bloomed around that cabin each succeeding +summer, and it proved the foundation of a home that was to withstand the +troubles of poverty in many winters. It was a home so rare and real that +it pulled back to the mountains a son who had gone out into the world +and won fame and the offers of fortunes for the deeds he had done as a +soldier. +</p> +<p> +William York, in his simple philosophy of life, disciplined himself, and +later his boys, to the theory that contentment was to be found in the +square deal and honest labor. He was so fair and just in all relations +with his neighbors that the people of the valley called him "Judge" +York; and his honesty was so rugged and impartial that not infrequently +was he left as sole arbiter even when his own interests were involved. +In talks by the roadside, at the gate of his humble home, seated on the +rocks that surround the spring, many a neighborhood dispute has been +settled that prejudice could have fanned into a lawsuit. +</p> +<p> +Yet William York never prospered, as prosperity is measured by the +accumulation of property, and it has been said of him that he "just +about succeeded in making a hard living." +</p> +<p> +He was farmer, blacksmith, hunter—a man of the mountains who found +pleasure in his skill with his rifle. But the memories of him that +linger in the valley, or those that are revived at the mention of his +name, are of him in the role of husband, father and friend. +</p> +<p> +The Civil War had scattered much of the wealth that Old Coonrod Pile had +accumulated and Elijah Pile had conserved. The number of heirs brought +long division to the realty and most of those who had benefited by the +inheritance were all left "land poor." +</p> +<p> +To Nancy Brooks, as her part, came the home the old "Long Hunter" had +built with such thoroughness and care, together with seventy-five acres +of land. This she left to her boy who had been named after his ill— +fated father—and he lives there to-day. To Mrs. York had been given +seventy-five acres, "part level and part hilly," that was the share of +her aunt, Polly Pile. +</p> +<p> +In the cave above the spring, which was Coonrod Pile's first home, +William York built a blacksmith's shop, where he mended log-wagons and +did the work in wood and metal the neighborhood required. He farmed, and +worked in the shop—but in his heart, always, was the call of the +forests that surrounded him, and it was his one great weakness. A blast +from his horn would bring his hounds yelping around him; and often, +unexpectedly, he would go on a hunt that at times stretched into weeks +of absence. +</p> +<p> +His hounds were the master pack of those hills. On his hunts when he +built his campfire at night he gathered the dogs around him and singled +out for especial favors those whose achievements had merited distinction +during the day. Following a custom that in those days prevailed among +owners of hunting-hounds, the dog that proved himself the leader of the +pack while on a hunt was decorated with a ribbon or some emblem upon the +collar. Small game was abundant in the mountains that made the "Valley +of the Three Forks o' the Wolf," but the deer and bear had withdrawn to +the less frequented hills. The hunts were for sport; there was no real +recompense in the value of the pelts. +</p> +<p> +Alvin was born in the one-room cabin on December 13, 1887. There were +two older children—Henry and Joe. Alvin's early life was different in +no way from that of other children of the mountains. He lived in touch +with nature, and without ever knowing when or how the information came +to him, he could call the birds by their names and knew the nests and +eggs of each of them, knew the trees by their leaves and their bark, and +was familiar with the haunts of the rabbit and the squirrel, the +land- and the water-turtle. While still too small for the rough run of the +mountains, he has stood, red-eyed, by the gate of his home and watched +his father and the hounds go off to the hunt. And as he grew, his hair +took on that color that trace of him while at play could be lost in the +red-brush that grew upon the mountainside. +</p> +<p> +There was one part of the routine of the week at Pall Mall that has +interested Alvin York from early boyhood. It was the shooting-matches, +held on Saturday, on the mountainside, above the spring, just where a +swell of the slope made a "table-land," and where a space had been +cleared for these tests of skill. The clearing was long and slender, +such a glade through the trees as the alley of the mountain bowlers +which Rip Van Winkle found in the Catskills—only the shooting-range was +longer. A hundred and fifty yards were needed for one of the contests. +</p> +<p> +This aisle had been cut through a forest of gray beech and brown oaks. +At the points where the targets were to be set the clearing widened so +that the sunlight, filtering through the leaves and flickering upon the +slender carpet of green, could fall full and clear. +</p> +<p> +Each Saturday the mountaineers were there—and William York and Alvin +were among the "regulars." Often there were fifty or more men, and they +came bringing their long rifles, horns of powder, pouches made of skin +in which were lead and bullet molds, cups of caps, cotton gun-wadding, +carrying turkeys, driving beeves and sheep, which were to be the prizes. +And when the prizes gave out, some of the men remained and shot for +money—"pony purses," they were called. +</p> +<p> +The turkey-shoots were over two ranges—some forty yards and one a +hundred and fifty yards. At the latter range the turkey was tied to a +stake driven in the center of the opening at the further end of the +glade. A cord, about two feet in length, was fastened to the stake and +to one leg of the gobbling, moving target. It was ten cents a shot, +tossed to the man who offered the prize. +</p> +<p> +Often the bird fell at the first trial, and a hit was any strike above +the turkey's knee. But the long-distance turkey-shoots were the opening +events, and the marksman had his gun to warm up, his eye to test and his +shooting nerve to be brought to calmness. So frequently it would happen +that the entrance money ran into a sum that gave a prize value to the +turkey, as prices ran for turkeys in those days. There was the element +of chance for the man offering the prize that was always alluring. +</p> +<p> +The second turkey-shoot was held at the forty-yard range. But the bird +was now tethered behind a log, so that only his head and red wattles +could appear. Here, too, the turkey was given freedom of motion and +granted self-determination as to how he should turn his head in wonder +at the assemblage of men before him; or, if he should elect, he could +disappear entirely behind the log if he found something that interested +him upon the ground nearby, and the marksman must wait for the untimed +appearance of the bobbing head. It took prompt action and a quick bead +to score a hit. +</p> +<p> +And it was years afterward, after Alvin York had become the most expert +rifle-shot that those mountains had ever held, that he sat in the brush +on the slope of a hill in the Forest of Argonne and watched for German +helmets and German heads to bob above their pits and around trees—just +forty yards away. +</p> +<p> +The event in which centered the interest of all gathered at those +Saturday matches, was the shooting for the beef. +</p> +<p> +Each man prepared his own target—a small board, which was charred over +a fire built of twigs and leaves. On this black surface was tacked a +piece of white paper, about two by three inches in size, and in the +center of the bottom margin of the white paper was cut a notch-an +inverted "V," not over a half-inch in height. This permitted the +marksman to raise the silver foresight of his rifle over a black, +charred surface until the hairline of the sight fit into the tip of the +triangle cut into white paper. It was a pinpoint target that left to the +ability of the marksman the exactness of his bead. +</p> +<p> +The tip of the triangle in the paper was not the bull's-eye. It was +simply the most delicate point that could be devised upon which to draw +a bead. +</p> +<p> +The bull's-eye was a point at which two knife-blade marks crossed. When +the target was in position this delicately marked bull's-eye could not +be seen by the shooter. +</p> +<p> +With practice shots they established how the gun was carrying and the +direction in which the nerves of the marksman's eye were at the time +deflecting the ball. Finally the marksman drew his bead on the tip of +the triangle and where the shot punctured the white paper the bull's-eye +would be located. +</p> +<p> +This was done by moving the white paper until the knife-blade cross +showed through the center of the hole the bullet had made in it. The +paper in this position was retacked upon the board, and underneath was +slipped a second piece of paper making the paper target appear as if no +hole had been torn through it. The bull's-eye so located was usually +within a half-inch radius of the triangle tip. +</p> +<p> +So exact was the marksmanship of these men that they recognized that +neither gun nor man shot the same, day after day. They knew a man's +physical condition changed as these contests progressed, and that the +gun varied in its register when it was hot and when cool. +</p> +<p> +The range for the beef-shoot was forty yards "ef ye shot from a chunk." +Twenty-seven yards, or about two-thirds the distance, if the shot was +offhand. "A chunk" was any rest for the rifle—a bowed limb cut from a +tree, the fork of a limb driven firmly into the ground, a part of a +log—anything that was the height to give the needed low level to the +rifle-barrel when the shooter lay sprawled behind the gun. The +permission to shoot from the rest was a concession to poorer +marksmanship. Shooting offhand required nerve, and steadiness of nerve, +to "put it there, and hold it." +</p> +<p> +The science of marksmanship they learned through experience. The +rifle-ball, forced down through the muzzle, was firmly packed and the +cap carefully primed to prevent a "long fire." In taking aim in the +offhand shots the gun's barrel was brought upward so the target was +always in full view, and as the bead was drawn the body was tilted +backward until an easy balance for the long barrel was found. The elbow +of the arm against which the butt of the rifle rested was lifted high, +awkwardly high, but this position prevented any nervous backward jerk or +muscular movement of the arm that might sway the barrel. Only the weight +of the forefinger was needed to spring the hair-trigger. When the +gun-sights were nearing the tip of the black triangle, the marksman +ceased breathing until the shot was fired. +</p> +<p> +So accurate were they, that when the bullet tore out the point where the +two knife-blade marks crossed, it was simply considered a good shot. It +was called "cutting center." But to decide the winning shot from among +those who cut center it was necessary to ascertain how much of the ball +lay across center. +</p> +<p> +Each contestant who claimed a chance to win brought his board to the +judges for award. For each one of them a bullet was cut in half, and the +half, with the flat side up, was forced into the bullet hole in the +target until level with the board's surface. With a compass the exact +center of the face of the half bullet was marked—a dent, as if made by +a pin-point. Then across the surface of the bright, newly-cut lead, the +knife-blade marks of the original bull's-eye, partly torn away by the +shot, were retraced. The distance between the pin-dent center and the +point where the knife-marks crossed could then be exactly measured. +</p> +<p> +When the cross passed directly over the dented center, the shot was +perfect and the mountaineers called it "laying the seam of the ball on +center." +</p> +<p> +In the beef-shoots it was a dollar a shot. Each man could purchase any +number of shots. When the pot contained the number of dollars asked for +the beef the contest began. The prize was divided into five parts. The +two best shots got, each, a hindquarter of the beef. The third and +fourth, the forequarters; the fifth of the winners, the hide and tallow. +The beef was slain at the scene of the shoot, each winner carrying home +his part. +</p> +<p> +William York has been known to carry the prize home on hoof—having made +the five best shots. But this was unusual, for all the mountaineers grew +up with a rifle in their hands and they knew how to use it. +</p> +<p> +At the shooting-matches it was again "Judge" York. He always handled the +compass in making the awards. To the shooting-matches, still held at +Pall Mall, Sam York, Alvin's brother, brings the compass and the rifle +which his father had used. +</p> +<p> +The contest for the sheep was under the same conditions that surrounded +the beef-matches; only the entrance fee was smaller. Usually it was six +shots for a dollar. This odd division of the dollar, made to fit their +term, "a shilling a shot," shows the people of the valley clinging to +their English customs and still influenced by the Colonial period in +America. In Colonial days in many parts of the country the shilling's +value was placed at sixteen and two-thirds cents. +</p> +<p> +Contests for the "pony purses" were consolation-shoots for those who had +made no winning, and to gratify that element who for the love of the +sport would keep the matches going until in the day's dimming light the +sights of the gun could not be used. +</p> +<p> +One day at one of these shooting-matches at Pall Mall I witnessed a +demonstration of the imperturbability of these mountain men. One of the +contestants had cut center and about a third of the ball lay across it, +when Ike Hatfield, a cousin of Alvin's, took "his place at the line." +</p> +<p> +He was young, over six feet in height, slender and erect as a reed, and +only his head drooped as his rifle came into position. Some one said to +the man whose shot, so far, was the winning one: +</p> +<p> +"Git his nerve; else he'll beat you!"' +</p> +<p> +There are no restrictive rules on the comments or actions of contestants +or spectators—there is usually a steady flow of raillery toward the +one at the shooting-post. To get Hatfield's nerve, the man ran forward +waving his hat, offering his services to get a fly off Hatfield's gun. +The rifle-barrel continued slowly to rise. There was no recognition of +the incident, no movement seen in the tall figure. Then his opponent +talked and sang; and as this produced no noticeable effect, he danced, +and stooping, began "to cut the pigeonwing" directly under the +rifle-barrel. +</p> +<p> +At this a soundless chuckle swept over Hatfield's shoulders. With a face +motionless he drew backward his gun and turning quietly, spat out a quid +of tobacco as if it were all that interfered with his aim. He again +slowly raised his rifle and fired, despite continued efforts to +disconcert him. +</p> +<p> +He walked leisurely back to the crowd, rested his gun against a tree and +took his seat on the ground. His only comment was: +</p> +<p> +"I think I pestered him." +</p> +<p> +The judges found that Hatfield had laid "the seam of the ball on +center," and won. +</p> +<p> +In these contests a mountain marksman will shoot eight or ten times and +often so closely will each shot fall to the knife-blade cross that the +hole cut by all of them in the white paper-target would be no larger +than a man's thumb-nail. One of the favorite methods of "warming up" +used by John Sowders, the closest competitor that Alvin York had in +hundreds of matches, was to drive fifteen carpet-tacks halfway into a +board, then step off until the heads of the tacks could just be seen, +and with his rifle Sowders would finish driving twelve or thirteen out +of the fifteen. +</p> +<p> +It was not astuteness on the part of the German major, as he lay flat +upon the ground in that Argonne Forest under the swaying radius of Alvin +York's rifle, that caused the major to propose, when he found his men +were given no time to get a clear shot at the American sergeant, that if +Alvin York would stop killing them he would make the Germans surrender. +In the shooting-matches back in the mountains of Tennessee that American +soldier had been trained to the minute for the mission then before him. +But there were more powerful influences than his marksmanship that gave +to Sergeant York the steadiness of nerve, the coolness of brain and the +courage to fight to victory against such overwhelming odds. +</p> +<p> +Back in the mountains in the days of William York, there were other +forms of amusement than the shooting-matches. The "log-rollings," the +"house-raisings," which always ended in a feast or barbecue, continued +popular with the people. And they had "corn-huskings," to which all the +neighbors came. +</p> +<p> +The "corn-husking" was a winter sport. These, at times, were held at +night under the light of hand-lanterns the mountaineers used to guide +themselves with over the rough roads and along mountain-paths. But day +or night, the husking ended with a feast. The ears to be husked were +piled in a cone on the corn-crib floor, and usually at the bottom and in +the very center of the cone a jug of whisky, plugged with a corn-cob +stopper, was hidden. With songs and jokes they made sport of the work, +each trying to be first to reach the jug. Once the jug was secured, the +huskings ceased, and it was a fair contest between the corn's owner and +his guests to see how much or how little could be done before the +jug-shaped goal was reached. +</p> +<p> +Seated on the floor around the pile each of the huskers sought to make a +narrow cut in the corn before him to reach the prize more quickly. It +was the farmer's part to have the corn piled in such a toppling cone +that the ears above would roll down as fast as the inroads could be +made, and often the sliding ears entirely buried a husker. He must then +draw back to the edge of the pile and start again. The shout of victory +that went up when the prize was pulled forth warned the women folk at +the house that they must make ready for the coming of hungry men with +appetites well whetted on a product of corn. The next day, the +farmer-host, without help, shucked the ears that were left upon his +corn-crib floor. +</p> +<p> +Alvin with the mountainsides as his playground grew sturdy and resolute. +He had been put to work by his father when first old enough to hold a +hoe, to help about the house, pack water and bring in wood. The sparks +that bounced from the anvil in the shadow of the cave fascinated him and +he hung around the blacksmith's shop and learned to blow the bellows for +his father and keep the fire hot. He soon grew large enough to swing the +sledge, and he turned the shoes and made them ready. All of this wrapped +hard muscles over a body that was unusually large for his age. His +companions began to call him "The Big-un" and the by-name still clings +to him. This, together with a calmness and an unmatched reserve, gave +him the prestige of leader among his boy associates. At the age of +fifteen he swung the sledge with either hand and was a man's match in +wrestling bouts. One of his neighbors gave this view of him: +</p> +<p> +"Alvin wuz a quiet, straight-going boy. When he started to shoe a mule +he always did hit no matter how troublesome the mule. He wuz so quiet +about what he wuz doing that we never noticed much o' that side of his +character before he went away. But now we see hit." +</p> +<p> +In a season of prosperity William York moved from the cave and built a +blacksmith's shop beside the road where it forks, where one of the forks +turns down the middle of the spring-branch bed, on its way to the mill +and to Byrdstown. +</p> +<p> +And he and Mary remodeled their home, making a two-room cabin of it. +Eleven children were born to them—eight boys and three girls. +</p> +<p> +Most of the winters of the thirty years of married life pressed +privations upon them. Much of the seventy-five acres was poor soil, and +the earnings from the shop were small. The charge of William York for +blacksmith's work was always made in full realization that it was +something done for a friend and neighbor. Seldom was a job done for +cash. Instead, at some time that was convenient to the customer, he +would call and ask the amount he owed, and usually from William York's +book of memory the account was made out. And not in thirty years was it +disputed, or held to be exorbitant. +</p> +<p> +There have been winters of privation in the valley for all of those +dependent upon small acreage and uncertain crops, but there was no real +want or suffering from the lack of the necessaries of life. Then, as it +is today, the community spirit in the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the +Wolf" stood guard at the mountain passes and no real poverty could +enter. The farmers' bins were open to any neighbor in need. The +storekeeper willingly waited until some livestock were sold, or even +until the next crop came in. For the wants of his family there was +credit for the man who lived in the valley and worked. He could not +speculate on the wealth of his neighbor, but there was never the need of +a real need. Old Coonrod Pile's theory of the distinctive difference in +the location of trouser patches is still regarded as a sound basis for +business transactions. Those who have tried to live there upon as little +work as they could do have sooner or later followed the path of the +setting sun, and from the valley that indents the western slope of the +great mountain range, that path leads downward. +</p> +<p> +A visitor from the city once asked Mrs. York if she did her own work: +</p> +<p> +"Sure enough," the little lady said, "and part of other people's. We had +to. To raise so many children and keep them right is a great big job." +</p> +<p> +A number of years went by in the period of Alvin's boyhood when no +school was held that he could attend. The school term was only for three +months, beginning early in July. It was found impractical to hold +sessions in the winter, for many of the children lived long distances +away and the branches from the mountain springs that crossed the +roadways and fed the River Wolf, would go on rampages that could hold +the pupils water-bound over night. The schools in the mountains received +no aid from the state and in the remote districts it was difficult to +secure teachers except in the pleasant summer months. The school term +could not begin earlier than July, for it must wait until crops were +laid by, for the students ranged in ages from six to twenty years, and +the larger boys were needed on the farms. Then it was the time for the +potatoes to be gathered, and tomatoes hung red upon the vine and were +ready for pulling. The fall period of the farm was on. +</p> +<p> +The progress which Sergeant York was able to make in all the years of +his school life would be about equal to the completion of the third +grade of a public school. He was not sufficiently advanced to become +interested in reading and self-instruction before he was called to the +army. He had been but a few miles away from the valley, where the men, +as do other men of the mountains, live in the open of the farm and +forest and think in terms of their environments. The need of an +education had not come home to him. +</p> +<p> +It was thus equipped that Sergeant York came into the presence of the +generals of the Allied armies and sat at banquet boards with the leading +men of this country in politics and business. +</p> +<p> +But never in the experiences that have been crowded into the past two +years of his life has he met a situation he could not command, or one +that broke his calmness and reserve. +</p> +<p> +Clearly and quickly he thinks, but those thoughts flow slowly into +words. He is keenly appreciative of his own limitations and quietly he +observes everything around him. From early childhood he had been taught +to be swift and keen in observation—the rustling of a leaf might be +related to a squirrel's presence, and behind each moving shadow there is +a cause and a meaning. +</p> +<p> +When he came to Prauthoy, France, the soldiers sought to honor him by +having him carry the Division flag in the horse show. All was new to him +and he was told but little of the routine expected of him. He had become +the man whom all the American soldiers wished to see, and his presence +was the feature of the occasion. The officers of his own regiment +watched him closely, and not a mistake did he make in all the day's +maneuvers. A comment of one of the officers was; "He seems always +instinctively to know the right thing to do." +</p> +<p> +He came from a cabin in the backwoods of Tennessee but he was raised +under influences that make real men. A boy's ideal, in his early life, +is the father who guides him, and Sergeant York had before him a +character that was picturesque in its rugged manhood and honesty, and +inspiring in its devotion to right and justice. The very privations he +endured and that he saw influencing his home throughout his childhood +were due to principle, for William York would owe no man beyond the +period of his promise to pay. In the light of the sparks from the anvil +in the shop in the cave, sparks that burned brighter even than the light +of day, a comradeship between father and son was formed, and they were +companions until the boy reached manhood when the death of the father +separated them. +</p> +<p> +There was nothing pretentious about the home in which he was raised. It +was but a cabin, yet the chairs, the tables were of seasoned oak, +hand-made, solid. The puncheon floor was worn smooth with use and over +it was a polished glow from the care of cleanliness, showing purity was +there. The walls were papered with newspapers. That was to keep out the +winter's wind, but over the windows were curtains of white muslin, and a +scarf of it ran the length of the simple board mantel-shelf, and in +season the blossom of some flower swayed there. Within the home, no +angry words were heard, but often there was laughter and song, and when +the formulas for conduct were not followed, even the words of correction +were affectionately spoken. +</p> +<p> +As the boy's first steps were guided by tender hands, so the proper way +to walk through life was pointed out with gentle words and simple +truths. The mother's teachings were the products of an untrained mind, +but her philosophies came from a brain that has the power to think +clearly and quickly and is never influenced by either anger or +excitement—qualities transmitted eminently to her son. This little +mother in the mountains, unread and untutored, with only the dictates of +her own heart to guide her, had early adopted as her guiding philosophy +the belief that the greatest thing in life is love. +</p> +<p> +So the impressionable, observant boy realized that life in the rugged +mountains around him called for strength and endurance, but in his home, +or wherever his mother was concerned there must be gentleness and love. +</p> +<p> +And she has been the greatest influence in his life. He has always +listened to her counsels, except in a brief period of wildness in young +manhood. As his standard of life was formed under her teachings, it may +be again said of him—but this time from the moral standpoint: "He seems +always instinctively to know the right thing to do." +</p> +<p> +It was the love for his mother, his love of his homelife in Pall +Mall—and the sweetheart who was waiting for him there—that called him +back to the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf" after he had gone +out into the world and won fame among men. +</p> +<p> +The very sunlight falls gently on the verdant beauty of that valley, and +the seven mountains rise around it as tho they would shield it from the +contending currents of the world. +</p> +<p> +Over the valley there comes a long gray dawn, for the sun is high in the +heavens when its slanting rays first fall on the silver waters of the +Wolf. And through this dawn the men are moving, feeding stock, +harnessing their teams, and many of them sing as they ride to their work +in the fields, for they are content. The tinkling of the bells on the +cows grow fainter as the cows browse along the paths that lead to their +mountain pastures. Up and down the road in companionable groups the pigs +are moving, audibly condoling with each other over the lack of business +methods that caused the loss of the location of the entrance to the +field of corn. A crow flaps lazily across the valley, and over the crest +of the mountain the sun comes up. +</p> +<p> +And the summer twilight there is long, and as it dips into night a +drowsiness rises fog-like over the valley. When a half-moon hangs +between the mountains its light is that of drooping drowsy lids. The +lamps in the cabins on the mountainsides gleam but a brief time and go +out. The descending of the shade of night is the universal bedtime of +the mountain people. +</p> +<p> +An occasional swinging light may still be seen, but it is the +mountaineer giving attention to some trouble among his stock. Then, +there is silence over the valley, except for the chorus of katydids and +the whistle of the gray owl to his mate in the woods. Now and then there +comes the soft, faint clank of a cow-bell, different from its sound as +the cows run the road or feed in the pasture. It is a slow and sleepy +tang that soothes the ear. +</p> +<p> +But the mountain curfew is the bark of a dog. Somewhere up on the range +a hound will call to another that all is well with him in his watch of +the night, and the family he guards are all abed. The aroused neighbor +calls to the dog at the cabin next to him, and the message that "all's +well" sweeps on the voices of the hounds on down the valley until it +ends in an echo in the crags. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0006"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + V — The People of Pall Mall +</h2> +<p> +They are a tranquil people who pass their days as do those who now live +in the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf." They are free from +invidious jealousies and the blight of avarice toward each other, free +from doubt of the rectitude of their daughters and relieved from +solicitude that the future of their sons, if they remain in the valley, +will be influenced by dissipation or dishonesty—a people who find in +the changes of the weather and its effect upon crops their chief cause +for worry. +</p> +<p> +Through the gray dawn the farmer looks up to the skies for his weather +report for the day. As he works he watches the clouds scurrying across +the mountaintops, and when he notes they are banking against the unseen +summit of the Blue Mountains that rises to the east, he knows that rain +is soon to come. Some local unknown bard, watching those banking clouds, +has left a lyric to his people, and I heard a gray-bearded mountaineer +singing it as he predicted the break of a summer drought: +</p> +<pre> + "The sun rose bright + But hid its head soon, + 'Twill rain a-fore night + Ef hit don't rain a-fore noon." +</pre> +<p> +With their homes back in the mountains nearly fifty miles from the +railway, with a journey before them over rocky roads and up +mountainsides to the other communities of Fentress county, the people of +Pall Mall live in the communion and democracy of one great family. +Children call old men by their Christian names. In it is not the +slightest element of disrespect, and it is instead an appreciated +propriety which the old men recall as the custom of their boyhood. Rev. +R. C. Pile, pastor of the Church of Christ in Christian Union, the +church of the valley, is "Rosier" to everyone. All worship together in +the same church; all toil alike in the fields. In the predial, peaceful +routine of their days there is a positive similarity. A farmer will ride +direct to the cornfield or the meadow of a neighbor, knowing the +neighbor will be found at work there. And, as through the gray dawn of +the day they look up to the skies, the wish of one for rain will be +found to be the community desire. +</p> +<p> +The social meeting-point of the people of the valley is the general +store of John Marion Rains. The storehouse sits by the roadside at the +foot of a mountain in the western end of the valley, just where the road +tumbles down to the solid log cabin old Coonrod Pile had built, to the +spring and the York home. +</p> +<p> +One end of the long porch of the store-house, as it runs with the road, +is but a step from the ground, and the mountain falls away until the +floor is conveniently up to the height of a wagon's bed; then the road +dips again until the porch is on a level with the saddle-stirrups and +the women dismount with ease from their high-backed, tasseled +side-saddles as they come in sunbonnets and ginghams. +</p> +<p> +The men of the mountains seldom hurry on any mission. Their walk is a +slow and foot-sure tread. When they come to the store, if only for a +plug of tobacco, they remain with John Marion for a social hour or more. +Their purchase is an incident, the last act before they depart. +</p> +<p> +It is rare during the daylight hours that someone is not sitting on the +porch, or in one of the chairs of the row that skirts the show-cased +counter just within the door, or somewhere upon the open horseshoe kegs +that border the floor of the counter opposite. They are waiting to hear +if anything new has happened, for all the news of the neighborhood comes +to the store. The storekeeper is sure to know whether the stranger seen +passing along the road in the morning stopped at the York's, or went on +to Possum Trot or to Byrdstown. +</p> +<p> +The very commodities upon the shelves and counters of that store are in +friendly confusion. Canned meats, pepper, candy, soap and +chewing-tobacco may be found in one partition; while next to them, +groceries, shotgun-shells, powder and chinaware are in a position of +prominence according to the needs of the past purchaser. In the rear, +piled high, are overalls and "store clothes," hats and shoes. +</p> +<p> +But the counter, facing the shelves of dress-goods for the women, is +free of obstructions, and its surface is worn smooth and polished by the +years of unrolling of bolts of cloth, while at every quarter-yard along +the counter's rear edge is a shining brass tack-head—the yardstick of +the department. A pair of large shears swing prominently from an upright +partition. The department is orderly and neat, a mute tribute to those +who patronize it. +</p> +<p> +Into the show-cases has crept every article of small dimension that had +no habitat or kind upon the shelves around—from laces to lead pencils. +Upon nails in the rafters of the ceiling swing buckets and dippers and +lamps, currycombs and brushes. +</p> +<p> +Off in an L that runs at a right angle from the main store are bacon and +tires for wagon wheels, country-cured hams and brooms, flour, kerosene +and plows. +</p> +<p> +Under the counter by the door is an open wooden box of crackers, and its +exact location and the volume of the supply are known to every child in +the mountains around. Out of it comes their lagnappe for making a +journey to the store. +</p> +<p> +Beside the door upon a shelf sits the water-bucket, kept cool by +frequent replenishing from the York spring. Here every man who enters +stops; and, after he has shifted his quid of tobacco, looked around, and +made his cheerful greeting a hearty one with, "Howdy people!" he lifts +the dipper filled with its pleasing refreshment—and the surplus goes +accurately, in a crystal curve, to the back of some venturesome chicken +that has come upon the store porch. +</p> +<p> +Above the door as you enter hangs a stenciled, uneven, unpunctuated +sign, "NO CREDIT CASH OR BARTER." But that sign has lost its potency. It +is yellow with age and no longer is there anyone who believes in it. It +was hung when John Marion first opened his store, and before he knew his +people and wanted cash or barter for his wares. +</p> +<p> +There is trading every day that is barter. But it is the women bringing +chickens under their arms, or it basket of eggs. The eggs are deposited +in a box, the storekeeper counting them aloud as he packs them for +shipment; or one of the eleven Rains' "kids" is bestirred to the barn +with the chickens, where they remain in semi-captivity until the egg and +poultry man, in an old canvas covered schooner, comes on his weekly +rounds. And the cash value to the barter is traded to a cent. A "poke" +of flour or of sugar or a cut of tobacco usually evens the transaction. +</p> +<p> +It is many a journey around the store that John Marion makes in a day. +The decision to purchase each article is announced slowly and as tho it +were the only thing desired. The plump and genial storekeeper goes +leisurely for it, and with a smile of satisfaction places it before the +customer. There is a moment of silence, then a journey for the next +need, and it is only in balancing the barter that the merchant makes a +suggestion. +</p> +<p> +In a small glass show-case is refuting testimony that the sign over the +door of NO CREDIT had been discredited long ago. The charge account is +open to everyone. A memorandum of the purchase is made upon a strip torn +from a writing-tablet or upon a piece of wrapping-paper and tossed into +the show-case, among many others of its kind, until the customer "comes +around to settle up." Then, with an unerring instinct, John Marion can +pull from the tumbled pile of memoranda the records of the charges he +seeks. If the charge account is to remain open until the next crop comes +in, on some rainy day he will transcribe the charge to his day-book. +</p> +<p> +The clocks of the valley are not controlled by the government's or the +railroads' standard of time. They go by "sun time" and are regulated by +the hour the almanacs say the sun should rise. John Marion winds the +store clock after it has run down and he sets it by no consultation with +anything but his feeling as to what hour of the day it should be. +</p> +<p> +At least once a week every man who lives in the valley is at the store, +but Saturday is the popular meeting-time. When the chairs and the row of +horseshoe kegs are occupied, the men rest their hands behind them on the +counter and swing to a place of comfort upon it, or they sit upon the +window-sills, keeping well within the range of raillery that welcomes +the coming and speeds the parting guest. It is a good-natured humor that +these mountaineers love, quick as the crack of a rifle and as direct as +its speeding ball. There is never an effort to wound. But always there +is the open challenge to measure resource and wit. +</p> +<p> +Many a trade in mules that owners have ridden to the store has resulted +from the defense against the mule-wise critics who several times +outnumber the man who rode the mule. If the mount is a newly acquired +one, especial pleasure is found in a seemingly serious pointing out why +any sort of trade was a bad one for that particular animal. +</p> +<p> +A mule trade is a measure of business capability. No lie is ever told in +answer to a direct question, but no information is relinquished unless a +question is asked. If no hand is passed over the mule's eyes, and there +is no specific inquiry about the eyes before the trade is consummated, +and the animal proves blind in one of them, the fault lies in the +mule-swapping ability of the new owner. Over no question could two men +be seemingly so widely apart as the two when both are anxious to trade. +They are jockeying for that "something to boot" which always makes at +least one participant satisfied in a mountain mule trade. +</p> +<p> +There are pitfalls for the unwary in the conversations that pass across +the store aisle. Bill Sharpe, who has spent eighty-two summers in the +valley—and the winters, as well—with seeming innocence started a +discussion as to how far a cow-bell could be heard. He sat quietly as +several compared their experiences while hunting cattle in the +mountains. Finally the old man said his hearing was not so good as it +used to be, but he remembered once "hearing a cow-bell all the way from +Overton county." Down the line a rural statistician figured it must be +seventy miles from Pall Mall to the nearest point in Overton county, and +the jests began to explode in the old man's vicinity. He conceded many +changes since he was young, but so far as he could see there was +evidently no improvement in man's hearing powers. When all his efforts +to secure a side bet that he could prove his assertion were futile, he +explained: +</p> +<p> +"Wall, boys, ye got away. En once I won two gallons o' whisky on hit. I +was in Overton county. I bought a cow. As she had a bell on her, and I +drove her home, I heard that cow-bell all the way from Overton county." +</p> +<p> +On Saturday afternoon, or a rainy afternoon, when Alvin York and the +"Wright boys," and one of them, "Will" Wright, is president of the bank +at Jamestown; Ab Williams, gray of hair and bent, but vigorous of +tongue; his son, Sam Williams, tall and straight as an Indian and +equally upstanding for his opinions; John Evans, a local justice of the +peace; Bill Sharpe, who lives in the shadow of "Old Crow"; T. C. Frogge, +of Frogge's Chapel, who farms, preaches or teaches school as the demand +arises; "Paster" Pile and his brother, Virgil Pile, who has been County +Trustee; when any of these are among those gathered at the store, there +is a tournament of wit, with a constant change of program. +</p> +<p> +Many a time John Marion is compelled to retreat behind a grin when in a +lull "a shot" is taken at him, and his smile is his acknowledgment that +he cannot be expected to add up a charge-slip and at the same time +defend himself against a care-free man upon a keg of horseshoes. +</p> +<p> +But the storekeeper is never taken by surprize at the badinage of his +patrons. One afternoon after a long wait and another day in the valley +seemed sure to pass with no unusual incident, an old fellow arose from +one of the chairs, stretched himself, and said: +</p> +<p> +"John Marion, I want a shift o' shirts. Else, I got to go to bed to git +this-un washed." +</p> +<p> +The storekeeper laid out several of dark color: +</p> +<p> +"Here's some you can wear without change till the shirt falls off." +</p> +<p> +"That's right, John; gimme one thet won't advertise thet the ole woman's +neglectin' me." +</p> +<p> +Another was uncertain about the size of a pair of overalls for his boy: +</p> +<p> +"Dunknow, John Marion! One tight enough to keep the bees out—a kid +shore wastes energy when a bee gits in 'em." +</p> +<p> +When it is "good dusk" the storekeeper closes the wooden shutters and +fastens them by looping a small cotton string over a nail. All the +mountaineers are on their way home, but they had not parted without an +interchange of invitation: +</p> +<p> +"Home with me, boys; home! Ef I can't feed ye well, I'll be friendly." +</p> +<p> +Or, maybe, the invitation is not so sweeping, and holds a reservation: +</p> +<p> +"Spend the night with me! I'll not stop you; I'll let you leave afore +breakfast." +</p> +<p> +Over any gathering at the store a pall of silence descends when a +stranger rides up. If the newcomer is a new drummer unfamiliar with the +ways of the mountains, if he comes imbued with the belief that the voice +with the smile wins, and talkatively radiates his individual idea of +fellowship and democracy, one by one his auditors silently drop away. To +them, an insincere, a false note of democracy has been struck. Perhaps +around the door there will linger some of the mountain boys waiting to +satisfy their curiosity over the contents of the drummer's cases. +</p> +<p> +John Marion Rains always listens to the story of prices, but his shelves +are really replenished by the drummers who drive to the barn instead of +the store, who unhitch their own horses and feed them from the +storekeeper's supply of corn, who come into the center of the crowd only +after they have unobtrusively lingered awhile in the fringe of it. +</p> +<p> +One afternoon one of these mountaineers who had withdrawn to the porch, +unhitched, without being solicited, a drummer's horse, and he had +trouble in pulling off a loose shoe and renailing it. The drummer wanted +to pay for the work, but the mountaineer shook his head. The deed had +been done for the horse. The visitor insisted, and finally the price was +fixed: +</p> +<p> +"Bout a nickel!" +</p> +<p> +A mountaineer seldom asks questions. Instead he makes a statement of +that which appears to him to be the fact, and if unchallenged or +uncorrected, it is accepted as the proper deduction. Early in my visit +to Pall Mall I learned my lesson. +</p> +<p> +"Have you lived all your life in the valley?" I asked an old mountaineer +whom I met on the road as he was carrying on his shoulder a sack of corn +to the mill. +</p> +<p> +Into his eye there came a light of playfulness, then pity, quickly to be +followed by a twinkle of fun. He simply could not let the opening pass. +</p> +<p> +"Not yit," he said. +</p> +<p> +Later I saw a little fellow of six years of age chasing a chicken barren +of feathers over a yard that was barren of grass. When I accused him of +maliciously picking that chicken, his face was a spot of smiles as he +vigorously denied it. +</p> +<p> +"Are you going to school?" I asked him. +</p> +<p> +The smile changed to a look of surprize at an inquiry so out of line +with his immediate activities. +</p> +<p> +"When it starts," he called back as he and the chicken disappeared under +the cabin. +</p> +<p> +I dropped questions and adopted the direct statement as a method of +procedure in which there was less personal liability. +</p> +<p> +Alvin Terry, dressed in a patched corduroy with a hunting-pouch made of +the skin of a gray fox and with his long rifle in his hand, stopped at +the store and told how he "got a bear." There was a hunter's pride in +the achievement with apparently little value given to the bravery of the +personal role he had played. +</p> +<p> +He had been on a hunt back in the hills. His dogs had gone ahead of him +and he "knowed they had somethin'." When he came in sight of them they +rushed into a cave and some came out yelping and bloody. When they +wouldn't go back, then it was he "sized hit wur a bear." He looked at +the mountains around him, but there was not a cabin in sight where he +could get help. +</p> +<p> +"Ez the dogs couldn't git out whatever wuz in there, and wuz only +keepin' hit in, I sat down to think hit over. I lowed I would tell some +one en folks would say, 'that's the man who had a bear in a cave, and +did not git him.' Ef I went in en come out alive with scratches on me, +folks would say 'a bear done that, but he got the bear.'" +</p> +<p> +He cut a long pole, fastened a pine knot to the end of it and set it +afire. Getting to the side of the mouth of the cave he began slowly to +push in the burning knot, "leavin' the channel open ef anything wanted +to come out." +</p> +<p> +But the bear didn't come out, and the hunter grew afraid that the smoke +would not move his prey yet would prevent him seeing around in the cave +if he had to go in. The cave's mouth was low, a rock hung over it and he +could not crawl upon his hands and knees. +</p> +<p> +"I pushed the pine knot ez fur ez hit would go. I set my rifle, en +pushed hit ahead of me. Got my knife where I could git hit. Went down +flat en begun to pull myself on my elbows. When I could jes peep around +a rock I seed the bear. He wuz settin' on his haunches, his head turned +alookin' at the pine knot. I picked out a spot about three inches below +his collar-bone, en never drew such a bead on anything. Then I tetched +her oft. Ye should have seed me come backward out o' there." +</p> +<p> +He waited and there was no sound in the cave. He sent the dogs in and +they would not come out at his call. He reloaded his rifle and began to +crawl in again. +</p> +<p> +"As soon as I seed him I knowed he wuz dead. I got both hands on his paw +and began to pull. He wuz heavier than I wuz, so I slid to him. I tried +ketchin' my toes in the rocks, but I couldn't hold, en I never moved +him." +</p> +<p> +He went ten miles over the mountains to get help to pull his bear out of +the cave. +</p> +<p> +The language of the people of the Great Smokies and the Blue Ridge +mountains is filled with a quaintness of expression. Many of their words +and phrases that attract through their oddity were at one time in +popular use and grammatically correct. These people are clinging to the +dialect of their fathers who were Anglo-Saxons. The use of "hit" for +"it" is not confined to the mountains, but the Old English grammars give +"hit" as the neuter of the pronoun "he." +</p> +<p> +"Uns," too, had once a grammatical sanction, for "uon" or "un" was the +Early English for "one," and "uns" was more than the one. In many parts +of the South are found the expressions, "you-uns" and "we-uns." The +mountaineer says "you-uns" when he is addressing more than one person. +It is one of his plural forms for "you," and he is adopting an Early +English ending. But the true mountaineer does not employ "we-uns" The +"we" to him is plural, the suffix is superfluous. In the same way he +says "ye" when speaking to more than one, but he uses "you" when +addressing an individual. He seems, too, to make a distinction between +"you-uns" and "ye." The former is usually the nominative and the latter +the objective. +</p> +<p> +When he wishes to convey the idea of past tense, the ending "ed" is +popularly employed, but when he may he drops the "e." While he will +properly use the present tense of a verb he goes out of his way to add +the "(e)d." So he says "know-d," "see-d." But he is not always +consistent. He prefers "kilt," the old form, to "killed." +</p> +<p> +Generations passed in which they had little opportunity to attend +school, and there are today a number of the older people of the "Valley +of the Three Forks o' the Wolf" who can not read nor write. Some of the +younger generation have been away to college, but, as with Alvin York, +most of them grew to manhood with only a month or a month and a half at +school during a year, with many years no school in session. +</p> +<p> +The church is in the center of the valley at the edge of a grove of +forest trees. It is a frame structure, built by the Methodists during +the past century. The board walls of the interior are unplastered and +unpainted, and the pews are movable benches. The pulpit is slightly +elevated with a railing in front, ending in two pillars upon which rest +the preacher's Bible, song books and lamps. Along the entire front of +the pulpit runs the mourners' bench. In the rear of the church a ladder +rests against the wall and down toward it swings a rope from the open +belfry. +</p> +<p> +Everyone in the valley attends church and there are but few who do not +go to every service without regard to the denomination conducting it. +They come on horse- and mule-back, on foot, in wagons in the beds of +which are chairs for the entire family. In summer many of the men wear +their overalls, and all, excepting the young men acting as escorts, come +in their shirt-sleeves. Some of the women are in silks, but more of them +are in ginghams, and many sunbonnets are to be seen. At the door of the +church the men and women part and they sit in separate pews. +</p> +<p> +I attended a service at the end of a revival that was being conducted by +the Rev. Melvin Herbert Russell, of the Church of Christ in Christian +Union, the frail and eager evangelist who three years before had brought +Sergeant York to his knees before the altar of that church. +</p> +<p> +It was an August day and the sun's rays fell into the valley without a +single cloud for a screen. The little church was filled with worshipers, +while many sat in the shade of the trees that sheltered it, within the +sound of the minister's voice. Down through the grove the hitched horses +"stomped" and switched, but this was the only evidence of restlessness. +</p> +<p> +The minister conducted the services in his shirt-sleeves, without +collar, and with the sleeves rolled up. There is no organ in the church +and he played a guitar as he led the earnest singing. +</p> +<p> +The mountain evangelist had but few of the pulpit arts of the minister, +but he had the soul of a great preacher. His life, to him, was a mission +to the unconverted to point out the imminence of death and its meaning. +His belief had carried him beyond and above the pleading of the +uncertainty of death to arouse fear in the hearts of his congregation. +Instead, to him, the great clock of time was actually ticking off an +opportunity which the unconverted could not permit to pass. In his +earnest pleading his voice would rise from a conversational tone until +it rang penetratingly through the hall, and he would emphasize his words +with a startling resound from his open palm upon the altar-rail. +</p> +<p> +The mountaineers had brought their entire families, and during the +service the smaller children would fall asleep, to awaken with a cry at +the changing vibrations. Up and down the sounding, carpetless aisles the +parents would pass, carrying out some child to comfort it. +</p> +<p> +But the incidents were unnoticed by the minister, nor did they break the +chant of amens or the growing number of repetitions of the minister's +words by the devout worshipers. When the eyes of the auditors were +turned from the evangelist they reverently sought the face of some +expected convert. In the service, in the feelings of the people there +was real religion. +</p> +<p> +Sundays pass when there is no preaching in the church. Pastor Pile, the +local minister, has several charges and can conduct the services at Pall +Mall but once a month. But each Sunday morning there is Sunday School, +and in the afternoon a singing-class. Some one of the York boys leads +the unaccompanied songs, and Alvin's leadership and interest in these +services caused the catchy phrase, "a singing Elder," to be a part of +nearly every newspaper story of him that went over the country. +</p> +<p> +The singing-class draws to the church on Sunday afternoon the younger +element of the community. When the service is over, some go for a swim +in the Wolf River which runs along the foot of the grove, or on a +grassless space under a giant oak on the schoolhouse-yard there will be +a game of marbles. It is the old-fashioned "ring men" that they play, +where five large marbles are placed in a small square marked in the +dust, one marble on each corner and one in the middle. +</p> +<p> +Over in France when the officers of Sergeant York's regiment were trying +to obtain all the facts of his wonderful exploit, they asked him what he +did with the German officers he had captured when he started to bring in +his line of prisoners. His reply was a simile from his boyhood in the +mountains: +</p> +<p> +"I jes made a middler out of myself." +</p> +<pre> + Among all the American officers present there was but one who + recognized his reference to the old marble game. +</pre> +<p> +The death of his father when Alvin was twenty-one, relaxed a hand that +had protected and guided him more than he realized. His two older +brothers were married and he became the head of the family of ten that +remained. He left to his younger brothers the care of the crops upon the +farm and he hired out on any job that brought an extra revenue. In +summer he worked on neighboring farms, and in winter hauled staves and +merchandise when the roads could be traveled, or logged in the lumber +camps. +</p> +<p> +He formed new associates and under the new influences began to drink and +gamble. With his companions on Saturday and Sunday he would "go to the +Kentucky line." +</p> +<p> +Through the mountains along the state-line between Tennessee and +Kentucky there were road-houses, or saloons, that were so built that +one-half of the house would be in Kentucky and one-half in Tennessee. +The keeper paid his federal license and was free from the clutches of +the United States Government. But he avoided the licenses of the states +by carrying a customer from Tennessee into the Kentucky side of the +house for the business transaction, and the Kentuckian was invited into +Tennessee. No customer of the state-line saloons could swear before a +grand jury that he had violated the liquor laws of his state, and he was +not subject to a summons at his home by the grand jury of the county or +state in which he made his purchase. Upon receipt of a "grapevine" +signal that officers were approaching, the entire stock of liquids would +disappear and when the officers arrived the saloonkeeper would be at +work in the fields of his farm. +</p> +<p> +The nearest state-line saloon to Pall Mall was seven miles by the road +and but little over half the distance by paths on the mountains. +</p> +<p> +This was the only period of Alvin's life when the wishes of his mother +did not control him. These week-end sprees were relaxation and fun, and +he worked steadily the remainder of the week. In them he grew jovial and +the friends he drew around him were fun, not trouble, makers. His +physical strength and the influence of his personality were quickly used +to check in incipiency any evidence of approaching disorder. +</p> +<p> +His "shooting-up" consisted of pumping lead from an old revolver he +owned into the spots on beech trees as he and his friends galloped along +the road. And he became so expert that he would pass the revolver from +hand to hand and empty it against a tree as he went by. When the eight +Germans charged him in the fight in the Argonne, he never raised his +automatic pistol higher than his cartridge-belt. +</p> +<p> +His mother knew the latent determination of her boy and she was ever in +dread that there might arise some trouble among the men when he was away +on these drinking trips. +</p> +<p> +"Alvin is jes like his father," she said. "They were both slow to start +trouble, but ef either one would git into hit, they'd go through with +the job and there'd be a-hurtin'." +</p> +<p> +But since the fist fights of boyhood Alvin York has never had a personal +encounter. His intents and deeds do not lead him into difficulties, and +in his eye there is a calm blue light that steadies the impulses of men +given to explosions of passion and anger. +</p> +<p> +At a basket-dinner where he and his friends were drinking he took his +last drink. To these outings the girls bring, in a woven, hickory +basket, a dinner for two. The baskets are auctioned, the proceeds are +given to some church charity, and the purchaser and the girl have dinner +together. They are often expensive parties to a serious-minded mountain +swain who can not surrender the day's privileges to a rival or will not +yield his dignity and rights to fun-makers who enliven the biddings by +making the basket, brought by "his girl," cost at least as much as a +marriage license. +</p> +<p> +Alvin's mother had often pleaded with her boy that he was not his real +self—not his better self—while drinking. Something happened at a +basket-party in 1914 that caused the full meaning of his mother's +solicitude to come to him. He left, declaring he would never take +another drink, and his drinking and gambling days ended together. +</p> +<p> +Late in the afternoons in the fall months, when the squirrels are out +[so the story runs in the valley, but without confirmation from the +Sergeant], Alvin would be seen leaving home with his gun. He would cut +across the fields to the west and pass along the outskirts of the farm +of Squire F. A. Williams. Those who saw him wondered why he should take +this long course to the woods, while on the mountain above his home the +oak and beech masts were plentiful and other hunters were going there +for the squirrels. +</p> +<p> +About this same time, the wife of Squire Williams noted with pleasure +that Gracie, her youngest daughter—a girl of sixteen with golden hair +and eyes that mirror the blue of the sky—went willingly to the woodlots +for the cows. When she returned with them she was singing, and this, +too, pleased Mrs. Williams. +</p> +<p> +The road from Squire Williams' home to the church passes the York home; +and, after the service, as far as his gate, Alvin would often walk with +them. As Gracie was silent and timid when any stranger was near, so +diffident that when on their way home from church she walked far away +from Alvin, the neighbors for a long while had no explanation for +Alvin's squirrel-hunts along the base of the mountain instead of up +toward the top of it; and Mrs. Williams, at her home, heard so many +gunshots off in the woods in the course of a day that she attached no +significance to them. +</p> +<p> +But Alvin's and Gracie's meetings along the shaded roadway that leads to +the Williams home were discovered, and Mrs. Williams put a ban upon +them—for Gracie was too young, she maintained, to have thoughts of +marriage. +</p> +<p> +The real facts in that mountain courtship are known to but two, and even +now are as carefully guarded as tho the romance had not become a reality +and culminated happily. +</p> +<p> +But the neighbors have fragments out of which they build a story, and it +varies with the imagination of the relator. The big Sergeant's +confirmation or denial is a smile and a playful, taunting silence that +leaves conclusion in doubt. +</p> +<p> +There is a path that leads from the store around the side of the +mountain that edges a shoulder between the store and the Williams home. +A little off this path is a large flat rock. Around it massive beech +trees grow and their boughs arch into a dome above the rock. There are +carvings on the trunks of those trees that were not found until the rock +was selected as the altar for a woodland wedding at which the Governor +of Tennessee officiated. +</p> +<p> +When Gracie would come to the store she passed the York home on her way. +Often, when alone, she would return by the mountain path. It was longer +than by the road, but it was shaded by trees, and as it bends around the +mountain glimpses of the valley could be seen. The rock ledge among the +beech trees was not half way to her home, but it was a picturesque place +to rest, and down below was the roof of the York home and the +spring-branch, as it wound its way to the Wolf River. It was their +favorite meeting-place. +</p> +<p> +When the war broke in Europe, those who lived in the valley gave little +heed to it. When there was talk of the United States' entry, there was +deep opposition. They were opposed to any war. The wounds of the Civil +War had healed, but the scars it left were deep. The thought of another +armed conflict meant more to the old people than it did to the younger +generation. +</p> +<p> +"I did not know," Alvin said of himself, "why we were going to war. We +never had any speakings in here, and I did not read the papers closely, +and did not know the objects of the war. I did not feel I wanted to go." +</p> +<p> +He had given up his work on the farm and was making more money than he +had ever made before. The shortcut of the Dixie Highway—that part that +runs from Louisville to Chattanooga—had been surveyed and was being +graded through Fentress county. It runs through the "Valley of the Three +Forks o' the Wolf," He was "driving steel on the pike," for his days in +the blacksmith shop had taught him to wield a sledgehammer and many +rocks were to be blasted to make a roadway. For this he was receiving +$1.65 a day, for ten hours' work, while on the farm he had not been able +to earn more than $25 a month, working from "can't see to can't see." +</p> +<p> +When he joined the church he had given himself to it unreservedly. They +were holding many meetings and the church was growing. He had become the +Second Elder. At the time, too, he was planning for the day when he +could marry. +</p> +<p> +In June following the country's entry into the war Alvin registered for +the draft and in October at Jamestown took his examination. +</p> +<p> +"They looked at me, they weighed me," he told on his return, "and I +weighed 170 pounds and was 72 inches tall. So they said I passed all +right!" +</p> +<p> +He was with Pastor Pile, and he turned to him: +</p> +<p> +"This means good-bye for me. But I'll go." +</p> +<p> +After his registration his mother had never ceased to worry over his +going to a war so far away from her. +</p> +<p> +The situation troubled him. At times he would see his mother looking +steadily at him, and there was always a sadness in her face. He knew +that she needed him, for the next oldest of the brothers of those who +were at home was only seventeen. But his country had asked him to stand +by and would call him if it needed him. +</p> +<p> +The struggle within him lasted for weeks. Then he asked that they seek +no exemption for him. +</p> +<p> +In his presence his mother never again referred to his going, but he +would see her troubled face watching him. +</p> +<p> +But she talked with the influential men in the valley hoping there would +be some suggestion that would honorably relieve Alvin from the duty of +going. Pastor Pile had gone ahead to see what he could do, and he +learned that those who were "conscientious objectors" would not have to +go. The tenets of his church, he held, were against all wars. Alvin was +an elder; he had subscribed to and was living the principles of his +religion. He hurried home to Mrs. York. +</p> +<p> +But the soldier, himself, had to make the plea for exemption, no one +could make it for him. +</p> +<p> +Alvin never made it. +</p> +<p> +In the middle of November his summons reached him. He had but +twenty-four hours to respond. +</p> +<p> +He sent a note to Gracie, telling her his "little blue card" had come +and he asked her to meet him at the church—which always stands open by +the roadside. As they walked toward her home they arranged to meet the +next morning at the rock under the beech trees, when she would leave to +carry the cows to the pasture. And it was there she promised to marry +him—when he returned from the war. +</p> +<p> +Men at the store saw Alvin come down from the mountain and he could not +escape some banterings over the success or failure of his early morning +tryst. +</p> +<p> +"Jes left it to her," he is said to have frankly confessed, "she can +have me for the takin' when I git back." +</p> +<p> +He and his mother were alone in their home for several hours. When he +left he stopped at the Brooks' porch where relatives and neighbors had +assembled. As he walked away he turned, unexpectedly, up the path toward +the rock on the mountainside. It is now known he went there to kneel +alone in prayer. +</p> +<p> +When he came down to the store, to the men waiting for him, he spoke +with an assured faith he had not shown before. "I know, now, that I'll +be back," he told them. +</p> +<p> +His mother, weeping, tho hiding it from him, had slowly followed as far +as the Brooks' porch. +</p> +<p> +Alvin, looking back toward the old Coonrod Pile home, saw her and waved +to her, then hurried to the buggy that was to take him to Jamestown. +</p> +<p> +As the grating of the moving buggy wheels on the road reached the Brooks +porch, Mrs. York gave a cry that went to responsive hearts in every home +in that part of the valley. And she secluded herself, and sobbed for +days. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0007"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + VI — Sergeant York's Own Story +</h2> +<p> +When Alvin went to war he carried with him a small, red, cloth-covered +memorandum book, which was to be his diary. He knew that beyond the +mountains that encircled his home there was a world that would be new to +him. He kept the little volume—now with broken-back and +worn—constantly with him, and he wrote in it while in camp, on +shipboard and in the trenches in France. It was in his pocket while he +fought the German machine gun battalion in the Forest of Argonne. +</p> +<p> +The book with its records was intended for no eyes but his own. Yet +painstaking, using ink, he had headed the volume: "A History of places +where I have been." +</p> +<p> +As a whole, the volume would be unintelligible to a reader, for while it +records the things he wished to remember of his camp-life, the trip +through England, his stay in France, and tells in order the "places he +had been," it is made up of swift-moving notes that enter into no +explanatory details. But to him the notations could—even in the evening +of his life—revive the chain of incidents in memory. His handling of +his diary is typical of his mind and his methods. +</p> +<p> +To him details are essential, but when they are done carefully and +thoroughly their functions are performed and thereafter they are +uninteresting. They are but the steps that must be taken to walk a given +distance. His mind instead dwells upon the object of the walk. +</p> +<p> +When he left his home at Pall Mall he reported to the local recruiting +station at Jamestown, the county seat. He was sent to Camp Gordon near +Atlanta, Ga., and reached there the night of November 16, 1917. His +diary runs: +</p> +<p> +"I was placed in the 21st training battalion. Then I was called the +first morning of my army life to police up in the yard all the old +cigarette butts and I thought that was pretty hard as I didn't smoke. +But I did it just the same." +</p> +<p> +His history tells in one sentence, of months of his experience in +training with the "awkward squad" and of his regimental assignment: +</p> +<p> +"I stayed there and done squads right and squads left until the first of +February, 1918, and then I was sent to Company G, 328 Inf. 82nd Div." +</p> +<p> +This was the "All America" Division, made up of selected men from every +state in the Union and in its ranks were the descendants of men who came +from every nation that composed the Allies that were fighting Germany. +</p> +<p> +In his notes Alvin records temptations that came to him while at Camp +Gordon: +</p> +<p> +"Well they gave me a gun and, oh my! that old gun was just full of +grease, and I had to clean that old gun for inspection. So I had a hard +time to get that old gun clean, and oh, those were trying hours for a +boy like me trying to live for God and do his blessed will. ... Then the +Lord would help me to bear my hard tasks. +</p> +<p> +"So there I was. I was the homesickest boy you ever seen." +</p> +<p> +When he entered the army Alvin York stood six feet in the clear. There +were but few in camp physically his equal. In any crowd of men he drew +attention. The huge muscles of his body glided lithely over each other. +He had been swinging with long, firm strides up the mountainsides. His +arms and shoulders had developed by lifting hay-ladened pitchforks in +the fields and in the swing of the sledge in his father's blacksmith's +shop. The military training coordinated these muscles and he moved among +the men a commanding figure, whose quiet reserve power seemed never +fully called into action by the arduous duties of the soldier. +</p> +<p> +The strength of his mind, the brain force he possessed were yet to be +recognized and tested. And even to-day, with all the experiences he has +had and the advancement he has made, that force is not yet measured. It +is in the years of the future that the real mission of Sergeant York +will be told. +</p> +<p> +He came out of the mountains of Tennessee with an education equal to +that of a child of eight or nine years of age, with no experience in the +world beyond the primitive, wholesome life of his mountain community, +with but little knowledge of the lives and customs, the ambitions and +struggles of men who lived over the summit of the Blue Ridge and beyond +the foot-hills of the Cumberlands. +</p> +<p> +But he was wise enough to know there were many things he did not know. +He was brave enough to frankly admit them. When placed in a situation +that was new to him, he would try quietly to think his way out of it; +and through inheritance and training he thought calmly. He had the +mental power to stand at ease under any condition and await sufficient +developments to justify him to speak or act. Even German bullets could +not hurry nor disconcert him. +</p> +<p> +He was keenly observant of all that went on around him in the +training-camp. Few sounds or motions escaped him, though it was in a +seemingly stoic mien that he contemplated the things that were new to +him. In the presence of those whose knowledge or training he recognized +as superior to his own he calmly waited for them to act, and so accurate +were his observations that the officers of his regiment looked upon him +as one by nature a soldier, and they said of him that he "always seemed +instinctively to know the right thing to do." +</p> +<p> +Placed at his first banquet board—the guest of honor—with a row of +silver by his plate so different from the table service in his humble +home, he did not misuse a piece from among them or select one in error. +But throughout the courses he was not the first to pick up a needed +piece. +</p> +<p> +His ability to think clearly and quickly, under conditions that tried +both heart and brain, was shown in the fight in the Argonne. With eight +men, not twenty yards away, charging him with bayonets, he calmly +decided to shoot the last man first, and to continue this policy in +selecting his mark, so that those remaining would "not see their +comrades falling and in panic stop and fire a volley at him." +</p> +<p> +Military critics analyzing the tactics York used in this fight have been +able to find no superior way for removing the menace of the German +machine guns that were over the crest of the hill and between him and +his regiment, than to form the prisoners he had captured in a column, +put the officers in front and march directly to each machine gun-nest, +compelling the German officers to order the gunners to surrender and to +take their place in line. +</p> +<p> +Calm and self-controlled, with hair of copper-red and face and neck +browned and furrowed by the sun and mountain winds, enured to hardships +and ready for them, this young mountaineer moved among his new-found +companions at Camp Gordon. Reticent he seemed, but his answer to an +inquiry was direct, and his quiet blue-eyes never shifted from the eyes +of the man who addressed him. As friendships were formed, his moods were +noted by his comrades. At times he was playful as a boy, using +cautiously, even gently, the strength he possessed. Then again he would +remain, in the midst of the sports, thoughtful, and as tho he were +troubled. +</p> +<p> +Back in the mountains he had but little opportunity to attend school, +and his sentences were framed in the quaint construction of his people, +and nearly all of them were ungrammatical. There were many who would +have regarded him as ignorant. By the standards that hold that education +is enlightenment that comes from acquaintance with books and that wisdom +is a knowledge of the ways of the world, he was. But he had a training +that is rare; advantages that come to too few. +</p> +<p> +From his father he inherited physical courage; from his mother, moral +courage. And both of them spent their lives developing these qualities +of manhood in their boy. His father hiked him through the mountains on +hunts that would have stoutened the heart of any man to have kept the +pace. And he never tolerated the least evidence of fear of man or beast. +He taught his boy to so live that he owed apology or explanation to no +man. +</p> +<p> +While I was at Pall Mall, one of his neighbors, speaking of Alvin, said: +</p> +<p> +"Even as a boy he had his say and did his do, and never stopped to +explain a statement or tell what prompted an act. Left those to stand +for themselves." +</p> +<p> +And the little mother, whose frail body was worn from hard work and +wracked by the birth of eleven children, was before him the embodiment +of gentleness, spirit and faith. When he came from the hunt into the +door of that cabin home and hung his gun above the mantel, or came in +from the fields where the work was physical, he put from him all feeling +of the possession of strength. When he was with her, he was as gentle as +the mother herself. +</p> +<p> +She, too, wanted her son to live in such a way that he would not fear +any man. But she wanted his course through life to be over the path her +Bible pointed out, so that he would not have the impulse to do those +deeds that called for explanation or demanded apology. +</p> +<p> +From her he inherited those qualities of mind that gave him at all times +the full possession of himself. Her simple, home-made philosophy was +ever urging her boy to "think clear through" whatever proposition was +before him, and when in a situation where those around him were excited +"to slow down on what he was doing, and think fast." I have heard her +say: +</p> +<p> +"There hain't no good in gitting excited you can't do what you ought to +do." +</p> +<p> +She had not seen a railroad-train until she went to the capital of +Tennessee to the presentation of the medal of honor given her son by the +people of the state. She came upon the platform of the Tabernacle at +Nashville wearing the sunbonnet of stays she wore to church in the +"Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf." The Governor in greeting her, +lifted off the sunbonnet. His possession was momentary, for Mrs. York +recaptured it in true York style. Her smiling face and nodding head told +that the Governor had capitulated. It was pantomime, for the thousands +were on their feet waving to her and cheering her. Calm and still +smiling, she looked over the demonstration in the vast auditorium more +as a spectator than as the cause of the outburst of applause. Later, at +the reception at the Governor's mansion, guests gathered around her and +she held a levee that crowded one of the big drawing-rooms. Those who +sought to measure wit with her found her never at a loss for a reply, +and woven through her responses were many similes drawn from her +mountain life. +</p> +<p> +Under her proctorship the moral courage of her son had developed. In her +code of manhood there was no tolerance for infirmity of purpose, and +mental fear was as degrading and as disintegrating as physical +cowardice. He had been a man of the world in the miniature world that +the miles of mountains had enclosed around him. He had lived every phase +of the life of his people, and lived them openly. When he renounced +drinking and gambling he was through with them for all time. When he +joined the church, his religion was made the large part of the new plan +of his life. +</p> +<p> +It was while at Camp Gordon that he reconciled his religious convictions +with his patriotic duty to his country. +</p> +<p> +The rugged manhood within him had made him refuse to ask exemption from +service and danger on the ground that the doctrine of his church opposed +war. But his conscience was troubled that he was deliberately on the +mission to kill his fellow man. It was these thoughts that caused his +companions to note his moody silences. +</p> +<p> +In behalf of his mother, who, with many mothers of the land, was bravely +trying to still her heart with the thought that her son was on an errand +of mercy, the pastor of the church in the valley made out the strongest +case he could for Alvin's exemption, and sent it to the officers of his +regiment. +</p> +<p> +Lieut. Col. Edward Buxton, Jr., and Maj. E. C. B. Danford, who was then +the captain of York's company, sent for him. They explained the +conditions under which it were possible, if he chose, to secure +exemption. They pointed out the way he could remain in the service of +his country and not be among the combat troops. The sincerity, the +earnestness of York impressed the officers, and they had not one but a +number of talks in which the Scriptures were quoted to show the Savior's +teachings "when man seeth the sword come upon the land." They brought +out many facts about the war that the Tennessee mountaineer had not +known. +</p> +<p> +York did not take the release that lay within his grasp. Instead, he +thumbed his Bible in search of passages that justified the use of force. +</p> +<p> +One day, before the regiment sailed for France, when York's company was +leaving the drill-field, Capt. Danford sent for him. Together they went +over many passages of the Bible which both had found. +</p> +<p> +"If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight." +</p> +<p> +They were together several hours. At last York said: +</p> +<p> +"All right; I'm satisfied." +</p> +<p> +After that there was no reference to religious objection. From the first +he had seen the justice of the war. He now saw the righteousness of it. +</p> +<p> +York's abilities as a soldier were soon revealed. He quickly qualified +as a sharp-shooter, both as skirmisher and from the top of the trench. +In battalion contest formation, where the soldiers run and fall and +fire, "shooting at moving targets," it was not difficult for him to +score eight hits out of ten shots, and, with a rifle that was new to +him. This, too, over a range that began at 600 yards and went down to +100 yards, with the targets in the shape of the head and shoulders of a +man. In these maneuvers he attracted the attention of his officers. +</p> +<p> +The impressive figure of the man with its ever present evidence of +reserve force, the strength of his personality, uneducated as he was, +made him a natural leader of the men around him. Officers of the +regiment have said that he would have received a promotion while in the +training-camp but for the policy of not placing in command a man who +might be a conscientious objector. +</p> +<p> +The "All America" Division passed through England on its way to France +and the first real fighting they had was in the St. Mihiel Salient. From +there they went to the Argonne Forest, where the division was on the +front line of the battle for twenty-six days and nights without relief. +</p> +<p> +It was in the St. Mihiel Salient that York was made a Corporal, and when +he came out of the Argonne Forest he was a Sergeant. The armistice was +signed a fortnight later. +</p> +<p> +The war made York more deeply religious. The diary he kept passed from +simple notations about "places he had been" to a record of his thoughts +and feelings. In it are many quotations from the Bible; many texts of +sermons he heard while on the battlefields of France. With the texts +were brief notes that would recall the sermons to his memory. The book +is really "a history" of his religious development. +</p> +<p> +When he would kneel by a dying soldier he would record in his diary the +talk he had with his comrade and would write the passages of Scripture +that he or the dying man had spoken. It was upon this his interests +centered. To others he left the task of telling of the battle's result. +</p> +<p> +He wrote in his diary this simple story of his fight with the battalion +of German machine guns: +</p> +<p> +"On the 7th day of October we lay in some little holes on the roadside +all day. That night we went out and stayed a little while and came back +to our holes, the shells bursting all around us. I saw men just blown up +by the big German shells which were bursting all around us. +</p> +<p> +"So the order came for us to take Hill 223 and 240 the 8th. +</p> +<p> +"So the morning of the 8th just before daylight, we started for the hill +at Chatel Chehery. Before we got there it got light and the Germans sent +over a heavy barrage and also gas and we put on our gas-masks and just +pressed right on through those shells and got to the top of Hill 223 to +where we were to start over at 6:10 A.M. +</p> +<p> +"They were to give us a barrage. The time came and no barrage, and we +had to go without one. So we started over the top at 6:10 A.M. and the +Germans were putting their machine guns to working all over the hill in +front of us and on our left and right. I was in support and I could see +my pals getting picked off until it almost looked like there was none +left. +</p> +<p> +"So 17 of us boys went around on the left flank to see if we couldn't +put those guns out of action. +</p> +<p> +"So when we went around and fell in behind those guns we first saw two +Germans with Red Cross band on their arms. +</p> +<p> +"Some one of the boys shot at them and they ran back to our right. +</p> +<p> +"So we all ran after them, and when we jumped across a little stream of +water that was there, there was about 15 or 20 Germans jumped up and +threw up their hands and said, 'Comrade.' The one in charge of us boys +told us not to shoot, they were going to give up anyway. +</p> +<p> +"By this time the Germans from on the hill was shooting at me. Well I +was giving them the best I had. +</p> +<p> +"The Germans had got their machine guns turned around. +</p> +<p> +"They killed 6 and wounded 3. That just left 8 and then we got into it +right. So we had a hard battle for a little while. +</p> +<p> +"I got hold of a German major and he told me if I wouldn't kill any more +of them he would make them quit firing. +</p> +<p> +"So I told him all right. If he would do it now. +</p> +<p> +"So he blew a little whistle and they quit shooting and came down and +gave up. I had about 80 or 90 Germans there. +</p> +<p> +"They disarmed and we had another line of Germans to go through to get +out. So I called for my men and one answered me from behind a big oak +tree and the other men were on my right in the brush. +</p> +<p> +"So I said, 'Let's get these Germans out of here.' One of my men said, +'It's impossible.' So I said, 'No, let's get them out of here.' +</p> +<p> +"When my men said that this German major said, 'How many have you got?' +</p> +<p> +"And I said, 'I got a plenty,' and pointed my pistol at him all the +time. +</p> +<p> +"In this battle I was using a rifle or a 45 Colt automatic pistol. +</p> +<p> +"So I lined the Germans up in a line of twos and I got between the ones +in front and I had the German major before me. So I marched them right +straight into those other machine guns, and I got them. When I got back +to my Major's P. C. I had 132 prisoners. +</p> +<p> +"So you can see here in this case of mine where God helped me out. I had +been living for God and working in church work sometime before I came to +the army. I am a witness to the fact that God did help me out of that +hard battle for the bushes were shot off all around me and I never got a +scrach. +</p> +<p> +"So you can see that God will be with you if you will only trust Him, +and I say He did save me." +</p> +<p> +"By this time," he wrote; "the Germans from on the hill was shooting at +me. 'Well, I was giving them the best I had." +</p> +<p> +That best was the courage to stand his ground and fight it out with +them, regardless of their number, for they were the defilers of +civilization, murderers of men, the enemies of fair play who had shown +no quarter to his pals who were slain unwarned while in the act of +granting mercy to men in their power. +</p> +<p> +That best was the morale of the soldier who believes that justice is on +his side and that the justness of God will shield him from harm. +</p> +<p> +And in physical qualities, it included a heart that was stout and a +brain that was clear—a mind that did not weaken when all the hilltop +above flashed in a hostile blaze, when the hillside rattled with the +death drum-beat of machine gun-fire and while the very air around him +was filled with darting lead. As he fought, his mind visualized the +tactics of the enemy in the moves they made, and whether the attack upon +him was with rifle or machine gun, hand-grenade or bayonet, he met it +with an unfailing marksmanship that equalized the disparity in numbers. +</p> +<p> +Another passage in his direct and simple story shows the character of +this man who came from a distant recess of the mountains with no code of +ethics except a confidence in his fellow man. +</p> +<p> +Those of the Americans who were not killed or wounded in the first +machine gun-fire had saved themselves as York had done. They had dived +into the brush and lay flat upon the ground, behind trees, among the +prisoners, protected by any obstruction they could find, and the stream +of bullets passed over them. +</p> +<p> +York was at the left, beyond the edge of the thicket. The others were +shut off by the underbrush from a view of the German machine guns that +were firing on them. York had the open of the slope of the hill, and it +fell to him to fight the fight. He wrote in his diary when he could find +time, and the story was written in "fox-holes" in the Forest of Argonne, +in the evenings after the American soldiers had dug in. Tho his records +were for no one but himself, he had no thought that raised his +performance of duty above that of his comrades: +</p> +<p> +"They killed 6 and wounded 3. That just left 8 and we got into it right. +So we had a hard battle for a little while." +</p> +<p> +Yet, in the height of the fight, not a shot was fired but by York. +</p> +<p> +In their admiration for him and his remarkable achievement, so that the +honor should rest where it belonged, the members of the American patrol +who were the survivors of the fight made affidavits that accounted for +all of them who were not killed or wounded, and showed the part each +took. These affidavits are among the records of Lieut. Col. G. Edward +Buxton, Jr., Official Historian of the Eighty-Second Division. At the +time of the fight Sergeant York was still a Corporal. +</p> +<p> +From the affidavit by Private Patrick Donohue: +</p> +<p> +"During the shooting, I was guarding the mass of Germans taken prisoners +and devoted my attention to watching them. When we first came in on the +Germans, I fired a shot at them before they surrendered. Afterwards I +was busy guarding the prisoners and did not shoot. I could only see +Privates Wills, Sacina and Sok. They were also guarding prisoners as I +was doing." +</p> +<p> +From the affidavit by Private Michael A. Sacina: +</p> +<p> +"I was guarding the prisoners with my rifle and bayonet on the right +flank of the group of prisoners. I was so close to these prisoners that +the machine gunners could not shoot at me without hitting their own men. +This I think saved me from being hit. During the firing, I remained on +guard watching these prisoners and unable to turn around and fire myself +for this reason. I could not see any of the other men in my detachment. +From this point I saw the German captain and had aimed my rifle at him +when he blew his whistle for the Germans to stop firing. I saw Corporal +York, who called out to us, and when we all joined him, I saw seven +Americans beside myself. These were Corp. York, Privates Beardsley, +Donohue, Wills, Sok, Johnson and Konatski." +</p> +<p> +From the affidavit by Private Percy Beardsley: +</p> +<p> +"I was at first near Corp. York, but soon after thought it would be +better to take to cover behind a large tree about fifteen paces in rear +of Corp. York. Privates Dymowski and Waring were on each side of me and +both were killed by machine gun-fire. I saw Corp. York fire his pistol +repeatedly in front of me. I saw Germans who had been hit fall down. I +saw the German prisoners who were still in a bunch together waving their +hands at the machine gunners on the hill as if motioning for them to go +back. Finally the fire stopped and Corp. York told me to have the +prisoners fall in columns of two's and take my place in the rear." +</p> +<p> +From the affidavit by Private George W. Wills: +</p> +<p> +"When the heavy firing from the machine guns commenced, I was guarding +some of the German prisoners. During this time I saw only Privates +Donohue, Sacina, Beardsley and Muzzi. Private Swanson was right near me +when he was shot. I closed up very close to the Germans with my bayonet +on my rifle and prevented some of them who tried to leave the bunch and +get into the bushes from leaving. I knew my only chance was to keep them +together and also keep them between me and the Germans who were +shooting. I heard Corp. York several times shouting to the machine +gunners on the hill to come down and surrender, but from where I stood I +could not see Corp. York. I saw him, however, when the firing stopped +and he told us to get along sides of the column. I formed those near me +in columns of two's." +</p> +<p> +The report which the officers of the Eighty-Second Division made to General +Headquarters contained these statements: +</p> +<p> +"The part which Corporal York individually played in this attack (the +capture of the Decauville Railroad) is difficult to estimate. +Practically unassisted, he captured 132 Germans (three of whom were +officers), took about 35 machine guns and killed no less than 25 of the +enemy, later found by others on the scene of York's extraordinary +exploit. +</p> +<p> +"The story has been carefully checked in every possible detail from +Headquarters of this Division and is entirely substantiated. +</p> +<p> +"Altho Corporal York's statement tends to underestimate the desperate +odds which he overcame, it has been decided to forward to higher +authority the account given in his own words. +</p> +<p> +"The success of this assault had a far-reaching effect in relieving the +enemy pressure against American forces in the heart of the Argonne +Forest." +</p> +<p> +In decorating Sergeant York with the Croix de Guerre with Palm, Marshal +Foch said to him: +</p> +<p> +"What you did was the greatest thing accomplished by any private soldier +of all of the armies of Europe." +</p> +<p> +When the officers of York's regiment were securing the facts for their +report to General Headquarters and were recording the stories of the +survivors, York was questioned on his efforts to escape the onslaught of +the machine guns: +</p> +<p> +"By this time, those of my men who were left had gotten behind trees, +and the men sniped at the Boche. But there wasn't any tree for me, so I +just sat in the mud and used my rifle, shooting at the machine gunners." +</p> +<p> +The officers recall his quaint and memorable answer to the inquiry on +the tactics he used to defend himself against the Boche who were in the +gun-pits, shooting at him from behind trees and crawling for him through +the brush. His method was simple and effective: +</p> +<p> +"When I seed a German, I jes' tetched him off." +</p> +<p> +In the afternoon of October 8—York had brought in his prisoners by 10 +o'clock in the morning—in the seventeenth hour of that day, the +Eighty-Second Division cut the Decauville Railroad and drove the Germans +from it. The pressure against the American forces in the heart of the +Argonne Forest was not only relieved, but the advance of the division +had aided in the relief of the "Lost Battalion" under the command of the +late Col. Whittlesey, which had made its stand in another hollow of +those hills only a short distance from the hillside where Sergeant York +made his fight. +</p> +<p> +As the Eighty-Second Division swept up the three hills across the valley +from Hill No. 223, the hill on the left—York's Hill—was found cleared +of the enemy and there was only the wreckage of the battle that had been +fought there. +</p> +<p> +York's fight occurred on the eighth day of the twenty-eight day and +night battle of the Eighty-Second Division in the Argonne. They were in +the forest fighting on, when the story went over the world that an +American soldier had fought and captured a battalion of German machine +gunners. +</p> +<p> +Even military men doubted its possibility, until the "All America" +Division came out of the forest with the records they had made upon the +scene, and with the clear exposition of the tactics and the remarkable +bravery and generalship that made Sergeant York's achievement possible. +</p> +<p> +Alvin York faced a new experience. He found himself famous. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0008"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div> + +<h2> + VII — Two More Deeds of Distinction +</h2> +<p> +Alvin was not prepared for the ovations that awaited him. The world +gives generously to those who succeed in an extraordinary endeavor where +the resource and ability of men are in competition. For intellectual +achievement there is deference and wonder, for moral accomplishment +there is approbation and love, but for physical courage there are all of +these and an added admiration that bursts in such fervor of approval +that men shout and toss their caps in air. It has been true, since the +world began. +</p> +<p> +The first honors came to him from his soldier associates. Then the men +of other regiments, and the regiments of other nations, wanted to see +the American who single-handed had fought and forced a battalion of +machine gunners to come to him. The people of France, too, were calling +for him. +</p> +<p> +It was with a military yardstick the soldiers measured the deed, for +they knew the fighting competency of a single machine gun and had seen +the destructive power of the scythe-like sweep of a battalion of them. +The civilian, in doubt and wonder, realized the magnitude of the +achievement in visualizing the number of prisoners that had surrendered +to one man. +</p> +<p> +The only contact Alvin York had had to the role of a man of prominence +was to stand in line, at attention, as persons of importance passed +before him. But when his regiment came out of the Argonne Forest, where +its almost unbroken battle had lasted twenty-eight days, he was taken +from the line and passed in review before the soldiers of other +regiments. Under orders from headquarters of the American Expeditionary +Force he traveled through the war zone. As a guest of honor he was sent +to cities in southern France. In Paris he was received with impressive +ceremonies by President Poincare and the government officials, It was +during this period that many of the military awards were made to him, +and brigade reviews were selected as the occasions for his decoration. +</p> +<p> +Against this background of enthusiasm, the tall, reserved, silent +mountaineer, in natural repose, moved through the varying programs of a +day. As all was new to him, he complied with almost childlike docility +to the demands upon him, but he was ever watchful that his conduct +should conform to that of those around him. If called upon to speak, he +responded; and he stood before the cheering crowds in noticeable mental +control. The few words he used did not misfire nor jam. They ended in a +smile of real fellowship that beamed from a rugged face that was +furrowed and tanned, and always with the quaint mountain phrase of +appreciation, "I thank ye!" In the months he remained with the army in +France he grew in personal popularity from his unaffected bearing. +</p> +<p> +The letters written home to his mother during this period show him +basically unchanged. +</p> +<p> +These letters, usually two a week, were the same as those he had been +writing all the while. In them were but few references to himself. Even +in the privacy of his correspondence with his home, there was not a +boastful thought over a thing that he had done, and only the vaguest +reference to the homage paid to him, as tho it were all a part of a +soldier's life. It was only through others that the mother learned of +the honors given to her son in France. +</p> +<p> +At the beginning of each letter he quieted his mother's forebodings for +him, and he turned to inquiries about home. Out of his pay of $30 a +month as a private soldier he had assigned $25 of it to his mother. He +wanted to know that the remittances had reached her. Two brothers had +married and moved away. Henry, the eldest, was living in Idaho, and +Albert in Kentucky. He wanted news of them. Two other married brothers, +Joe and Sam, while still living in the valley, were not at the old home. +He wanted every detail about their crops that told of their welfare. +</p> +<p> +His most valuable personal possession was two mules. Were George and Jim +and Robert, the younger brothers, keeping those mules fat? How much of +the farm were they preparing to "put in corn"? Corn was sure to be +scarce and would be worth $2.50 by harvest time! Was Mrs. Embry Wright, +his only married sister, staying with his mother to comfort her? Were +Lilly and Lucy, his little sisters, still helping her with the hard +work—of course they were! And in every letter there was an inquiry +about the sweetheart he had left behind. +</p> +<p> +The mother, when each letter had been read, placed it upright on the +board shelf which was the mantel of the family fireplace. When a new +letter came she took down the old one and put it carefully away. So +there was always "some news from Alvin" which was accessible to all the +neighbors. +</p> +<p> +"Will" Wright, president of the Bank of Jamestown, received the first +printed story that gave any description of the fight Alvin had "put up" +in the Forest of Argonne, and Mr. Wright hurried to Mrs. York with it. +With the family gathered around her in that hut in the mountains, and +with tears running down her expectant face, she learned for the first +time what her boy had done. She made Mr. Wright read the story—not +once, but seven times. +</p> +<p> +America was ready for Sergeant York when among the returning soldiers +his troop-ship touched port—the harbor of New York in May, 1919. The +story of the man had run ahead—his fight in the forest, that had added +to the cubic stature of the American soldier; the artlessness of his +life and the genuineness of his character, which as yet showed no alloy; +the modest, becoming acceptance of illustrious honors paid to him in +France. The people saw in this simple, earnest mountaineer the type of +American that had made America. They thought of him as coming from that +stratum of clay that could be molded into a rail-splitter and, when the +need arose, remodeled into the nation's leader. And quickly and +unexpectedly, Sergeant York was destined to show by two other deeds, +prompted by an inborn eminence, that the esteem was not misplaced. +</p> +<p> +In New York and Washington there were receptions and banquets in his +honor, and around him gathered high officials of the army and navy and +the Government, and men who were leaders in civilian life. It was with +impetuous enthusiasm that the people crowded the sidewalks to greet him +as he passed along the streets—the worn service uniform, the color of +his hair, the calm face that showed exposure to stress and hardships, +set in the luxurious leathers of an automobile, surrounded by men so +different in personal attire and appearance, marked him as the man they +sought. There is something in the man that creates the desire in others +to express outwardly their approval of him. At the New York Stock +Exchange business was suspended as the members rode him upon their +shoulders over the floor of the Exchange where visitors are not allowed. +In Washington the House of Representatives stopped debate and the +members arose and cheered him when he appeared in the gallery. +</p> +<p> +There were ovations for him at the railroad stations along his way to +Fort Oglethorpe, near Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he was mustered out +of service. +</p> +<p> +And in the midst of all of these mental-distracting demonstrations Alvin +York was put to the test. He was offered a contract that guaranteed him +$75,000 to appear in a moving picture play that would be staged in the +Argonne in France and would tell the story of his mountain life. There +was another proposition of $50,000. There were offers of vaudeville and +theatrical engagements that ranged up to $1,000 a week, and totaled many +thousands. On these his decision was reached on the instant they were +offered. The theater was condemned by the tenets of his church, and all +through his youth the ministers of the gospel, whom he had heard, +preached against it. The theater in any form was, as he saw it, against +the principles of religion to which he had made avowal. +</p> +<p> +Then up to the surface among those who were crowding around him there +wormed men who saw in Sergeant York's popularity the opportunity for +them to make money for themselves. Some of the propositions that were +made to him were sound, some whimsical, others strangely balanced upon a +business idea—but back of all of them ran the same motive. The past in +Sergeant York's life had been filled with hard work and hardships, the +present was new, the future uncharted, but to him there was something in +the voices of the people who were acclaiming him that was not for sale. +</p> +<p> +When he left Fort Oglethorpe for his home, the people of his mountain +country, in automobiles, on horseback, upon mules, whole families riding +in chairs in the beds of farm wagons, met him along the roadway as he +traveled the forty-eight miles over the mountains from the railroad +station to Pall Mall, and they formed a procession as they wound their +way toward the valley. +</p> +<p> +Only a few months before, when Alvin had returned home on a furlough +which he secured while in training at Camp Gordon, he had "picked up" a +wagon ride over the thirty-six miles from the railroad station to +Jamestown, and had walked the twelve miles from "Jimtown" to Pall Mall, +carrying his grip. +</p> +<p> +His mother was among those who met him at Jamestown. They rode together, +and the last of the long shadows had faded from the "Valley of the Three +Forks o' the Wolf" when they reached their cabin home. +</p> +<p> +The next morning, while it was not yet noon, the Sergeant and Miss +Gracie Williams met on "the big road" near the Rains' store. Those +sitting on the store porch—and there was to be but little work done on +the farms that day—saw the two meet, bow and pass on. Pall Mall is but +little given to gossip. Yet there was a strange story to be carried back +to the woman-folk in the homes in the valley and on the mountainsides. +</p> +<p> +Only the foxhound, that moved slowly behind his newly returned master, +knew of an earlier meeting that day between Sergeant York and his +sweetheart, and of a walk down a tree-shaded path that had given the +hound time to explore every fence-rail corner and verify his belief that +nothing worth while had been along that road for days. +</p> +<p> +But a quiet, uneventful life in the valley was not to return to Sergeant +York. +</p> +<p> +The Sunday following was Tennessee's Decoration Day. From the mountains +for miles around the people came to Pall Mall. During the ceremonies, +while the flowers were being placed upon the graves in the little +cemetery, they wanted Alvin to talk to them. He and Gracie were seated +in the empty bed of an unhitched wagon down at the edge of the grove of +forest trees that surrounds the church. He came to the cemetery, and his +talk was the untrammelled outpouring of his heart for all that had been +done for him. The spirit of the day, with his own people around him, his +experiences and the changes that had come into his life since the last +decoration services he had attended there, seemed to move him deeply, +and here was first displayed a power of oratory which he was so rapidly +to develop. +</p> +<p> +The people of Tennessee began to gather gifts for him before he left +France, and the Tennessee Society of New York City entertained him when +he left his troop-ship. The people of the South had always remembered +with added reverence that Robert E. Lee had declined to commercialize +his military fame, while some of the other generals of the Confederacy +had sacrificed their reputations upon the altar of expediency. So when +it became known that Sergeant York, with no knowledge of history to +guide him, but acting from principle, had refused to capitalize the +record of the few brief months he had spent in the service of his +country, there was nothing within the gift of the people he could not +have had. +</p> +<p> +His welcome home by the State of Tennessee was to be held at the capital +on June 9th. But Sergeant York, before he went to war, had given an +option—one over which he was showing deep concern. His mountain +sweetheart was to "have him for the taking when he got back." So it was +mutually—amicably—arranged that the foreclosure proceedings should +take place in Pall Mall on June 7th, and their bridal tour would be to +Nashville. +</p> +<p> +It was an out-of-door wedding so that all of the guests in Pall Mall for +that day could be present, and they came not only from all parts of +Tennessee but from neighboring States. The altar was the rock ledge on +the mountainside, above the spring, under the beech trees that arched +their boughs into a verdant cathedral dome. It had been their +meeting-place when he was an unknown mountain boy and she a +golden-haired school-girl. As the sunlight flickered on the trunks of +those trees it showed scars of knife carvings that carried the dates of +other meetings there. +</p> +<p> +The swaying boughs were draped with flags and flowers. The ceremony was +performed by Governor Roberts of Tennessee, assisted by Rev. Rosier +Pile, the pastor of the church in the valley, and Rev. W. T. Haggard, +chaplain-general of the Governor's staff. The bridesmaids were Miss Ida +Wright, Miss Maud Brier and Miss Adelia Darwin, and Sergeant York's best +man was Sergeant Clay Brier, of Jamestown. Their friendship had been +proved upon the fields of France. The wedding march was the wind among +the laurels and the pines. +</p> +<p> +The "Welcome Home" for him, at Nashville, by the people of Tennessee, +will long be remembered among the public demonstrations of the State. +Tennessee has always been proud of the fact that the conduct of her sons +in those times when the nation went to war had entitled her to the name +of "The Volunteer State." That one of her sons should come back from the +World War, having done, in the sum of its accomplishment, that which the +Commander of the Armies of the Allies called the greatest feat of valor, +while fighting solely on his own resources, of any soldier of all of the +armies of Europe, made the welcome one that sprang joyously from the +hearts of the people. And that this soldier, while poor and still facing +the possibility of a life filled with the deprivation of poverty, with +no assurance but the continued labor of his hands, should turn down the +offers of fortunes because, to him, they were prompted by a motive that +was unworthy—opened the very inner sanctuary of their hearts and the +people came with gifts, that he should sustain no loss of opportunity +and should never be in need. The offerings were not in money. They were +presents from the people. There were fertile acres that he could till, +as that was his selection of the life he wished to follow. There was a +model, modern house in which he could live, and furnishings for it. +There were blooded fowls and stock and farming implements, down to the +files for his scythe. The donors were individuals, organizations and +communities. Waiting for him was the state's medal which bears the +device "Service Above Self." He was appointed a member of the Governor's +staff and upon him was conferred the rank of Colonel. This was the +wedding trip of Sergeant York and his bride. +</p> +<p> +To Nashville, in the bridal party, to see and hear the honors to be paid +her son went Mrs. York, the mother. It was the first time she had ever +seen a railroad-train. And, now, it was Mrs. York's turn. She, too, +faced a battalion. Wearing her calico sunbonnet she came suddenly upon +the gorgeous social battalion—so fully equipped with the bayonets of +class and the machine guns of curiosity. And she captured it! As her son +had never seen the man or crowd of men of whom he was afraid, she, with +her philosophy of life, looked upon everyone as worthy of friendship and +the meeting with them a pleasure and not an occasion for disconcertment. +If they approached her with a greeting of wit, her answer was quick and +gentle, and as playful as a mountain stream. If their mood was serious, +she immediately impressed them with her frankness and her common sense. +She went everywhere the program provided, and enjoyed every moment of +it. As she was preparing to return home her appreciation was expressed +in her declaration that she "intended to come again, when she could go +quietly about and really see things—when policemen would not have to +make way for her." +</p> +<p> +Alvin was beginning life anew, decorated with the Distinguished Service +Cross and the rare Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest award of +his country to a soldier; the Medaille Militaire and the Croix de Guerre +with Palm, of France; the Croca di Guerra, of Italy; the War Medal of +Montenegro; the Legion of Honor; medals for gallantry from Tennessee and +the Methodist Centenary, and the Commonwealth of Rhode Island was +beckoning to him, to decorate him with the medal the State's legislature +had voted. There were the gifts the people of Tennessee had given him, +and others that began to come from all sections of the Union. The +mountaineers of the State of Georgia clubbed together and sent a +remembrance—and presents came from the far West. +</p> +<p> +Several cities offered him a home if he would come to live among their +people. Communities, wanting him, selected their most desirable farming +sites and tendered them. But the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf" +was home to him, and while in France he had said he wished to live +"nowhere but at Pall Mall." So the Rotary Clubs, headed by the Nashville +organization, raised the fund for the "York Home" through public +subscription, and there has been given to him four hundred acres of the +"bottom land" of the Valley of the Wolf and one of the timbered +mountainsides—land that had been homesteaded and first brought into +cultivation by "Old Coonrod" Pile, his pioneer ancestor—land that had +remained in the possession of his family until lost in the vicissitudes +of the days following the Civil War. +</p> +<p> +As his residence on his new farm was yet to be built for him, he carried +his bride back to the valley and to the little two-room cabin that had +been his mother's and his home. +</p> +<p> +It was impossible for Sergeant York to accept all of the invitations he +received to visit cities and address conventions, and he had often to +disappoint delegations who traveled the long, rough mountain road to +urge in person his acceptance. And he could not, with a slow-moving pen +upon a table of pine, answer all the communications that came. Before +the war two letters for him in half a year was an occasion worthy of +comment. Now each day, over the mountains upon a pacing roan, the +postman came, and the mail-pouches, swung as saddle-bags, swayed in +unison with the horse's step. Most of the letters were for the York +home. +</p> +<p> +The public mind pays tribute to its heroes in ways that are odd. In the +growing mass of mail that was kept in a wide wooden box under the +bed—letters that in number "had got away" from the Sergeant's ability +to answer—there were displayed many mental idiosyncrasies and an +abundance of advice, and there were many strange requests. Some of them +were pathetic begging letters, as tho the Sergeant were a rich man; some +came from prison-cells, asking his influence to secure a pardon; some +from those still desirous of securing a business partnership with him. +Among them were even belated matrimonial proposals, describing the +writers' attractive qualities. These the big Sergeant teasingly turned +over to the golden-haired girl who, herself, had come but recently into +that home, and they may safely be classed among those letters the +Sergeant could never answer. +</p> +<p> +While he was at home, which was now only for brief intervals between +trips in answer to the invitations he had accepted, it was noted that he +was unusually quiet. Often he would sit for an hour or more upon the +door-step, looking out past the arbor of honeysuckle, over the acres of +land that had been given him, gazing on to the mountains. But he kept +his own counsel. Some of those who lived in the valley, who saw him +sitting, thinking, wondered if there had come a longing into Alvin's +heart to be out in the world again. +</p> +<p> +But his problem was far from that. He had asked himself two questions: +"What was the great need of the people who live far back in the +mountains?" "What—since the world had been so generous to him, and +lifted from his shoulders the trials of living—could he do for his +people?" He was trying to answer them. Subconsciously, a great and a +genuine appreciation of all that had been done for him was pushing him +onward. +</p> +<p> +Unaided, he had solved the first. It was education. How keenly, within +the few months that had passed, had he realized his own need! +</p> +<p> +But at that time he did not appreciate how rapidly he was building for +himself a bridge over that shortcoming. +</p> +<p> +The second problem he found more difficult. He recognized he could do a +greater good and his efforts would be more lasting and far-reaching if +he proved to be an aid to the younger generation. In his effort to reach +a practical plan he went as far as he could, with his limited knowledge +of organization, before he sought counsel. +</p> +<p> +Then he asked that no other gifts be made to him, but instead the money +be contributed to a fund to build simple, primary schools throughout the +mountain districts where there were no state or county tax +appropriations available for the purpose. Of the fund, not a dollar was +to be for his personal use, nor for any effort he might put forth in its +behalf. +</p> +<p> +So again the form of Sergeant York rose out of the valley, above the +mountains, and the sunlight of the nation's approval fell upon it. Men +of prominence volunteered to aid him in his efforts for the children of +the mountains, and the result was the incorporation of the York +Foundation, a non-profit-sharing organization, that is to build +schoolhouses and operate schools. Among the trustees are an ex-Secretary +of the United States Treasury, bishops of the churches, a state +governor, a congressman, bankers, lawyers and business men. +</p> +<pre> + [Footnote: The Trustees of the York Foundation are: Bishop James + Atkins, Methodist Episcopal Church, South; W. B. Beauchamp, + Director-General of the Methodist Centenary, Nashville, Tenn.; George + E. Bennie, President, Alexander Bennie Co., Nashville, Tenn; C. H. + Brandon, President, Brandon Printing Co., Nashville, Tenn.; P. H. + Cain, Cain-Sloan Co., Nashville, Tenn.; Joel O. Cheek, President, + Cheek-Neal Coffee Co., Nashville, Tenn.; James N. Cox, Gainesboro + Telephone Co., Cookeville, Tenn.; Dr. G. W. Dyer, Vanderbilt + University, Nashville, Tenn.; Judge F. T. Fancher, Sparta, Tenn.; + Edgar M. Foster, Business Manager, "Nashville Banner," Nashville, + Tenn.; Judge Joseph Gardenhire, Carthage, Tenn.; T. Graham Hall, + Business Man, Nashville, Tenn.; Hon. Cordell Hull, Chairman of + Democratic National Committee and former Congressman from York's + district; Lee J. Loventhal, Business Man, Nashville, Tenn.; Hon. + William G. McAdoo, former secretary of the United States Treasury, New + York City; Hon. Hill McAllister, State Treasurer, Nashville, Tenn.; J. + S. McHenry, Vice-President, Fourth & First National Bank, Nashville, + Tenn.; Dr. Bruce R. Payne, President, George Peabody College for + Teachers, Nashville, Tenn.; Rev. R. C. Pile, Pall Mall, Tenn.; T. R. + Preston, President, Hamilton National Bank, Chattanooga, Tenn.; Hon. + A. H. Roberts, former Governor of Tennessee, Nashville, Tenn.; Bolton + Smith, Lawyer, Memphis, Tenn.; Judge C. E. Snodgrass, Crossville, + Tenn.; Dr. James I. Vance, First Presbyterian Church, Nashville, + Tenn.; Hon. George N. Welch, former State Commissioner of Public + Utilities, Nashville, Tenn.; F. A. Williams, Farmer, Pall Mall, Tenn.; + S. R. Williams, Farmer, Pall Mall, Tenn.; W. L. Wright, President, + Bank of Jamestown, Pall Mall, Tenn., and Sergeant Alvin C. York.] +</pre> +<p> +The fund is already a substantial one, steadily growing, and success is +assured. +</p> +<p> +In connection with each school is to be land to be tilled by the +students as a farm, and besides providing instruction in agriculture, +the farm is to aid in the support of the school, and no child of the +community is to miss the opportunity to attend through inability to pay +the tuition charge. As each unit becomes self-supporting, another school +is to be established in a new district. +</p> +<p> +In this new endeavor, Alvin wished to do what he could to shield the +boys now at play among the red brush upon the mountainsides from being +compelled to say, after they had grown to young manhood, what he himself +had been forced to confess: "I'm just an ignorant mountain boy." +</p> +<p> +And he is making rapid strides of progress for himself. I saw him enter +the great banquet room of a leading hotel in one of the country's +largest cities. The hall was filled with men and women of refinement and +culture. As Sergeant York and his young wife entered, the banqueters +arose and cheered them. This demonstration was a welcome to "Sergeant +York, the soldier." +</p> +<p> +He paused, with a smile of appreciation as he looked over the vast +assemblage, and he bowed with a grace and dignity far beyond that which +was expected of him from what his audience had read and heard. Then +without turning his head, he reached for the hand of his bride and led +her to the speakers' table upon a raised platform. And he was again to +bring that assemblage to its feet and fill that hall with its cheers. +This time it was for Alvin York, the man—as he talked to them about the +boys of the mountains. +</p> +<p> +Three days afterward, he entered the store of John Marion Rains at Pall +Mall. As all the chairs and kegs of horseshoes were occupied, he put his +hands behind him, swung himself to a place of comfort upon the counter, +and took his part in the battle of wit as the firing flashed amid the +tobacco smoke. Pall Mall was home, and there he permitted no distinction +between individuals. +</p> +<p> +This has wandered far afield as a biography of Sergeant York. It is but +a story of the strength and the simplicity of a man—a young man—whom +the nation has honored for what he has done, with something in it of +those who went before and left him as a legacy the qualities of mind and +heart that enabled him to fight his fight in the Forest of Argonne. The +biography no doubt will be written later. He has not planned for the +long years that lie ahead, but is following after a principle with a +force that can not be deflected or checked. The future alone will tell +where this is to lead him. This is really a story of but two years of +his life—the period of time that has elapsed since Alvin York first +found himself—a period in which he has done three things, and anyone of +them would have marked him for distinction. He fought a great fight, +declined to barter the honors that came to him, and using his new-found +strength he has reached a helping hand to the children of the mountains +who needed him. +</p> +<center> +PALMAM QUI MERUIT FERAT! + +<br /> + +[Let him bear the palm who has deserved it!] +</center> + +<br /> +<br /> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Sergeant York And His People, by Sam Cowan + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERGEANT YORK AND HIS PEOPLE *** + +***** This file should be named 19117-h.htm or 19117-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/1/1/19117/ + +Produced by Don Kostuch + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Sergeant York And His People + +Author: Sam Cowan + +Release Date: August 25, 2006 [EBook #19117] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERGEANT YORK AND HIS PEOPLE *** + + + + +Produced by Don Kostuch + + + + + +[Transcribers's Notes] + +This book complements "History of The World War" (Gutenberg 18993)--a +broad view of many events and persons--with a personal and dramatic view +of an Ideal American Soldier: thoughtful, brave, modest, charitable, +loyal. + +A photograph from the national archives accompanies this file. + + www.archives.gov/southeast/exhibit/popups.php?p=4.1.11 + + photo-4-1-11.jpg + + + +Here are some unfamiliar (to me) words. + +badinage + Light, playful banter. + +Chapultepec + Hill south of Mexico City, Mexico; site of an American victory on + September 13, 1847 in the Mexican War. + +condoling + Express sympathy or sorrow. + +currycomb + Square comb with rows of small teeth used to groom (curry) horses. + +enured + Made tough by habitual exposure. + +fastness + Strongly fortified defensive structure; stronghold. + +kamerad + Comrade [German]. + +lagnappe + Trifling present given to customers; a gratuity. + +levee + Formal reception, as at a royal court. + +predial + Relating to, containing, or possessing land; attached to, bound to, or + arising from the land. + +puncheon + Short wooden upright used in structural framing; Piece of broad, + heavy, roughly dressed timber with one face finished flat. + +scantlings + Small timber used in construction. + +tho + Though + +[End Transcribers's Notes] + + + +SERGEANT YORK AND HIS PEOPLE + +BY SAM K. COWAN + + + +GROSSET & DUNLAP +PUBLISHERS NEW YORK +By Arrangement with Funk & Wagnalls Company + + + +[Stamped: 1610 +Capital Heights Jr. High School Library +Montgomery, Alabama] + + +Copyright, 1922, By +FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY +[Printed in the United States of America] +Copyright Under the Articles of the Copyright Convention of the +Pan-American Republics and the United States +August 11, 1910. + +To +FLOY PASCAL COWAN +THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED, WITH A LOVE THAT WANES NOT, BUT +GROWS AS THE YEARS ROLL ON + + + +CONTENTS +I. A FIGHT IN THE FOREST OF THE ARGONNE +II. A "LONG HUNTER" COMES TO THE VALLEY +III. THE PEOPLE OF THE MOUNTAINS +IV. THE MOLDING OF A MAN +V. THE PEOPLE OF PALL MALL +VI. SERGEANT YORK'S OWN STORY +VII. TWO MORE DEEDS OF DISTINCTION + + + +SERGEANT ALVIN C. YORK + +From a cabin back in the mountains of Tennessee, forty-eight miles from +the railroad, a young man went to the World War. He was untutored in the +ways of the world. + +Caught by the enemy in the cove of a hill in the Forest of Argonne, he +did not run; but sank into the bushes and single-handed fought a +battalion of German machine gunners until he made them come down that +hill to him with their hands in air. There were one hundred and +thirty-two of them left, and he marched them, prisoners, into the +American line. + +Marshal Foch, in decorating him, said, "What you did was the greatest +thing accomplished by any private soldier of all of the armies of +Europe." + +His ancestors were cane-cutters and Indian fighters. Their lives were +rich in the romance of adventure. They were men of strong hate and +gentle love. His people have lived in the simplicity of the pioneer. + +This is not a war-story, but the tale of the making of a man. His +ancestors were able to leave him but one legacy--an idea of American +manhood. + +In the period that has elapsed since he came down from the mountains he +has done three things--and any one of them would have marked him for +distinction. + +SAM K. COWAN. + + + +I +A FIGHT IN THE FOREST OF THE ARGONNE + +Just to the north of Chatel Chehery, in the Argonne Forest in France, is +a hill which was known to the American soldiers as "Hill No. 223." +Fronting its high wooded knoll, on the way to Germany, are three more +hills. The one in the center is rugged. Those to the right and left are +more sloping, and the one to the left--which the people of France have +named "York's Hill"--turns a shoulder toward Hill No. 223. The valley +which they form is only from two to three hundred yards wide. + +Early in the morning of the eighth of October, 1918, as a floating gray +mist relaxed its last hold on the tops of the trees on the sides of +those hills, the "All America" Division--the Eighty-Second--poured over +the crest of No. 223. Prussian Guards were on the ridge-tops across the +valley, and behind the Germans ran the Decauville Railroad--the artery +for supplies to a salient still further to the north which the Germans +were striving desperately to hold. The second phase of the Battle of the +Meuse-Argonne was on. + +As the fog rose the American "jumped off" down the wooded slope and the +Germans opened fire from three directions. With artillery they pounded +the hillside. Machine guns savagely sprayed the trees under which the +Americans were moving. At one point, where the hill makes a steep +descent, the American line seemed to fade away as it attempted to pass. + +This slope, it was found, was being swept by machine guns on the crest +of the hill to the left which faced down the valley. The Germans were +hastily "planting" other machine guns there. + +The Americans showered that hill top with bullets, but the Germans were +entrenched. + +The sun had now melted the mist and the sky was cloudless. From the pits +the Germans could see the Americans working their way through the +timber. + +To find a place from which the Boche could be knocked away from those +death-dealing machine guns and to stop the digging of "fox holes" for +new nests, a non-commissioned officer and sixteen men went out from the +American line. All of them were expert rifle shots who came from the +support platoon of the assault troops on the left. + +Using the forest's undergrowth to shield them, they passed unharmed +through the bullet-swept belt which the Germans were throwing around +Hill No. 223, and reached the valley. Above them was a canopy of lead. +To the north they heard the heavy cannonading of that part of the +battle. + +When they passed into the valley they found they were within the range +of another battalion of German machine guns. The Germans on the hill at +the far end of the valley were lashing the base of No. 223. + +For their own protection against the bullets that came with the whip of +a wasp through the tree-tops, the detachment went boldly up the enemy's +hill before them. On the hillside they came to an old trench, which had +been used in an earlier battle of the war. They dropped into it. + +Moving cautiously, stopping to get their bearings from the sounds of the +guns above them, they walked the trench in Indian file. It led to the +left, around the shoulder of the hill, and into the deep dip of a valley +in the rear. + +Germans were on the hilltop across that valley. But the daring of the +Americans protected them. The Germans were guarding the valleys and the +passes and they were not looking for enemy in the shadow of the barrels +of German guns. + +As the trench now led down the hill, carrying the Americans away from +the gunners they sought, the detachment came out of it and took skirmish +formation in the dense and tangled bushes. + +They had gone but a short distance when they stepped upon a forest path. +Just below them were two Germans, with Red Cross bands upon their arms. +At the sight of the Americans, the Germans dropped their stretcher, +turned and fled around a curve. + +The sound of the shots fired after them was lost in the clatter of the +machine guns above. One of the Germans fell, but regained his feet, and +both disappeared in the shrubs to the right. + +It was kill or capture those Germans to prevent exposure of the position +of the invaders, and the Americans went after them. + +They turned off the path where they saw the stretcher-bearers leave it, +darted through the underbrush, dodged trees and stumps and brushes. +Jumping through the shrubs and reeds on the bank of a small stream, the +Americans in the lead landed in a group of about twenty of the enemy. + +The Germans sprang to their feet in surprize. They were behind their own +line of battle. Officers were holding a conference with a major. Private +soldiers, in groups, were chatting and eating. They were before a little +shack that was the German major's headquarters, and from it stretched +telephone wires. The Germans were not set for a fight. + +Out from the brushwood and off the bank across the stream, one after +another, came the Americans. + +It bewildered the Germans. They did not know the number of the enemy +that had come upon them. As each of the "Buddies" landed, he sensed the +situation, and prepared for an attack from any angle. Some of them fired +at German soldiers whom they saw reaching for their guns. + +All threw up their hands, with the cry "Kamerad!" when the Americans +opened fire. + +About their prisoners the Americans formed in a semicircle as they +forced them to disarm. At the left end of this crescent was Alvin +York--a young six-foot mountaineer, who had come to the war from "The +Knobs of Tennessee." He knew nothing of military tactics beyond the +simple evolutions of the drill. Only a few days before had he first seen +the flash of a hostile gun. But a rifle was as familiar to his hands as +one of the fingers upon them. His body was ridged and laced with muscles +that had grown to seasoned sinews from swinging a sledge in a +blacksmith-shop. He had never seen the man or crowd of men of whom he +was afraid. He had hunted in the mountains while forked lightning +flashed around him. He had heard the thunder crash in mountain coves as +loud as the burst of any German shell. He was of that type into whose +brain and heart the qualm of fear never comes. + +The Americans were on the downstep of the hill with their prisoners on +the higher ground. The major's headquarters had been hidden away in a +thicket of young undergrowth, and the Americans could see but a short +distance ahead. + +As the semicircle formed with Alvin York on the left end, he stepped +beyond the edge of the thicket--and what he saw up the hill surprized +him. + +Just forty yards away was the crest, and along it was a row of machine +guns--a battalion of them! + +The German gunners had heard the shots fired by the Americans in front +of the major's shack, or they had been warned by the fleeing +stretcher-bearers that the enemy was behind them. They were jerking at +their guns, rapidly turning them around, for the nests had been masked +and the muzzles of the guns pointed down into the valley at the foot of +Hill No. 223, to sweep it when the Eighty-Second Division came out into +the open. + +Some of the Germans in the gun-pits, using rifles, shot at York. The +bullets "burned his face as they passed." He cried a warning to his +comrades which evidently was not heard, for when he began to shoot up +the hill they called to him to stop as the Germans had surrendered. They +saw--only the prisoners before them. + +There was no time for parley. York's second cry, "Look out!" could carry +no explanation of the danger to those whose view was blinded by the +thicket. The Germans had their guns turned. Hell and death were being +belched down the hillside upon the Americans. + +At the opening rattle of these guns the German prisoners as if through a +prearranged signal, fell flat to the ground, and the streams of lead +passed over them. Some of the Americans prevented by the thicket from +seeing that an attack was to be made upon them, hearing the guns, +instinctively followed the lead of the Germans. But the onslaught came +with such suddenness that those in the line of fire had no chance. + +The first sweep of the guns killed six and wounded three of the +Americans. Death leaped through the bushes and claimed Corporal Murray +Savage, Privates Maryan Dymowski, Ralph Weiler, Fred Wareing, William +Wine and Carl Swanson. Crumpled to the ground, wounded, were Sergeant +Bernard Early, who had been in command; Corporal William B. Cutting and +Private Mario Muzzi. + +York, to escape the guns he saw sweeping toward him, had dived to the +ground between two shrubs. + +The fire of other machine guns was added to those already in action and +streams of lead continued to pour through the thicket. But the toll of +the dead and wounded of the Americans had been taken. + +The Germans kept their line of fire about waist-high so they would not +kill their own men, some of whom they could see groveling on the ground. + +York had seen the murder of his pals in the first onset. He had heard +some one say, "Let's get out of here; we are in the German line!" Then +all had been silence on the American side. + +German prisoners lay on the ground before him, in view of the gunners on +the hilltop. York edged around until he had a clear view of the gun-pits +above him. The stalks of weeds and undergrowth were about him. + +There came a lull in the machine gun fire. Several Germans arose as +though to come out of their pits and down the hill to see the battle's +result. + +But on the American side the battle was just begun. York, from the +brushes at the end of the thicket, "let fly." + +One of the Germans sprang upward, waved his arms above him as he began +his flight into eternity. + +The others dropped back into their holes, and there was another clatter +of machine guns and again the bullets slashed across the thicket. + +But there was silence on the American side. York waited. + +More cautiously, German heads began to rise above their pits. York moved +his rifle deliberately along the line knocking back those heads that +were the more venturesome. The American rifle shoots five times, and a +clip was gone before the Germans realized that the fire upon them was +coming from one point. + +They centered on that point. + +Around York the ground was torn up. Mud from the plowing bullets +besmirched him. The brush was mowed away above and on either side of +him, and leaves and twigs were falling over him. + +But they could only shoot at him. They were given no chance to take +deliberate aim. As they turned the clumsy barrel of a machine gun down +at the fire-sparking point on the hillside a German would raise his head +above his pit to sight it. Instantly backward along that German machine +gun barrel would come an American bullet--crashing into the head of the +Boche who manned the gun. + +The prisoners on the ground squirmed under the fire that was passing +over them. Their bodies were in a tortuous motion. But York held them +there; it made the gunners keep their fire high. + +Every shot York made was carefully placed. As a hunter stops in the +forest and gazes straight ahead, his mind, receptive to the slightest +movement of a squirrel or the rustle of leaves in any of the trees +before him, so this Tennessee mountaineer faced and fought that line of +blazing machine guns on the ridge of the hill before him. His mind was +sensitive to the point in the line that at that instant threatened a +real danger, and instinctively he turned to it. + +Down the row of prisoners on the ground he saw the German major with a +pistol in his hand, and he made the officer throw the gun to him. Later +its magazine was found to have been emptied. + +He noted that after he shot at a gun-pit, there was a break in the line +of flame at that point, and an interval would pass before that gun would +again be manned and become a source of danger to him. He also realized +that where there was a sudden break of ten or fifteen feet in the line +of flame, and the trunk of a tree rose within that space, that soon a +German gun and helmet would me peeking around the tree's trunk. A +rifleman would try for him where the machine guns failed. + +In the mountains of Tennessee Alvin York had won fame as one of the best +shots with both rifle and revolver that those mountains had ever held, +and his imperturbability was as noted as the keenness of his sight. + +In mountain shooting-matches at a range of forty yards--just the +distance the row of German guns were from him--he would put ten rifle +bullets into a space no larger than a man's thumb-nail. Since a small +boy he had been shooting with a rifle at the bobbing heads of turkeys +that had been tethered behind a log so that only their heads would show. +German heads and German helmets loomed large before him. + +A battalion of machine guns is a military unit organized to give battle +to a regiment of infantry. Yet, one man, a representative of America on +that hillside on that October morning, broke the morale of a battalion +of machine gunners made up from members of Germany's famous Prussian +Guards. Down in the brush below the Prussians was a human machine gun +they could not hit, and the penalty was death to try to locate him. + +As York fought, there was prayer upon his lips. He was an elder in a +little church back in the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf" in the +mountains of Tennessee. He prayed to God to spare him and to have mercy +on those he was compelled to kill. When York shot, and a German soldier +fell backward or pitched forward and remained motionless, York would +call to them: + +"Well! Come on down!" + +It was an earnest command in which there was no spirit of exultation or +braggadocio. He was praying for their surrender, so that he might stop +killing them. + +His command, "Come down!" at times, above the firing, was heard in the +German pits. They realized they were fighting one man, and could not +understand the strange demand. + +When the fight began York was lying on the ground. But as the entire +line of German guns came into the fight, he raised himself to a +sitting position so that his gun would have the sweep of all of them. + +When the Germans found they could not "get him" with bullets, they tried +other tactics. + +Off to his left, seven Germans, led by a lieutenant, crept through the +bushes. When about twenty yards away, they broke for him with lowered +bayonets. + +The clip of York's rifle was nearly empty. He dropped it and took his +automatic pistol. So calmly was he master of himself and so complete his +vision of the situation that he selected as his first mark among the +oncoming Germans the one farthest away. He knew he would not miss the +form of a man at that distance. He wanted the rear men to fall first so +the others would keep coming at him and not stop in panic when they saw +their companions falling, and fire a volley at him. He felt that in such +a volley his only danger lay. They kept coming, and fell as he shot. The +foremost man, and the last to topple, did not get ten yards from where +he started. Their bodies formed a line down the hillside. + +York resumed the battle with the machine guns. The German fire had +"eased up" while the bayonet charge was on. The gunners paused to watch +the grim struggle below them. + +The major, from among the prisoners crawled to York with an offer to +order the surrender of the machine gunners. + +"Do it!" was his laconic acceptance. But his vigilance did not lessen. + +To the right a German had crawled nearby. He arose and hurled a +hand-grenade. It missed its objective and wounded one of the prisoners. +The American rifle swung quickly and the grenade-thrower pitched forward +with the grunt of a man struck heavily in the stomach pit. + +The German major blew his whistle. + +Out of their gun-pits the Germans came--around from behind trees--up +from the brush on either side. They were unbuckling cartridge belts and +throwing them and their side-arms away. + +York did not move from his position in the brush. About halfway down the +hill as they came to him, he halted them, and he watched the gun-pits +for the movement of anyone left skulking there. His eye went cautiously +over the new prisoners to see that all side-arms had been thrown away. + +The surrender was genuine. + +There were about ninety Germans before him with their hands in air. This +gave him over a hundred prisoners. + +He arose and called to his comrades, and several answered him. Some of +the responses came from wounded men. + +All of the Americans had been on York's right throughout the fight. The +thicket had prevented them from taking any effective part. They were +forced to protect themselves from the whining bullets that came through +the brush from unseen guns. They had constantly guarded the prisoners +and shielded York from treachery. + +Seven Americans--Percy Beardsley, Joe Konotski, Thomas G. Johnson, +Feodor Sak, Michael A. Sacina, Patrick Donahue and George W. Wills--came +to him. Sergeant Early, Corporal Cutting and Private Muzzi, tho wounded, +were still alive. + +He lined the prisoners up "by twos." + +His own wounded he put at the rear of the column, and forced the Germans +to carry those who could not walk. The other Americans he stationed +along the column to hold the prisoners in line. + +Sergeant Early, shot through the body, was too severely wounded to +continue in command. York was a corporal, but there was no question of +rank for all turned to him for instructions. The Germans could not take +their eyes off of him, and instantly complied with all his orders, given +through the major, who spoke English. + +Stray bullets kept plugging through the branches of the trees around +them. For the first time the Americans realized they were under fire +from the Germans on the hill back of them, whom they had seen when they +came out of the deserted trench. The Germans stationed there could not +visualize the strange fight that was taking place behind a line of +German machine guns, and they were withholding their fire to protect +their own men. They were plugging into the woods with rifles, hoping to +draw a return volley, and thus establish the American's position. + +To all who doubted the possibility of carrying so many prisoners through +the forest, or spoke of reprisal attacks to release them, York's reply +was: + +"Let's get 'em out of here!" + +The German major looking down the long line of Germans, possibly +planning some recoup from the shame and ignominy of the surrender of so +many of them, stepped up to York and asked: + +"How many men have you got?" + +The big mountaineer wheeled on him: + +"I got a-plenty!" + +And the major seemed convinced that the number of the Americans was +immaterial as York thrust his automatic into the major's face and +stepped him up to the head of the column. + +Among the captives were three officers. + +These York placed around him to lead the prisoners--one on either side +and the major immediately before him. In York's right hand swung the +automatic pistol, with which he had made an impressive demonstration in +the fight up the hill. The officers were told that at the first sign of +treachery, or for a failure of the men behind to obey a command, the +penalty would be their lives; and the major was informed that he would +be the first to go. + +With this formation no German skulking on the hill or in the bushes +could fire upon York without endangering the officers. Similar +protection was given all of the Americans acting as escort. + +Up the hill York started the column. From the topography of the land he +knew there were machine guns over the crest that had had no part in the +fight. + +Straight to these nests he marched them. As the column approached, the +major was forced by York to command the gunners to surrender. + +Only one shot was fired after the march began. At one of the nests, a +German, seeing so many Germans as prisoners and so few of the enemy to +guard them--all of them on the German firing-line with machine gun nests +around them--refused to throw down his gun, and showed fight. + +York did not hesitate. + +The remainder of that gun's crew took their place in line, and the major +promised York there would be no more delays in the surrenders if he +would kill no more of them. + +As a great serpent the column wound among the trees on the hilltop +swallowing the crews of German machine guns. + +After the ridge had been cleared, four machine gun-nests were found down +the hillside. + +It took all the woodcraft the young mountaineer knew to get to his own +command. They had come back over the hilltop and were on the slope of +the valley in which the Eighty-Second Division was fighting. They were +now in danger from both German and American guns. + +York listened to the firing, and knew the Americans had reached the +valley--and that some of them had crossed it. Where their line was +running he could not determine. + +He knew if the Americans saw his column of German uniforms they were in +danger--captors and captives alike--of being annihilated. At any moment +the Germans from the two hilltops down the valley--to check the +Eighty-Second Division's advance--might lay a belt of bullets across +the course they traveled. + +Winding around the cleared places and keeping in the thickly timbered +section of the hillslope whenever it was possible, Sergeant York worked +his way toward the American line. + +In the dense woods the German major made suggestions of a path to take. +As York was undecided which one to choose, the major's suggestion made +him go the other one. Frequently the muzzle of York's automatic dimpled +the major's back and he quickened his step, slowed up, or led the column +in the direction indicated to him without turning his head and without +inquiry as to the motive back of York's commands. + +Down near the foot of the hill, near the trench they had traveled a +short while before, York answered the challenge to "Halt!" + +He stepped out so his uniform could be seen, and called to the Americans +challenging him, and about to fire on the Germans, that he was "bringing +in prisoners." + +The American line opened for him to pass, and a wild cheer went up from +the Doughboys when they saw the column of prisoners. Some of them +"called to him to know" if he had the "whole damned German army." + +At the foot of the hill in an old dugout an American P. C. had been +located, and York turned in his prisoners. + +The prisoners were officially counted by Lieut. Joseph A. Woods, +Assistant Division Inspector, and there were 132 of them, three of the +number were officers and one with the rank of major. + +When the Eighty-Second Division passed on, officers of York's regiment +visited the scene of the fight and they counted 25 Germans that he had +killed and 35 machine guns that York had not only silenced but had +unmanned, carrying the men back with him as prisoners. + +When York was given "his receipt for the prisoners," an incident +happened that shows the true knightliness of character of this untrained +mountaineer. + +It was but a little after ten o'clock in the morning. The Americans had +a hard day's fighting ahead of them. Somewhere out in the forest York's +own company--Company G--and his own regiment--the 328th Infantry--were +fighting. He made inquiry, but no one could direct him to them. He +turned to the nearest American officer, saluted and reported, "Ready for +duty." + +What he had done was to him but a part of the work to be done that day. + +But York was assigned to the command of his prisoners, to carry them +back to a detention camp. The officers were held by the P. C.--for an +examination and grilling on the plans of the enemy. + +Whenever they could the private soldiers among the prisoners gathered +close to York, now looking to him for their personal safety. + +On the way to the detention camp the column was shelled by German guns +from one of the hilltops. York maneuvered them and put them in double +quick time until they were out of range. + +Late in the afternoon, back of the three hills that face Hill No. 223, +the "All America" Division "cut" the Decauville Railroad that supplied a +salient to the north that the Germans were striving desperately to hold. +As they swept on to their objective they found the hill to the left of +the valley, that turns a shoulder toward No. 223--which the people of +France have named "York's Hill"--cleared of Germans, and on its crest, +silent and unmanned machine guns. + +Americans returned and buried on the hillside--beside a thicket, near a +shack that had been the German officer's headquarters--six American +soldiers. They placed wooden crosses to mark the graves and on the top +of the crosses swung the helmets the soldiers had worn. + +Out from the forest came the story of what York had done. The men in the +trenches along the entire front were told of it. Not only in the United +States, but in Great Britain, France and Italy, it electrified the +public. From the meager details the press was able to carry, for the +entire Entente firing-line was ablaze and a surrender was being forced +upon Germany, and York's division was out in the Argonne still fighting +its way ahead, the people could but wonder how one man was able to +silence a battalion of machine guns and bring in so many prisoners. + +Major-General George B. Duncan, commander of the Eighty-Second Division, +and officers of York's regiment knew that history had been made upon +that hillside. By personal visits of the regiment's officers to the +scene, by measurements, by official count of the silent guns and the +silent dead, by affidavits from those who were with York, the record of +his achievement was verified. + +Major-General C. P. Summerall, before the officers of York's regiment, +said to him: + +"Your division commander has reported to me your exceedingly gallant +conduct during the operations of your division in the Meuse-Argonne +Battle. I desire to express to you my pleasure and commendation for the +courage, skill, and gallantry which you displayed on that occasion. It +is an honor to command such soldiers as you. Your conduct reflects great +credit not only upon the American army, but upon the American people. +Your deeds will be recorded in the history of this great war and they +will live as an inspiration not only to your comrades but to the +generations that will come after us." + +General John J. Pershing in pinning the Congressional Medal of Honor +upon him--the highest award for valor the United States Government +bestows--called York the greatest civilian soldier of the war. + +Marshal Foch, bestowing the Croix de Guerre with Palm upon him, said his +feat was the World War's most remarkable individual achievement. + +A deed that is done through the natural use of a great talent seems to +the doer of the deed the natural thing to have done. A sincere response +to appreciation and praise, made by those endowed with real ability, +usually comes cloaked in a genuine modesty. + +At his home in the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf," after the +war was over, I asked Alvin York how he came to be "Sergeant York." + +"Well," he said, as he looked earnestly at me, "you know we were in the +Argonne Forest twenty-eight days, and had some mighty hard fighting in +there. A lot of our boys were killed off. Every company has to have so +many sergeants. They needed a sergeant; and they jes' took me." + +In the summer of 1917 when Alvin York was called to war, he was working +on the farm for $25 a month and his midday meal, walking to and from his +work. He was helping to support his widowed mother with her family of +eleven. When he returned to this country to be mustered out of service +he had traveled among the soldiers of France the guest of the American +Expeditionary Force, so the men in the lines could see the man who +single-handed had captured a battalion of machine guns, and he bore the +emblems of the highest military honors conferred for valor by the +governments composing the Allies. + +At New York he was taken from the troop-ship when it reached harbor and +the spontaneous welcome given him there and at Washington was not +surpassed by the prearranged demonstrations for the Nation's +distinguished foreign visitors. + +The streets of those cities were lined with people to await his coming +and police patrols made way for him. The flaming red of his hair, his +young, sunburned, weather-ridged face with its smile and its strength, +the worn service cap and uniform, all marked him to the crowds as the +man they sought. + +On the shoulders of members of the New York Stock Exchange he was +carried to the floor of the Exchange and business was suspended. When he +appeared in the gallery of the House of Representatives at Washington, +the debate was stopped and the members turned to cheer him. A sergeant +in rank, he sat at banquets as the guest of honor with the highest +officials of the Army and Navy and the Government on either side. +Wherever he went he heard the echo of the valuation which Marshal Foch +and General Pershing placed upon his deeds. + +Many business propositions were made to him. Some were substantial and +others strange, the whimsical offerings of enthused admirers. + +Among them were cool fortunes he could never earn at labor. + +Taking as a basis the money he was paid for three months on the farm in +the summer before he went to France, he would have had to work fifty +years to earn the amount he was offered for a six-weeks' theatrical +engagement. For the rights to the story of his life a single newspaper +was willing to give him the equivalent of thirty-three years. He would +have to live to be over three hundred years of age to earn at the old +farm wage the sum motion picture companies offered, as a guarantee. + +He turned all down, and went back to the little worried mother who was +waiting for him in a hut in the mountains, to the gazelle-like mountain +girl whose blue eyes had haunted the shades of night and the shadows of +trees, to the old seventy-five acre farm that clings to one of the +sloping sides of a sun-kissed valley in Tennessee. He refused to +capitalize his fame, his achievements that were crowded into a few +months in the army of his country. + +There was one influence that was ever guiding him. The future had to +square to the principles of thought and action he had laid down for +himself and that he had followed since he knelt, four years before, at a +rough-boarded altar in a little church in the "Valley of the Three Forks +o' the Wolf," whose belfry had been calling, appealing to him since +childhood. + +Admiral Albert Gleaves, who commanded the warship convoy for the +troop-ships, himself a Tennesseean, made a prediction which came true. +"The guns of Argonne and the batteries of welcome of the East were not +to be compared to those to be turned loose in York's home state." + +The people of Tennessee filled depots, streets and tabernacles to +welcome him. Gifts awaited him, which ranged from a four-hundred acre +farm raised by public subscriptions by the Rotary Clubs and newspapers, +to blooded stock for it, and almost every form of household furnishings +that could add to man's comfort. It took a ware-room at Nashville and +the courtesies of the barns of the State Fair Association to hold the +gifts. + +He was made a Colonel by the Governor of Tennessee, and appointed a +member of his staff. He was elected to honorary membership in many +organizations. As far away as Spokane the "Red Headed Club" thought him +worthy of their membership "by virtue of the color of his hair and in +recognition of his services to this, our glorious country." + +The nations of Europe for whom he fought had not forgotten nor had they +ceased to honor him. After he had returned to the mountains of +Tennessee, another citation came from the French Government for a +military award that had been made him, and in a ceremony at the capital +of Tennessee the Italian Government conferred upon him the Italian Cross +of War. + +The "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf," where Alvin York was born +and lives, which has been the home of his ancestors for more than a +hundred years, is a level fertile valley that is almost a rectangle in +form. Three mountains rising on the north and south and west enclose it, +while to the east four mountains jumble together, forming the fourth +side. It seems that each of these is striving for a place by the valley. + +It is down the passes of these mountains on the east that the three +branches of the Wolf River run, and it is their meeting and commingling +that gave the quaint name to the valley. + +The forks of the Wolf rush down the passes, but the river runs lazily +through the valley. It flows beside a cornfield, then wanders over to a +meadow of clover or into a patch of sugar-cane, turning the while from +side to side as the varying mountain vistas come into view. At the far +end where it is pushed over the mill dam and out of the valley, the Wolf +roars protestingly; then rushes on to the Cumberland River a silver line +between the mountains. + +Pall Mall, the village, is co-extensive with the "Valley of the Three +Forks o' the Wolf." As a stranger first sees Pall Mall it is but a +half-mile of the mountain roadway that runs from Jamestown, the county +seat of Fentress county, to Byrdstown, the county seat of Pickett. + +The roadway comes down from the top of "The Knobs," a thousand feet +above, and it comes over rocks of high and low degree, a jolting, +impressive journey for its traveler. It reaches the foot of the mountain +along one of the prongs of the Wolf, crosses them at the base of the +eastern mountains and passes on to the northern side of the river. + +At the post office of Pall Mall, which is also the store of "Paster" +Pile--a frame building upon stilts to allow an unobstructed flow of the +Wolf when on a winter rampage--the road turns at right angles to the +west. Through fields of corn it goes, across a stretch of red clover to +the clump of forest trees which is the schoolhouse grounds and in which +nestles the little church that has played such a prominent part in the +life of the village. Then the road goes beside the graveyard and again +through corn to the general store of John Marion Rains, which with five +houses in sight--and one of these the York home--marks the western +confine of Pall Mall. + +One can be in the center of Pall Mall and not know it, for the residents +live in farm houses that dot the valley and in cabins on the +mountainsides. The little church, which sits by the road with no homes +near it, is the geographical as well as the religious center of the +community--it is the heart of Pall Mall. + +Passing the Rains store the roadway tumbles down to the York's big +spring. A brook in volume the stream flows clear and cool from a low +rock-ribbed cave in the base of the mountain. + +Across the spring branch, up the mountainside in a clump of honey-suckle +and roses and apple trees is the home to which Sergeant York returned. + +It is a two-room cabin. The boxing is of rough boards as are the +unplaned narrow strips of batting covering the cracks. There is a +chimney at one end and in one room is a fireplace. The kitchen is a +"lean-to" and the only porch is on the rear, the width of the +kitchen-dining room. The porch is for service and work, railed partly +with a board for a shelf, which holds the water-bucket, the tin wash +basin and burdens brought in from the farm. + +Parts of the walls of the two rooms are papered with newspapers and +catalog pages; the rough rafters run above. The uncovered floor is of +wide boards, worn smooth in service, chinked to keep out the blasts of +winter. + +The porch in the rear is on a level with the mountainside. To care for +the mountain's slope a front stoop was built. The sides of it are +scantlings and the steps are narrow boards. + +The house has been painted by Poverty; but the home is warmed and lit by +a mountain mother's love. The front stoop is a wooden ladder with flat +steps but the entrance to the home is an arbor of honey suckle and +roses. + +On summer nights the York boys sat on that stoop and sang, and their +voices floated on the moonbeams out over the valley. The little mother +"pottered" about, with ever a smile on her face for her boys. They were +happy. + +It was from this home that Alvin went to war, and it was to it he +returned. + +Visitors know, and it is well for others to realize, that Pall Mall and +the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf" are back among the rising +ranges of the Cumberland Mountains forty-eight miles from the railroad. + +Alvin York came from a line of ancestors who were cane-cutters and +Indian fighters. The earliest ancestor of whom he has knowledge was a +"Long Hunter," who with a rifle upon his shoulder strode into the Valley +of the Wolf and homesteaded the river bottom-lands. Here his people +lived far from the traveled paths. Marooned in their mountain +fastnesses, they clung to the customs and the traditions of the past. +Their life was simple, and their sports quaint. They held +shooting-matches on the mountainside, enjoyed "log-rollings" and +"corn-huskings." Strong in their loves and in their hates, they feared +God, but feared no man. The Civil War swept over the valley and left +splotches of blood. + +Friends of Sergeant York, knowing that the history of his people was +rich in story, and that the public was waiting, wanting to know more of +the man the German army could not run, nor make surrender--and instead +had to come to him--urged that his story be told. + +He had been mustered out of the army and come back to the valley wanting +to pick up again the dropped thread of his former life. He was striving +earnestly and prayerfully to blot from recurrent memory that October +morning scene on "York's Hill" in France. + +His friends and neighbors at Pall Mall waited eagerly for his return. +They wanted to hear from his own lips the story of his fight. + +No man of the mountains was ever given the home-coming that was his. It +was made the reunion of the people, with the neighbors the component +parts of one great family. + +When home again, Alvin wanted no especial deference shown him. He wished +to be again just one of them, to swing himself upon the counter at the +general store and talk with them as of old. He had much to tell from his +experience, but always it was of other incidents than the one that made +him famous. + +Months passed. He lived in that mountain cabin with his little mother, +whose counsel has ever influenced him, and yet not once did he mention +to her that he had a fight in the Forest of Argonne. + +His consent was gained for the publication of the story of his people, +but it was with the pronounced stipulation that "it be told right." + +Weeks afterward--for I had gone to live awhile among his people--the two +of us were sitting upon the rugged rock, facing to the cliff above the +York spring, talking about the fight in France. + +He told of it hesitatingly, modestly. Some of the parts was simply the +confirmation of assembled data; much of it, denial of published rumor +and conjecture--before the story came out as a whole. + +I asked the meaning of his statement that he would not "mind the +publication if the story were done right." + +"Well," he said with his mountain drawl, "I don't want you bearing down +too much on that killing part. Tell it without so much of that!" + +A rock was picked up and hurled down the mountain. + +I then understood why the little mother was "jes' a-waiting till Alvin +gits ready to talk." I understood why the son did not wish to be the one +to bring into his mother's mind the picture of that hour in France when +men were falling before his gun. I saw the reason he had for always +courteously avoiding talking of the scene with anyone. + +"But," and he turned with that smile that wins him friends, "I just +can't help chuckling at that German major. I sure had him bluffed." + +According to the code of mountain conversation there followed a silence. +Another rock bounded off the sapling down the cliff. + +"You should have seen the major," he resumed, "move on down that hill +whenever I pulled down on him with that old Colt. 'Goose-step it', I +think they call it. He was so little! His back so straight! And all +huffed up over the way he had to mind me." + +I had watched the rocks as they went down the cliff and it seemed nearly +every one of them bounced off the same limb. I commented on the accuracy +of his eye. + +"Aw! I wasn't throwing at that sapling, but at--that--leaf." + +He straightened up and threw more carefully; and the leaf floated down +to the waters of the York spring. + +Down by the spring I met the little mother bringing a tin bucket to the +stone milk-house which nature had built. Her slender, drooping figure, +capped by the sunbonnet she always wore, reached just to the shoulder of +her son, as he placed his arm protectingly about her. + +I asked if she were not proud of that boy of hers. + +"Yes," she answered, with pride in every line of her sweet though +wrinkled face, "I am proud of all of them--all of my eight boys!" + + + +II +A "Long Hunter" Comes to the Valley + + +The "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf" is more than a fertile space +between two mountain ranges. It is a rectangular basin of verdure and +beauty in the glow of a Southern sun, around which seven mountains have +grown to their maturity. Generously, for uncounted years, this family of +the hills has given to the valley the surplus products of their timbered +slopes, and the Wolf River has gone through the valley distributing the +wealth the mountains brought in, brightening and adding touches of +beauty here and there, ever singing as she came down to her daily task. +The mountains and the river have worked unceasingly together to make the +spot a place of comfort and beauty. + +On the bare rock-shoulder of one of these mountains, in the closing +years of the eighteenth century, stood one of the last of the "Long +Hunters," that race of stout-hearted, sturdy-legged men who when the +Atlantic Coast was dotted with sparsely settled British colonies climbed +the mountains and went down the western slopes on the long hunts in the +unknown land that lay below. They were the pioneers of the pioneers, who +in their wanderings found a spot rich in game, in nuts and soil--such a +home as they had wished--and they beckoned back for their families and +their friends. + +The figure upon the rock-ledge rested upon a long, muzzle-loading, +flint-lock rifle as he looked out over the valley. His legs were wrapped +in crudely tanned hides made from game he had killed. His cap was of +coon-skin. His search for adventure and game had carried him across the +crest of the Cumberlands and along many weary, lonely miles of the +western wooded slopes of those mountains. Years afterward he is known to +have said that the view from the crag that day was the most appealing in +its calmness and its beauty that he had seen upon his hunts. + +Below him stretched a grove of trees. Their waving tops told of their +size and to his trained woodsman's eye the quivering oval leaves were +the leaves of the walnut. It was assurance that the soil was rich. And +through the length of the valley, twisted irregularly, lay a wide ribbon +of saffron cane, from which at times the silver surface of a stream +showed--a further evidence of the soil's fertility. Over the western +edge of this tableland of green and yellow and silver the mountains cast +a shadow of purple and the sun filtered slanting rays through the forest +slopes on the north and east. + +Down the mountainside he came, and into the valley; never to leave it, +except when in bartering with the Indians he went to their +camping-places for furs, or in the years of prosperity that followed he +was upon a trading mission. + +He first made his way through "Walnut Grove" in search of the caned +banks of the river. As he pushed through the reeds that swayed above him +he came suddenly upon a well-beaten path. In its dust were the prints of +deer-hoofs, and he followed them. The path threaded the length of the +valley beside the river's winding course, but he knew from the crests of +the mountains above him the direction he was taking. + +It led him to the base of one of these mountains, to a spring which +flowed clear and cool, a brook in size, from a low rock-ribbed cave. + +By the spring he cooked his meal. His bread was baked upon a hot stone +and he drank water from a terrapin shell. As he ate his meal there came +the sound of breaking cane, a familiar welcomed vibration to a hunter. A +stone, that is still by the spring side, was used as a shelter and a +resting-place for the rifle, and a deer fell as it stopped, astonished +at the curling smoke that rose from its watering-place. + +This was the first meal of the white man at the York spring or in the +"Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf," and for more than fifty years +the hunter lived within a hundred yards of where he camped that day. He +was Conrad Pile--or "Old Coonrod," as he is known, the descriptive +adjectives and byname ever coupled as though one word. He was the +great-great-grandfather of Sergeant Alvin Cullom York, and the earliest +ancestor of which he has account. + +Above the spring in the rock-facing of the cliff is a large cave. Here +Coonrod Pile spread a bed of leaves and made his home. The camp-fire was +kept burning and its smoke was seen by other hunters, and Pearson +Miller, Arthur Frogge, John Riley and Moses Poor came to Coonrod in the +valley, and they too made their homes there, and Pall Mall was founded +and descendants of these men are today eighty per cent of the residents +in the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf." + +This is but one of the many valley settlements made by "Long Hunters" in +the Appalachian Mountains. Adventurous families in the last days of the +Colonies and in the years that came after the Revolution, followed the +hunters, and log cabins and "cleared spaces" appeared in the valleys and +on the mountainsides. And from them sprang another race of long hunters +who went out from the mountains down into the valleys of the Ohio and +the Mississippi, returning to tell of the land and the game they had +found. Not far from Pall Mall, as the crow would rise and journey, is a +carving upon a tree that is believed, to historically mark the path of +the most noted of the "Long Hunters," and it says: + +"D Boon CillED a BAR On Tree in ThE yEAR 1760." + +Emigrants of those days settled as Coonrod Pile and his companions took +up their "squatter's rights" in the Valley o' the Wolf. As +canvas-covered mountain-schooners carrying families of the settlers +moved westward they followed the trails of the hunters and stopped where +it appealed to them. Wagon-tracks grew into roads as the travel +increased. And the roads unvaryingly led to the passes and the gaps in +the mountains that offered the least resistance to progress. So +scattered throughout the ranges of the Appalachians are many homes and +settlements off from the old, beaten, wagon-trails, far distant from the +railroads of to-day, reached only over rocky, rarely-worked roadways. + +Those who dwell there are the direct descendants of pioneers. Here they +had lived for generations unmolested by the rush and hurry for homes to +the more fertile West. Often in those days a mountain neighbor was forty +miles away, and they were long rugged miles. To-day a traveler distant +on the mountainside can be recognized by the mountaineers while the +man's features are still untraceable, by the droop of a hat or a +peculiar walk, or amble of the mule he rides. In the case of any +traveler along those remote roads the odds are long that the man, his +father, his grandfather--as far back as anyone can remember--all were +born and raised in the neighborhood, and the neighborhood is the valleys +and the cleared spaces on the sides of all the mountains near around. + +So the mountaineer of to-day is the transplanted colonist of the +eighteenth century; he is the backwoodsman of the days of Andrew +Jackson; his life has the hospitality, the genuineness and simplicity of +the pioneer. It has been said of the residents of the Cumberland +Mountains that they are the purest Anglo-Saxons to be found to-day and +not even England can produce so clear a strain. + +The mountain families have intermarried and because of the +inaccessibility of their homes have remained marooned in their mountain +fastnesses. They are Anglo-Saxon in their blood and their customs. They +are Colonial-Americans in their speech and credences. + +They have a love for daring that comes from the wildness and freedom of +their surroundings. They have a directness of mind that is the result of +unconscious training. They must be sure of the firmness of each footstep +they take, and it is through and past obstructions that they locate +their game. They are keen of observation, for the movement of a shadow +or the swaying of a weed may mean the presence of a fox, or a dropping +hickory-nut indicate the flight of a squirrel. They are physically +brave, for it is the inheritance of all who live in mountains. Their +word is accepted, for they wish the good will of the few among whom they +must spend their lives; and to them lying is a form of cowardice. + +They are sensitive because they are observant and realize they have been +criticized and misunderstood--misclassed as a rare race of "moonshiners" +and "feudists." + +Quickly and clearly they see through any veneer of democracy the +stranger may assume, to conceal an assumption of superiority. Yet for +the stranger on the roadside, in answer to the halloo at their gate, the +mountaineers are willing to go out of their way to do a favor, and they +will cheerfully share such food and comforts as they may have, with any +man. But they give their confidence only in proportion to demonstrations +of manhood and genuineness, and as humanists they are not in a hurry. If +there is an aura of caste, the distinctions must be created by those who +have come as strangers into the mountains and not by the mountaineer. + +They know they are not ignorant, except as everyone is ignorant who +lacks contact with new customs and changes in world progress. They are +fully cognizant of their lack of that knowledge which "comes only out of +a book." But whatever their educational shortcomings, no one has ever +laid at their door the charge of stupidity. + +Raised in nature's school they are masters of its non-elective course. +They know by the arc the baying hounds make the size of the circle the +fox will take and where to intercept him. They can tell by the distance +up the mountain's side where the dogs are running whether the fox is red +or gray. They know by the sound a rock makes as it is dropped into the +stream the depth of the ford. They have even a classical finish to their +woodland schooling and they find a pleasure in noting that the bullfrog +sits with his back to the water as the moon rises and faces it as the +moon sets. + +They know the signs of changing weather that will affect their crops. +The tints of the clouds that float above them convey a meaning. There +are cause and effect in the wind that continues in one direction. They +watch the actions of wild animals and fowls, and they are wise enough to +attribute to beast and bird an intuitive protective sense superior to +their own. They note when the moss has grown heavier on the north side +of the tree. + +The steadiness of their poise and their silence in the presence of +strangers is not due to moroseness or the absence of active thought. +They have learned in the woods, if they are to be successful in their +hunts, to be personally as unobtrusive as possible, often to remain +motionless, and all the while to watch and listen alertly. Whenever they +can be of real assistance, no one can more quickly or more generously +respond. + +They have their own standard of values in personal intercourse, and they +can wait patiently and in impressive silence. They are always willing +for someone else to hold the spotlight on their rural stage. + +About themselves they are naturally taciturn, and public and unfriendly +criticism has been proved to be a hazardous diversion. If the thought +and comment of the stranger upon the mountaineer could be compared with +the keen and often humorous analysis of the stranger the score would be +found in surprizing frequency on the side of the calm and silent +mountaineer. + +They give but little heed to the clothes a man wears but look clear-eyed +at the man within the clothes. They have no criticism for the way a man +says his say, so he has something to say. A noted college professor, +himself a mountain boy, maintains: + +"I would rather hear a boy say 'I seed' when he had really seen +something, than to hear a boy say 'I saw' when he had not seen it." + +Old Coonrod Pile lived in the valley until his life spanned from the +days when it was a hunting-ground of the Indians to the time when he can +be remembered by some of the men and women now living in Pall Mall, who +knew him as the most influential man of his time in the section, the +owner of the river-bottom farm land, vast acres of hardwood timber, a +general store and a flour mill worked by his slaves--a man grown to such +enormous size and weight that in his last days he went about his farm +and to oversee his workers in a two-wheeled cart pulled by oxen. + +Those of the valley who now remember him were children when he died, for +he was born on March 16, 1766, and his death occurred on October 14, +1849. + +He saw his valley home changed from a part of the State of Franklin to a +part of the State of Kentucky, then to Tennessee, and the abstracts to +the deeds for land he owned show that Pall Mall was first in Granger +county, later in Overton and finally in Fentress county as the State of +Tennessee developed. Pall Mall is but seven miles from the Kentucky +line, and for many years Coonrod thought he had taken up his residence +within the Kentucky border. + +Settlers of those days in leaving the Carolinas and Virginia traveled +usually due west in search for a new home. It was this belief that he +had settled in Kentucky that has led many to the opinion that Coonrod's +former home was in Virginia. Others, without more definite knowledge for +foundation, maintain that as he settled in Tennessee he had lived in +North Carolina. The written word was rarely used and the stories of the +earlier days in the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf" are +tradition. + +In a newly settled territory a man's birthplace and antecedents are +facts immaterial to the community's welfare and many incidents +historical in nature concerning Old Coonrod have been lost in the +waste-basket of forgetfulness and no one now at Pall Mall has "heard +tell of jes' where he come from." Yet some readily say that he came from +"over yonder," and they point back across the mountains toward North +Carolina. + +In the first map of Tennessee, made by Daniel Smith, there is a dip in +the northern boundary of the state line where Fentress county is +located. But this was found to be an error of survey and later +corrected. The surveyors of those days were men of courtesy and +accommodation, for in the establishment of the Tennessee-Virginia line +they surveyed around the southern boundary of the farm of a hospitable +host and left his lands in Virginia because the old fellow maintained he +had never had any health except in the mountains of Virginia. + +That Coonrod was of English descent there seems scarcely room for doubt, +and "Pile," or "Pyle" and "Pall Mall" stand as mute testimony. And +"York" too is a component part of old England. + +I was never able to learn why the village was given its unique name and +there is no tradition that associates it with the noted street in +London, though even to-day Pall Mall in Fentress county is but a single +road. I asked a white-haired mountaineer how long the place had been +known as Pall Mall. With a memory-reviving shake of his head that ended +in a convinced nod, his answer was, "quite a-whit." + +And that is the nearest I ever came to accuracy. + +But seeing his reply did not contain the information wanted he looked at +me thoughtfully and said: + +"Hit's jes' like 'Old Crow!' Every morning for eighty-two years I ha' +looked up at the rocks o' that mountain 'en they h'aint changed a-bit." + +The government records show that Pall Mall was made a post-office on +April 3, 1832. + +Old Coonrod was a man of Big Business for his time; one of force of +character who dominated his community and who "sized his man" by +standards that were peculiarly his own. + +A man would come to him to buy a "poke" of corn or flour, or for a +favor. To the surprize of the stranger the favor might be over-granted +or the corn given without cost; or, upon the other hand, he would be +bruskly dismissed without the least effort at explanation. Unknown to +the stranger the condition of his "britches" had probably given him his +credit rating with Old Coonrod, for he held that patches upon the front +of trousers, if the seat were whole, were decorations of honor, showing +the man had torn them doing something, going forward. But, if the front +of the trousers were good and the seat of them patched, no dealings of +any nature were to be had with the dictator of the valley, for to Old +Coonrod it meant the man "was like a rabbit; he could not stop without +sitting down." + +But the residents of the valley, many of them Methodists, claim this +estimate works a hardship upon members of their faith for a good +Methodist could wear the knees out at prayer and the seat out in +"backsliding." + +Old Coonrod's trading with the Indians was a series of successes. He is +known to have had their confidence and friendship, and he was arbitrator +between them and his neighbors whenever disputes arose. + +Fentress county lying on the western slope of the Cumberlands was part +of the great hunting-grounds of the Shawnees, Cherokees, Creeks, +Chickamaugas, Chickasaws, and even the Iroquois of New York. The basin +of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, that part now Tennessee and +Kentucky, was claimed by each of these tribes as its own, not as home +but as a hunting-ground, and when bands of hunters of rival tribes met +in the territory each fought the other as an invader, and their battles +gave to Kentucky its Indian name, meaning in the Indian tongue the "Dark +and Bloody Ground." + +But Old Coonrod kept pace with all of them and prospered from their +friendship, and an Indian trail turned and led close to where he lived. +The last of the Indians passed through the valley in 1842. + +As Old Coonrod prospered he bought land and slaves, and was a large +owner of both in his day. He was a cautious and judicious purchaser of +realty. The court records show that at some time or other he was the +owner of the most desirable parts of Fentress county. He held title to +the land upon which Jamestown, the county seat, now stands, which is the +"Obedstown" of Mark Twain's "Gilded Age." He owned "Rock Castle," a +tract of hardwood timber that is enclosed by mountains and can be +reached by but one passageway, a place that became famous during the +Civil War. He bought and sold much of the county's best farming-land +along Yellow Creek. + +Fentress was made a county of Tennessee in 1823 and the first four pages +of the new county's records of deeds show that within eighteen months +Conrad Pile had added, through a number of trades, over six hundred +acres to his already large holdings. + +So cautious in land titles was he that at the time of his death he owned +three rights to his home-place including the farming-land along Wolf +River. The first was his squatter's rights, which he had homesteaded. +But against this, North Carolina in ceding the territory of Tennessee to +the United States Government reserved title to the land grants the state +had offered to her soldiers of the Revolutionary War, and "one Henry +Rowan" of North Carolina entered warrants given him on March 10, 1780. +The Revolutionary soldiers had twenty years to locate their grants, and +in 1797 Rowan appeared with surveyors, claiming by his entry of 1780 the +"Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf." He operated under two land +warrants of 320 acres each, and in his registry of one of them he +specified "a tract on the north side of Spring Creek (now Wolf River), +together with the improvements of Coonrod Pile." + +Old Coonrod traded with him, and Rowan took up his residence in what is +now Overton county. As late as 1817 there appeared "one Vincent Benham" +with title under a conflicting grant dated in 1793. Old Coonrod traded +with him and with "$10 in hand" Benham went his way. + +But the deeds which Coonrod recorded were voluminous, with corners as +explicitly marked as any land title of to-day. Up on one of the +mountainsides upon a rock there is a crudely carved "X" which was made +by Coonrod to mark a corner which called for a "beech tree" that has +disappeared, and this mark and the forks of Wolf River, corners in +Coonrod's titles, stand to-day as survey points for the boundaries of +the farms now in the valley. + +Coonrod built his home beside the spring, now known as "York Spring." +Its yard includes the spot where he made his first camp and where he +killed his first deer. Characteristic of him, he built well. The house +was hewn logs, large logs, some of them over fifty feet in length. And +the dwelling is now owned and occupied by one of his great +grandchildren, William Brooks, the only brother of the mother of +Sergeant York. The house is to-day one of the most substantial in the +valley. Just across the spring branch and up the mountainside is the +York home. + +Old Coonrod built one of the rooms without windows and with only one +door. That door led into his own room and opened by his bedside. In this +windowless room he kept his valuables and it was both a safe and a bank +for him. Into a keg covered carelessly with hides he tossed any gold +coin that came to him in his trades. His rifle was kept there. He had +the prongs of a pitchfork straightened and sharpened. The latter was his +burglar insurance and he felt amply able to take care of his savings. +And in those days men frequently passed through the valley whose +occupations were unknown and whose countenances were often evil to look +upon. + +Pall Mall is not without its legend of the hidden keg of gold. It is +known that Old Coonrod had his keg and kept in it his gold pieces. It is +not known just when and why this method of saving was abandoned by him. +But after his death no trace of the keg was found and it is said that +upon his deathbed he tried to give his sons a message which was never +completed, and it is believed he wished to reveal where his gold was +hidden. + +There are some who say he was seen to go up a ravine with a mysterious +bundle and to return without it. The ravine is pointed out. It opens on +the roadway about halfway between the Rains' store and the old home of +Coonrod. + +But there is no myth to the present-day side of the story. More than +squirrels and rabbits have been hunted up that ravine. + +But the legend of the hidden keg of gold is popular in many of the +valleys of the Appalachians, and it will even be found to have leaped +the valley of the Mississippi and almost identical in form appear and +appeal to the impressionable imaginations of those who live in the Ozark +Mountains to the west of that river. + +There was but one thing in which Old Coonrod stood really in fear, +something not made or controlled by man. It was lightning. Whenever a +heavy thunder-storm broke over the mountains Coonrod, even in the last +years of his life when he had grown so fat, ran with all the speed he +could command for the cave above the spring, Here he would stay, +muttering and unapproachable, until the storm abated. Then he would come +from the cave swearing in that deep voice that carried both power and +terror, and, as the story goes, "for hours 'niggers' would be hopping +all over the valley." + +Coonrod had a genuine admiration for the man or beast willing to fight +for his rights. Once finding one of his jacks eating his growing corn, +he put his dog upon him. The jack was old and small and shaggy. He +turned upon the dog sent after him and seizing the aggressor by the hair +at his back lifted him from the ground and maintaining his dignity +trotted out of the corn-field carrying the squirming dog. That jack was +pensioned. He was given his full supply of corn in winter and granted +the freedom of the meadows and the mountainsides in summer. Old Coonrod +would never sell him. + +John M. Clemens, Mark Twain's father, lived in Jamestown when his +"dwelling constituted one-fifteenth of Obedstown." He and Coonrod Pile +were close friends, Pile helping elect Clemens to be the first Circuit +Court Clerk of Fentress county. Both were firm believers in the future +value of the timber, coal, iron and copper to be found in the mountains. +In the 30's both acquired all the acreage their resources would permit. + +Mark Twain makes "Squire Si Hawkins" of "The Gilded Age," + + [Footnote: Copyright by Clara Gahrilowitsch and Susan Lee Warner. + Harper & Bros., Publishers, N. Y. Permission is also granted by the + Estate of Samuel L. Clemens and the Mark Twain Co.] + +conceded to be drawn from the life of his father, struggle to keep the +value or the land unknown to the "natives." Squire Hawkins confides to +his wife that the "black stuff that crops out on the bank of the branch" +was coal, and tells of his effort to keep a neighbor from building a +chimney out of it. + +"Why it might have caught fire and told everything. I showed him it was +too crumbly. Then he was going to build it of copper ore--splendid +yellow forty per-cent ore. There's fortunes upon fortunes upon our land! +It scared me to death. The idea of this fool starting a smelting furnace +in his house without knowing it and getting his dull eyes opened. And +then he was going to build it out of iron ore! There's mountains of iron +here, Nancy, whole mountains of it. I wouldn't take any chance, I just +stuck by him--I haunted him--I never let him alone until he built it of +mud and sticks, like all the rest of the chimneys in this dismal +country." + +Again "Squire Hawkins'" appreciation of the speculative value of his +lands is shown in a talk with his wife: + +"The whole tract would not sell for even over a third of a cent an acre +now, but some day people will be glad to get it for twenty dollars, +fifty dollars, a hundred dollars an acre." (Here he dropped his voice to +a whisper and looked anxiously around to see there were no +eavesdroppers--"a thousand dollars an acre!") + +To-day many of the acres owned by Coonrod Pile and John M. Clemens have +passed the hundred-dollar mark and are climbing toward that whispered +and seemingly fabulous figure. And this, too, before the coming of the +railroad for which "Squire Hawkins" could not wait. + +Twain delighted to have "Squire Hawkins" sit upon "the pyramid of large +blocks called the stile, in front of his home, contemplating the +morning." But John M. Clemens had his practical side, and the +specifications for the first jail for Fentress county, drawn by Clemens +and in his own handwriting made part of the county's records in 1827, +show a very substantial strain: + +"To wit, for a jail, a house of logs hewed a foot square, twelve feet in +the clear, two stories high, and this surrounded by another wall +precisely of the same description, with a space between the two walls of +about eight or ten inches, and that space filled completely with skinned +hickory poles, the ground floor to be formed of sills hewed about a foot +square and laid closely .... the logs to extend through the inner wall +of the building"--etc. + +And that jail was standing serviceable and strong until a few years ago +when the prosperity of Fentress county called for an edifice of red +stone. + +Clemens and Pile remained friends and competitive land owners until +"with an activity and a suddenness that bewildered Obedstown and almost +took away its breath, the Hawkinses hurried through their arrangements +in four short months and flitted out into the great mysterious blank +that lay beyond the Knobs of Tennessee"--to Missouri, where a few months +afterward "Mark Twain" was born. + +Another friend of Coonrod Pile was David Crockett. The "Hero of the +Alamo" had many hunts in Fentress county, upon the "Knobs" and along the +upper waters of the Cumberland. The old Crockett home still stands a few +miles to the north of Jamestown beside the road that leads to Pall Mall. +It was in a house upon land owned by Coonrod Pile that "Deaf and Dumb +Jimmy Crockett" spent the last years of his life, and from which he made +so many journeys to locate the silver mine of the Indians who had held +him captive and who pinioned him to the ground while they dug their ore, +never allowing him to see where they worked, but using him to help carry +the mined product. David Crockett in his autobiography tells the story +of "Deaf and Dumb Jimmy" but he places the scene in Kentucky, making +probably the same mistake in the location of the state-line boundary +which Coonrod Pile had made. + +Coonrod Pile lived to the age of eighty-three and at the time of his +death was the most powerful personality in Fentress county. His business +interests had grown to such proportions that he had economic problems to +solve and the simple practical methods he used are followed in the +valley to-day. + +He dug only so much coal as he could use, the transportation problem +preventing its sale. He could only market the poplar, the cedar and such +woods as he could float on the rises of the Wolf to the Cumberland river +to be rafted. He raised cotton, but only the amount the women needed for +their looms. He grew wheat and corn, but no more than was necessary for +flour and meal for the neighborhood and to feed the stock he owned, +laying aside a portion for use in time of need for the improvident and +unfortunate. + +He was ready at any time to trade with anybody for almost anything. In +the last score of the years of his life, the most successful +financially, he found that the money he could accumulate came only from +the sale of products that could move from the valley across the +mountains by their own motive power--something that could go on foot. So +he turned to stock-raising and with his own slaves cut the present +roadway from Pall Mall to Jamestown, there to join with the old Kentucky +Stock road which ran from Atlanta and Chattanooga, along the Cumberland +plateau by Jamestown on to the north through Frankfort and Cincinnati. + +Old Coonrod was not a one-price man on the realty he owned. If the +purchase was for speculation he was a trader with his sights set high. +If the buyer wanted a home, he was generous. It meant the upbuilding of +his community. So the people of that day lived in comradeship. There +were few luxuries and no real want. If there was "a farming patch" to be +cleared, the neighbors came from miles around and there was a +"log-rolling." If it was a home or a crib to be built, it was a +"log-raising," and everyone worked and made fun from it. + +The steeple of a church arose in the valley. It was built by those of +the Methodist faith. But before that and even afterward they held +"camp-meetings" and "basket-meetings" where a community lunch was +served under the trees and where the service lasted through the daylight +hours, allowing for a mountain journey home. And the religious fervor +was so sincere and intense at these meetings that they were called +"melting sessions." + +Up the mountainside above the York spring, a space was cleared for +shooting matches, where the prizes were beeves and turkeys, and where +the men shot so accurately that the slender crossing of two knifeblade +marks was the bull's-eye of the target. And everyone went on hunts, long +hunts when crops were laid by or winter had checked farm work. And as +human nature is the same the world over, there was many an upright +resident of the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf" who left the +plow standing in the furrow because the yelp and baying of the hounds +grew warm upon the mountainside. + +The families of mountain men are usually large in number, and the estate +of Old Coonrod has passed through a long division. He had eight +children, and his son Elijah Pile, the branch of the family to which +Sergeant York belongs, had eleven children. That portion of the estate +which Elijah inherited passed into good hands. He conserved his part, +handled well the talents left with him; but the second division by +eleven, together with the ravages of the Civil War and the years that +followed, left only seventy-five acres, and far from the best of it, to +Mary York, the truly wonderful little mountain mother who gave to Alvin +York those qualities of mind and heart which stood him in good stead in +the Forest of Argonne, who taught him to so live that he feared no man, +and to do thoroughly and always in the right way that which he had to +do. "Else," as she so frequently said to him, "you'll have to 'do hit +over, or hit'll cause you trouble." + + + +III +The People of the Mountains + +The log cabin of the pioneer influenced architecture and gave to us the +house of Colonial design, the first distinctively American type, for the +Colonial home grew around the pioneer's two rooms of logs separated by +an open passageway. + +The muzzle-loading rifle--and it was the pioneer's gun--with its long +barrel and its fine sights, gave confidence to the American soldier who +carried it, for he trusted the weapon in his hands. + +Progressive inventions finally displaced this rifle in military use, but +for the accuracy of the shot it has never been surpassed, and it is +to-day a loved relic and a valued hunting-piece. Men trained to shoot +with it, used to the slender line of its silver foresight and to the +delicate response of its hair-trigger, have made rare records in +marksmanship. The very difficulty of loading--the time it took--taught +its users to be accurate and not spend the shot. + +This rifle stopped the British at Bunker Hill and Kings Mountain, and +over its long barrel Alvin York and some of the best shots of the +American army learned to bring their sights upward to the mark and tip +the hair-trigger when the bead first reached its object. + +It was training acquired in the forest, the same manner of marksmanship, +the same self-reliance and individual resourcefulness as a soldier that +gave to Sergeant York the power to come back over the hill in Argonne +Forest, bringing one hundred and thirty-two prisoners, and to the army +under Andrew Jackson at New Orleans, more than a hundred years before, +the fighting resource to achieve victory with a loss of eight killed and +thirteen wounded, while England's records show that "about three +thousand of the British were struck with rifle bullets." + + [Footnote: From "The True Andrew Jackson," by Cyrus Townsend Brady, + Chap. IV, p. 88; published by J. B. Lippincott Co., 1906. ] + +The man trained behind the muzzle-loading rifle in all the wars America +has fought has been individually a fighter and "a shot," formerly but +little skilled in military training, who while obeying orders fought +along lines of personal initiative. In the earlier wars of the nation +this soldier was known as a "rifleman." It was with this class that +General Jackson fought his campaigns against the Indians and the +British, and at New Orleans "the bone and sinew of his force were the +riflemen of Tennessee and Kentucky." + +Against Jackson, England had sent the flower of Wellington's army, +distinguished for famous campaigns on the Spanish peninsula against the +marshals of Napoleon. Wellington said of these men in his "Military +Memoirs": "It was an army that could go anywhere and do anything." + +Late in life when General Jackson had grown old, had twice been +President, and was spending his declining days at the "Hermitage," his +home near Nashville, as calmly and peacefully as it was possible for the +fiery old warrior to live, he was shown this appreciation by Wellington. + +"Well," he said, "I never pretended I had an army that 'could go +anywhere and do anything!' but at New Orleans I had a lot of fellows +that could fight more ways and kill more times than any other fellows on +the face of the earth." + +Returning from the Indian wars and from the War of 1812, the +mountaineers and backwoodsmen, who were then rapidly settling up the +valley of the Mississippi, hung their rifles over their open fireplaces, +or between the rafters of their cabin homes and turned to the enjoyment +of the peace they had won. + +In the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf" Old Coonrod Pile was +still the dominant figure. + +Those who had settled in the valley were prospering on its fertile soil. +It was then, as it is to-day, remote from popular highways, but the +valley had grown into a community almost self-supporting. The owners of +the land had equipped their farms with such agricultural tools as were +in use in those days, and the Wolf river had been dammed and a +water-driven flour mill erected. + +The houses tho built of logs and chinked with clay were comfortable +homes, where in winter wood-fires roared in wide chimney-places, where +there was no problem of the high cost of living--and few problems of any +kind relating to living. + +The men of the valley farmed diversified crops, furnishing all that was +needed for food and clothing, and they even raised tobacco for the pipes +smoked at the general store run by Coonrod Pile in an end room of his +home. + +It was the day when the weaving-loom was the piano in the home, and all +the women carded, spun and wove. The table-garden, the care of the +house, the preparation of the meals and the making of the covering and +the clothes were in the women's division of the labor. The families +usually were large and every member a producer. To the girls fell shares +of the mother's work. The boys helped in the fields, chopped the wood +and rounded up the stock, that at times wandered far into the mountains. +There were bells on the cows, on the sheep and even the hogs, and the +boys soon learned to distinguish ownerships by the delicate differences +in the browsing "tong" in the tone of the bells. + +Residents of the valley sold to the outside world the live stock they +raised, and poultry and feathers and furs, and tar and resin from the +pines on the mountaintops. They purchased tea, coffee and sugar, a few +household and farm conveniences, and little else. The balance of the +trade was heavily in their favor and they were prosperous and happy. + +They had no labor problems. They recognized without collective +bargaining the eight-hour shift--"eight hours agin dinner and eight +hours after hit; ef hit don't rain;" as one old mountaineer, living +there to-day, interpreted the phrase, "A day's work." + +Even when the home of the mountaineer was a one- or two-room cabin, +accommodations for any stranger could be provided, and if he wished to +remain, work could be found for him. They observed without thought of +inconvenience the Colonial idea of "bundling." + +When the stranger proved worthy there would be a log-rolling and a space +of ground cleared for him to till, and a log-raising in which the +community joined, and made a merry occasion of it, to give him a home. +The way was easy for his ownership of the land and the cabin. Prices for +cleared land, around the middle of the last century, ranged from +twenty-five cents to five dollars an acre. + +In the valley the father never talked to the son of the dignity of +labor. Much was to be done and everyone labored and thought of it as but +the proper use of the sunlight of a day. + +Their life was primitive, rugged, but contented. Deer and bears were in +the mountains, and wild turkeys were to be found in large flocks, while +the cry of wolves added zest to the whine of a winter wind. + +A cook-stove was an unknown luxury, and the women prepared their meals +in the open fireplace. The men cut their small grain with a reap-hook +and threshed it beneath the hoofs of horses. + +The mode of life made men of strong convictions and deep feelings. But +those feelings were seldom expressed except under the influence of +religious devotions. + +The ministers were all circuit riders and venerated leaders of the +people of the mountainsides. They traveled the mountains on horseback, +constantly exposed to hardships, and they labored devoutly without +consideration of the personal cost. It was the custom for these +itinerant ministers to give free rein to their horses and read as they +rode the mountain-paths, stopping for a prayer at every home they +reached. Protracted meetings were held in almost every community they +visited, for many months would pass before they returned. Funeral +services would be held for all who had died during the absence of the +minister. The meetings lasted so long as there was hope of a single +conversion. + +One of the preachers of those old days, who was born in the "Valley of +the Three Forks o' the Wolf" and preached at Pall Mall as part of his +circuit when ordained, has left a record of one year's work: + +"During the conference year I preached 152 times, traveled 1,918 miles +on horseback, prayed with 424 families, witnessed 80 conversions to God, +and received 67 persons into the church. I sold about $40 worth of +books, baptized 40 adults and 18 infants ... and received less than $30 +of salary for same, and raised for benevolence $36.25. To God be all the +glory! I have toiled and endured as seeing Him who is invisible. +However, when God has poured from clouds of mercy rich salvation upon +the people, and when in religious enjoyment, from the most excellent +glory, I have been lifted to Pisgah's top, and have seen by faith the +goodly land before me, I would not exchange this work for a city +station." + +Against the worldliness of some of his people, the same old mountain +minister recorded a protest: + +"I have known families who had three or four hundred dollars loaned out +on interest, and not less than five hundred dollars' worth of fat cattle +on the range, who did not own a Bible, or take any religious newspaper, +nor any other kind, and did not have any books in their homes, and yet +owned two or three fiddles and three or four rifle-guns." + +The day of prosperity and religious contentment at Pall Mall lasted +until the coming of the Civil War. + +Fentress county had contributed its pro rata of volunteers to the +conflict with Mexico, and Uriah York, the grandfather of Sergeant York, +was among those who stormed the heights at Chapultepec. + +Tho this war was declared by a President who came from Tennessee, the +Mexican conflict did not reach to the firesides and into the hearts of +the people of the mountains of the state as other wars had done. So +years passed in which there was no outward evidence of the war spirit of +Fentress county that was soon to tear families asunder, leave farms +untenanted and to obliterate graveyards under the rush of horses' hoofs. + +The Yorks had come to Fentress county from North Carolina and settled on +Indian Creek. Uriah York was the son of John York, and they came from +Buncombe county in that "Old North State," the county which had a +reputation like Nazareth so far as turning out any good thing was +concerned, and the path of the cant, derisive phrase, "All bunkum," +leads directly back to the affairs of that good old county. + +On Indian Creek the Yorks were farmers, but at his home Uriah started +one of the few schools then in Fentress county. His school began after +crops were laid by and ran for three months. He used but two text +books--the "blue-backed speller" and the Bible. + +There are men living to-day on Indian Creek who went to school under +Uriah York, and they recall the uniqueness of his discipline as well as +his school curriculum. The hickory rod was the enforcer of school rules, +but full opportunity to contemplate the delicate distinction between +right and wrong was given to all. A three-inch circle was drawn upon the +schoolroom wall and the offending pupil was compelled to hold his nose +within the penal mark until penitent. + +Young and active he took part in all the school sports in the long +recess periods, for his school lasted all day. Learning at the end of +one school term that the pupils had planned as part of the simple +commencement exercises to duck him in Indian Creek, he exposed their +plot, playfully defied them, left the schoolroom with a bound through an +open window and led them on a chase through the mountains. He circled in +his course so he could lead the run back to the schoolhouse. As evidence +of goodfellowship and as an example of the spirit of generosity in the +celebration of victory, he gave to each of the boys as they came in, a +drink of whisky, from a clay demijohn he had concealed in the +schoolroom. + +But in those days whisky and apple brandy were considered a necessary +part of household supplies, and there was but little drunkenness. Whisky +and brandy were medicine, used as first aid, regardless of the ailment, +while awaiting the arrival of the doctor with his saddlebags of pills +and powders. Their social value, too, was recognized, and the gourd and +demijohn appeared almost simultaneously with the arrival of any guest. +But it was bad form--evidence of a weak will--for anyone, save the old +men, to show the influence of what they drank. This was, however, a +perquisite and one of the tolerated pleasures of old age. + +In the records of a lawsuit tried in Fentress county in 1841 the +price-list of some necessaries and luxuries are shown: + +"To two gallons of liquor, $1; one quart of whisky and six pounds of +pork, 80 cents; one deer-skin, 75 cents; two kegs of tar, $2; two ounces +of indigo, 40 cents; one gallon of whisky, 50 cents; five and one-half +pints of apply brandy, 31-1/4 cents." + +They were almost uneventful years at Pall Mall from the days of Coonrod +Pile until the Civil War. Less than a score of years lapsed from the +death of the pioneer in 1849 until over the mountains broke the warstorm +in a fury that has no parallel except in wars where father has fought +son, and brother fought brother; where the cause of war and the +principles for which it is fought are lost in the presence of cruelties +created in personal hatred and deeds of treachery perpetrated for +revenge. A third generation had grown to manhood at Pall Mall. + +In Fentress county, the polling of the vote upon secession was marked +with bloodshed. The county was on the military border between the free +and the slaveholding states. Coonrod Pile had been a slaveholder, but +few of the mountaineers were owners. Slavery as an institution did not +appeal to their Anglo-Saxon principles; poverty had prevented slavery's +advance into the mountains as a custom, and as racial distinction was +not to be clearly defined into master and worker, the negro's presence +in the mountains was unwelcomed. A war to uphold a custom they did not +practise did not appeal to them; so as a great wedge the Alleghany +mountains, extending far into the slaveholding states, was peopled with +Union sympathizers. + +Fentress county on the slope of the great mountain range and on the +border between the territory firmly held by the North and by the South +became a no-man's land, subjected successively to marauding bands from +each side, a land for plunder and revenge. + +Before the war the county had been sharply divided politically, and with +few exceptions that alignment held. Those who were Union sympathizers +went north into Kentucky and joined the Federal forces, and those on the +side of the South went for enlistment in the armies of the Confederacy. +The men who remained at home were compelled by public sentiment to take +sides, and the bitterest of feeling was engendered. The raids of passing +soldiers was the excuse for the organization, by both sides, of bands +who claimed they were "Home Guards"--the Federals under "Tinker" Beaty, +and the Confederates under Champ Ferguson. These bands, each striving +for the mastery, soon developed into guerrillas of the worst type the +war produced, and anarchy prevailed. + +Churches were closed, for religious services were invaded that the +bushwackers could get the men they sought. Homes were burned. Civil +courts suspended. Post-offices and post-roads were abandoned. No stores +were kept open and the merchandise they formerly held was concealed, and +there became a great scarcity of the necessaries of life. Many homes +were deserted by entire families and their land turned out as common +ground. There was waste and ruin on every hand, and no man's life was +safe. + +Each deed of cruelty was met with an act of revenge, until men were +killed in retaliation, the only charge brought against them being, "a +Northern sympathizer," or "a Southern sympathizer." There is not a road +in the county not marked with the blood of some soldier or +non-combatant. + +No section of the great Civil War suffered so enduringly as that which +was the boundary line between the sections, and no part of the boundary +suffered more from devastations of war in the passing to and fro of +armed forces and from the raids of marauding bands, steel-heartened in +quest of revenge, than did Fentress county. + +At the outbreak of the war, Uriah York went north into Kentucky and +joined the Federal forces. Ill, he had returned to the home of his +wife's father at Jamestown, and while in bed learned of the approach of +a band of Confederates. He arose and fled for safety to a refuge-shack +his father-in-law had built in the forest of "Rock Castle." His flight +was made in a storm that was half rain and half sleet, and from the +exposure he died in the lonely hut three days afterward. Only forty +years of age, he had served his country in two wars. + +The "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf" paid its tribute of blood +and money. Elijah Pile had grown old and years before had succeeded his +father, Coonrod Pile, as head of the family. All his sons had grown to +manhood. He was a non-combatant, but a Union sympathizer. His four sons +were divided in their allegiance--two upon each side. And two of them +paid the supreme price, and they paid for their convictions as they rode +along public highways. + +Conrad Pile, Jr., "Rod" as he was known, like his father, Elijah Pile, +was a non-combatant, but sympathized with the North. In the autumn of +1863 for some cause, unknown to his relatives, he was taken prisoner by +Confederate troops, members of Champ Ferguson's band. As they rode along +the road with him, some shots were fired. They left him there. + +In June of the following year, Jeff Pile, a brother of "Rod," was riding +along the road beyond the mill that creaks in the waters of Wolf River. +He was going to visit a brother. He had taken no active part in the war, +but was a Southern sympathizer. Some of "Tinker" Beaty's men galloped +into sight, fired, galloped on. Mountain men fire but once. + +But the murder of Jeff Pile threw a red shadow across the years that +were to come after the war was ended. + +The war-feuds of Fentress county did not end with the ending of the war. +There was lawlessness for years. Some of the Union men and Union +sympathizers, in the majority in the county during hostilities, assumed +to the full the new power that came to them by the war's outcome. +Conservative civic leaders sought to reestablish a condition of peace, +but the lawless and desperate element prepared personally to profit from +the situation. + +Farms had been deserted and many of the owners of these lands who had +fought on the side of the Confederacy were kept away through the threats +of death should they return, and some who had remained throughout the +war were forced to flee to protect their lives from those who coveted +their property. + +A series of land-frauds sprang up under the cloak of the law. Upon +vacant farms false debts were levied; fake administrators took charge of +lands whose owners had died during the conflict; other property was +hastily forced under sale for taxes. + +That the proceedings should appear legal, the foreclosures were by due +process of law. But if quietly circulated warnings against a general +bidding for property when offered at court sale were not effective, some +well-known desperate character would appear at the sale and threaten +anyone who dared bid against him. + +The bitterness of the feeling of the two sides subsided slowly, but +there was ever present the realization that old alinements could be +quickly and bloodily revived. Champ Ferguson, sought by the Federal +authorities, appeared suddenly upon the streets of Jamestown. That day +his old rival, "Tinker," was there. It was a personal battle the two +leaders fought, while Jamestown looked on silently, fearful of the +outcome. Beaty received three wounds, but escaped on horseback. + +A short time afterward Ferguson was hanged at Nashville by order of +court martial. The charge against him was that he had entered the +hospital at Emery and Henry College and shot to death a wounded Federal +lieutenant. Ferguson claimed justification as the Federal lieutenant, +under orders to escort a war-prisoner--a Confederate officer and +personal friend of Ferguson's--to headquarters, had, instead, stood his +prisoner against a tree by a roadside and ordered a firing-squad to kill +him. And the court-martial indictment of Ferguson read--"and for other +crimes." + +One of "Tinker" Beaty's men was Pres Huff, who lived in the "Valley of +the Three Forks o' the Wolf." It was generally believed that he was the +leader of the band who had ridden out of the woods and killed Jeff Pile, +as he traveled unarmed along the Byrdstown road. + +Huff's father had been shot. The scene of his death was where the branch +from the York Spring crosses the public road at the Pile home. The deed +was done by a band of Confederates who had taken the elder Huff +prisoner, and neither Jeff Pile, nor his brothers, were to be connected +with it, except in the quickly prejudiced mind of the victim's son. + +The desperate character of Pres Huff is evidenced by the records of the +United States Circuit Court for the Middle District of Tennessee in the +suit of the McGinnis heirs for land in Fentress county. Their bill +recites: + +"Armed men who were led and controlled by one Preston Huff, who was a +brigand of the most desperate character, forced complainants' father and +themselves to leave the county to secure their lives and kept them from +the county by threats of most brutal violence. The history of these men +and the times prove clearly that these threats were not idle, nor those +who opposed them survived their vengeance." + +At the foreclosure on the McGinnis property, Pres Huff rode his horse +between the court officers and those attending the sale, and pistol in +hand declared the land his by right of possession. The bill continues as +follows: + +"Preston Huff, who was the desperado heretofore referred to, publicly +proclaimed that he had fought for the land, had run the McGinnises from +the county, and if anyone bid for the land against him he would kill him +on sight. Even his co-conspirators would not brook his displeasure. The +land was sold on his bid, no one dared oppose him. The history of his +career shows it was wisdom to shun him. Many have been killed by him in +the most cold and brutal manner." + +There came to Pall Mall, when General Burnside was moving his Federal +forces southward, a young man by the name of William Brooks. He had +joined the Union Army at his home in Michigan. He was a daring horseman, +handsome, fair and his hair was red-a rich copperesque red. The army +moved on, but young Brooks remained in the valley. He claimed that as a +private soldier he had done more than his share in the conquest of the +South--and that the conquest that should ever go to his credit was the +conquest of Nancy Pile. + +When they were married, his father-in-law, Elijah Pile, gave him a farm +and he tilled it, and he smiled his way into the favor of the community. + +He lived in the valley about two years, and a baby had been born to +them. The feeling between the children of Elijah Pile and Pres Huff was +silent but tense; over it there fell constantly the shadow of the murder +of Jeff Pile. + +Meeting down at the old mill one day, Pres Huff and "Willie" Brooks +engaged in an excited argument. Between the dark-browed, sullen +mountaineer and the slender, gay young man a contest seemed uneven, and +was prevented. Huff told Brooks that the next time they met he would +kill him. + +They met next day, on the mountainside, on the road that leads by the +Brooks home, on across the spring-branch, up beside the York home and +then up the mountain. Huff's riderless horse galloped on and stopped in +front of a mountain cabin; his body lay dead in the road. + +There was a hurried consultation at the home of Elijah Pile. Huff's +friends, it was realized, would not be long in coming. Young Brooks went +out of the house, down by the spring, and up the mountain back of it. He +was never seen in the valley again. + +Huff's friends waited. + +Weeks afterward, Nancy Brooks, carrying her baby, went to visit a +friend. She evaded the watchfulness of her husband's enemies, succeeded +in crossing the Kentucky line and disappeared in the mountains to the +north of it. + +The friends of Pres Huff knew she would write home. Months elapsed, but +finally a letter came, and was intercepted. She and her husband were at +a logging-camp in the northern woods of Michigan. + +Secretly, extradition papers for Brooks were secured, and Huff's former +partner in a mercantile business, fully equipped with warrant appeared +with a sheriff before the door of the cabin in the Michigan woods, +Brooks was brought back to Jamestown, and put into the log-ribbed jail +that John M. Clemens, "Mark Twain's" father, had built. + +But there was no trial by law. The next night, through the moonlight and +the pines, a little body of men rode. Up the valley, across the plateau, +they went, and Jamestown was sleeping. + +Taking Brooks from the jail they carried him three miles down the road +toward Pall Mall. Here they bound a rope around his feet, unbridled a +horse and tied the other end of the rope to the horse's tail. They +taunted Brooks. But they could not make him break his silence, until he +asked to be allowed to see his wife and baby. Rough men laughed, and +there was the report of a gun. The horse, frightened, galloped down the +road, and bullets were fired into the squirming body as it was dragged +over the rocks. + +The war had steeled men for the coming of death and crime, but at the +manner of the death of "Willie" Brooks a shudder passed over the +mountainsides. To Nancy Brooks was born a son a short time afterward, +and he was named after his father. + +A silent, broken-hearted woman, Nancy Brooks took up again her life at +her father's home. To the little girl she had carried on her flight to +Michigan and to the boy whose hair had the copper-red of the father, she +devoted herself. The girl had been named Mary, and she inherited the +piquancy and wit that had made her mother the belle of the valley, and +as she grew to womanhood the mountaineers saw again the Nancy Brooks +they had loved before war had come with its cold blighting fingers of +death. + +At the age of fifteen Mary Brooks met William York, the son of Uriah +York, and they were married. A home was built for them, beyond the +branch, beside the spring. And Alvin York was their third son. + + + +IV +The Molding of a Man + +The first year after the marriage of William York and Mary Brooks, they +lived at the Old Coonrod Pile home, and William York worked as a +"cropper." Securing the farm that had been given the bride, they modeled +into a one-room home the corn-crib of Elijah Pile, that stood across the +spring-branch and up the mountainside. It was a log crib, and they +chinked it with clay, and using split logs from the walls of the old +shed, a puncheon floor was made. The coming of spring brought the +blossoms of flowers the girl-wife had planted. + +Honeysuckle and roses have bloomed around that cabin each succeeding +summer, and it proved the foundation of a home that was to withstand the +troubles of poverty in many winters. It was a home so rare and real that +it pulled back to the mountains a son who had gone out into the world +and won fame and the offers of fortunes for the deeds he had done as a +soldier. + +William York, in his simple philosophy of life, disciplined himself, and +later his boys, to the theory that contentment was to be found in the +square deal and honest labor. He was so fair and just in all relations +with his neighbors that the people of the valley called him "Judge" +York; and his honesty was so rugged and impartial that not infrequently +was he left as sole arbiter even when his own interests were involved. +In talks by the roadside, at the gate of his humble home, seated on the +rocks that surround the spring, many a neighborhood dispute has been +settled that prejudice could have fanned into a lawsuit. + +Yet William York never prospered, as prosperity is measured by the +accumulation of property, and it has been said of him that he "just +about succeeded in making a hard living." + +He was farmer, blacksmith, hunter--a man of the mountains who found +pleasure in his skill with his rifle. But the memories of him that +linger in the valley, or those that are revived at the mention of his +name, are of him in the role of husband, father and friend. + +The Civil War had scattered much of the wealth that Old Coonrod Pile had +accumulated and Elijah Pile had conserved. The number of heirs brought +long division to the realty and most of those who had benefited by the +inheritance were all left "land poor." + +To Nancy Brooks, as her part, came the home the old "Long Hunter" had +built with such thoroughness and care, together with seventy-five acres +of land. This she left to her boy who had been named after his ill-- +fated father--and he lives there to-day. To Mrs. York had been given +seventy-five acres, "part level and part hilly," that was the share of +her aunt, Polly Pile. + +In the cave above the spring, which was Coonrod Pile's first home, +William York built a blacksmith's shop, where he mended log-wagons and +did the work in wood and metal the neighborhood required. He farmed, and +worked in the shop--but in his heart, always, was the call of the +forests that surrounded him, and it was his one great weakness. A blast +from his horn would bring his hounds yelping around him; and often, +unexpectedly, he would go on a hunt that at times stretched into weeks +of absence. + +His hounds were the master pack of those hills. On his hunts when he +built his campfire at night he gathered the dogs around him and singled +out for especial favors those whose achievements had merited distinction +during the day. Following a custom that in those days prevailed among +owners of hunting-hounds, the dog that proved himself the leader of the +pack while on a hunt was decorated with a ribbon or some emblem upon the +collar. Small game was abundant in the mountains that made the "Valley +of the Three Forks o' the Wolf," but the deer and bear had withdrawn to +the less frequented hills. The hunts were for sport; there was no real +recompense in the value of the pelts. + +Alvin was born in the one-room cabin on December 13, 1887. There were +two older children--Henry and Joe. Alvin's early life was different in +no way from that of other children of the mountains. He lived in touch +with nature, and without ever knowing when or how the information came +to him, he could call the birds by their names and knew the nests and +eggs of each of them, knew the trees by their leaves and their bark, and +was familiar with the haunts of the rabbit and the squirrel, the +land- and the water-turtle. While still too small for the rough run of the +mountains, he has stood, red-eyed, by the gate of his home and watched +his father and the hounds go off to the hunt. And as he grew, his hair +took on that color that trace of him while at play could be lost in the +red-brush that grew upon the mountainside. + +There was one part of the routine of the week at Pall Mall that has +interested Alvin York from early boyhood. It was the shooting-matches, +held on Saturday, on the mountainside, above the spring, just where a +swell of the slope made a "table-land," and where a space had been +cleared for these tests of skill. The clearing was long and slender, +such a glade through the trees as the alley of the mountain bowlers +which Rip Van Winkle found in the Catskills--only the shooting-range was +longer. A hundred and fifty yards were needed for one of the contests. + +This aisle had been cut through a forest of gray beech and brown oaks. +At the points where the targets were to be set the clearing widened so +that the sunlight, filtering through the leaves and flickering upon the +slender carpet of green, could fall full and clear. + +Each Saturday the mountaineers were there--and William York and Alvin +were among the "regulars." Often there were fifty or more men, and they +came bringing their long rifles, horns of powder, pouches made of skin +in which were lead and bullet molds, cups of caps, cotton gun-wadding, +carrying turkeys, driving beeves and sheep, which were to be the prizes. +And when the prizes gave out, some of the men remained and shot for +money--"pony purses," they were called. + +The turkey-shoots were over two ranges--some forty yards and one a +hundred and fifty yards. At the latter range the turkey was tied to a +stake driven in the center of the opening at the further end of the +glade. A cord, about two feet in length, was fastened to the stake and +to one leg of the gobbling, moving target. It was ten cents a shot, +tossed to the man who offered the prize. + +Often the bird fell at the first trial, and a hit was any strike above +the turkey's knee. But the long-distance turkey-shoots were the opening +events, and the marksman had his gun to warm up, his eye to test and his +shooting nerve to be brought to calmness. So frequently it would happen +that the entrance money ran into a sum that gave a prize value to the +turkey, as prices ran for turkeys in those days. There was the element +of chance for the man offering the prize that was always alluring. + +The second turkey-shoot was held at the forty-yard range. But the bird +was now tethered behind a log, so that only his head and red wattles +could appear. Here, too, the turkey was given freedom of motion and +granted self-determination as to how he should turn his head in wonder +at the assemblage of men before him; or, if he should elect, he could +disappear entirely behind the log if he found something that interested +him upon the ground nearby, and the marksman must wait for the untimed +appearance of the bobbing head. It took prompt action and a quick bead +to score a hit. + +And it was years afterward, after Alvin York had become the most expert +rifle-shot that those mountains had ever held, that he sat in the brush +on the slope of a hill in the Forest of Argonne and watched for German +helmets and German heads to bob above their pits and around trees--just +forty yards away. + +The event in which centered the interest of all gathered at those +Saturday matches, was the shooting for the beef. + +Each man prepared his own target--a small board, which was charred over +a fire built of twigs and leaves. On this black surface was tacked a +piece of white paper, about two by three inches in size, and in the +center of the bottom margin of the white paper was cut a notch-an +inverted "V," not over a half-inch in height. This permitted the +marksman to raise the silver foresight of his rifle over a black, +charred surface until the hairline of the sight fit into the tip of the +triangle cut into white paper. It was a pinpoint target that left to the +ability of the marksman the exactness of his bead. + +The tip of the triangle in the paper was not the bull's-eye. It was +simply the most delicate point that could be devised upon which to draw +a bead. + +The bull's-eye was a point at which two knife-blade marks crossed. When +the target was in position this delicately marked bull's-eye could not +be seen by the shooter. + +With practice shots they established how the gun was carrying and the +direction in which the nerves of the marksman's eye were at the time +deflecting the ball. Finally the marksman drew his bead on the tip of +the triangle and where the shot punctured the white paper the bull's-eye +would be located. + +This was done by moving the white paper until the knife-blade cross +showed through the center of the hole the bullet had made in it. The +paper in this position was retacked upon the board, and underneath was +slipped a second piece of paper making the paper target appear as if no +hole had been torn through it. The bull's-eye so located was usually +within a half-inch radius of the triangle tip. + +So exact was the marksmanship of these men that they recognized that +neither gun nor man shot the same, day after day. They knew a man's +physical condition changed as these contests progressed, and that the +gun varied in its register when it was hot and when cool. + +The range for the beef-shoot was forty yards "ef ye shot from a chunk." +Twenty-seven yards, or about two-thirds the distance, if the shot was +offhand. "A chunk" was any rest for the rifle--a bowed limb cut from a +tree, the fork of a limb driven firmly into the ground, a part of a +log--anything that was the height to give the needed low level to the +rifle-barrel when the shooter lay sprawled behind the gun. The +permission to shoot from the rest was a concession to poorer +marksmanship. Shooting offhand required nerve, and steadiness of nerve, +to "put it there, and hold it." + +The science of marksmanship they learned through experience. The +rifle-ball, forced down through the muzzle, was firmly packed and the +cap carefully primed to prevent a "long fire." In taking aim in the +offhand shots the gun's barrel was brought upward so the target was +always in full view, and as the bead was drawn the body was tilted +backward until an easy balance for the long barrel was found. The elbow +of the arm against which the butt of the rifle rested was lifted high, +awkwardly high, but this position prevented any nervous backward jerk or +muscular movement of the arm that might sway the barrel. Only the weight +of the forefinger was needed to spring the hair-trigger. When the +gun-sights were nearing the tip of the black triangle, the marksman +ceased breathing until the shot was fired. + +So accurate were they, that when the bullet tore out the point where the +two knife-blade marks crossed, it was simply considered a good shot. It +was called "cutting center." But to decide the winning shot from among +those who cut center it was necessary to ascertain how much of the ball +lay across center. + +Each contestant who claimed a chance to win brought his board to the +judges for award. For each one of them a bullet was cut in half, and the +half, with the flat side up, was forced into the bullet hole in the +target until level with the board's surface. With a compass the exact +center of the face of the half bullet was marked--a dent, as if made by +a pin-point. Then across the surface of the bright, newly-cut lead, the +knife-blade marks of the original bull's-eye, partly torn away by the +shot, were retraced. The distance between the pin-dent center and the +point where the knife-marks crossed could then be exactly measured. + +When the cross passed directly over the dented center, the shot was +perfect and the mountaineers called it "laying the seam of the ball on +center." + +In the beef-shoots it was a dollar a shot. Each man could purchase any +number of shots. When the pot contained the number of dollars asked for +the beef the contest began. The prize was divided into five parts. The +two best shots got, each, a hindquarter of the beef. The third and +fourth, the forequarters; the fifth of the winners, the hide and tallow. +The beef was slain at the scene of the shoot, each winner carrying home +his part. + +William York has been known to carry the prize home on hoof--having made +the five best shots. But this was unusual, for all the mountaineers grew +up with a rifle in their hands and they knew how to use it. + +At the shooting-matches it was again "Judge" York. He always handled the +compass in making the awards. To the shooting-matches, still held at +Pall Mall, Sam York, Alvin's brother, brings the compass and the rifle +which his father had used. + +The contest for the sheep was under the same conditions that surrounded +the beef-matches; only the entrance fee was smaller. Usually it was six +shots for a dollar. This odd division of the dollar, made to fit their +term, "a shilling a shot," shows the people of the valley clinging to +their English customs and still influenced by the Colonial period in +America. In Colonial days in many parts of the country the shilling's +value was placed at sixteen and two-thirds cents. + +Contests for the "pony purses" were consolation-shoots for those who had +made no winning, and to gratify that element who for the love of the +sport would keep the matches going until in the day's dimming light the +sights of the gun could not be used. + +One day at one of these shooting-matches at Pall Mall I witnessed a +demonstration of the imperturbability of these mountain men. One of the +contestants had cut center and about a third of the ball lay across it, +when Ike Hatfield, a cousin of Alvin's, took "his place at the line." + +He was young, over six feet in height, slender and erect as a reed, and +only his head drooped as his rifle came into position. Some one said to +the man whose shot, so far, was the winning one: + +"Git his nerve; else he'll beat you!"' + +There are no restrictive rules on the comments or actions of contestants +or spectators--there is usually a steady flow of raillery toward the +one at the shooting-post. To get Hatfield's nerve, the man ran forward +waving his hat, offering his services to get a fly off Hatfield's gun. +The rifle-barrel continued slowly to rise. There was no recognition of +the incident, no movement seen in the tall figure. Then his opponent +talked and sang; and as this produced no noticeable effect, he danced, +and stooping, began "to cut the pigeonwing" directly under the +rifle-barrel. + +At this a soundless chuckle swept over Hatfield's shoulders. With a face +motionless he drew backward his gun and turning quietly, spat out a quid +of tobacco as if it were all that interfered with his aim. He again +slowly raised his rifle and fired, despite continued efforts to +disconcert him. + +He walked leisurely back to the crowd, rested his gun against a tree and +took his seat on the ground. His only comment was: + +"I think I pestered him." + +The judges found that Hatfield had laid "the seam of the ball on +center," and won. + +In these contests a mountain marksman will shoot eight or ten times and +often so closely will each shot fall to the knife-blade cross that the +hole cut by all of them in the white paper-target would be no larger +than a man's thumb-nail. One of the favorite methods of "warming up" +used by John Sowders, the closest competitor that Alvin York had in +hundreds of matches, was to drive fifteen carpet-tacks halfway into a +board, then step off until the heads of the tacks could just be seen, +and with his rifle Sowders would finish driving twelve or thirteen out +of the fifteen. + +It was not astuteness on the part of the German major, as he lay flat +upon the ground in that Argonne Forest under the swaying radius of Alvin +York's rifle, that caused the major to propose, when he found his men +were given no time to get a clear shot at the American sergeant, that if +Alvin York would stop killing them he would make the Germans surrender. +In the shooting-matches back in the mountains of Tennessee that American +soldier had been trained to the minute for the mission then before him. +But there were more powerful influences than his marksmanship that gave +to Sergeant York the steadiness of nerve, the coolness of brain and the +courage to fight to victory against such overwhelming odds. + +Back in the mountains in the days of William York, there were other +forms of amusement than the shooting-matches. The "log-rollings," the +"house-raisings," which always ended in a feast or barbecue, continued +popular with the people. And they had "corn-huskings," to which all the +neighbors came. + +The "corn-husking" was a winter sport. These, at times, were held at +night under the light of hand-lanterns the mountaineers used to guide +themselves with over the rough roads and along mountain-paths. But day +or night, the husking ended with a feast. The ears to be husked were +piled in a cone on the corn-crib floor, and usually at the bottom and in +the very center of the cone a jug of whisky, plugged with a corn-cob +stopper, was hidden. With songs and jokes they made sport of the work, +each trying to be first to reach the jug. Once the jug was secured, the +huskings ceased, and it was a fair contest between the corn's owner and +his guests to see how much or how little could be done before the +jug-shaped goal was reached. + +Seated on the floor around the pile each of the huskers sought to make a +narrow cut in the corn before him to reach the prize more quickly. It +was the farmer's part to have the corn piled in such a toppling cone +that the ears above would roll down as fast as the inroads could be +made, and often the sliding ears entirely buried a husker. He must then +draw back to the edge of the pile and start again. The shout of victory +that went up when the prize was pulled forth warned the women folk at +the house that they must make ready for the coming of hungry men with +appetites well whetted on a product of corn. The next day, the +farmer-host, without help, shucked the ears that were left upon his +corn-crib floor. + +Alvin with the mountainsides as his playground grew sturdy and resolute. +He had been put to work by his father when first old enough to hold a +hoe, to help about the house, pack water and bring in wood. The sparks +that bounced from the anvil in the shadow of the cave fascinated him and +he hung around the blacksmith's shop and learned to blow the bellows for +his father and keep the fire hot. He soon grew large enough to swing the +sledge, and he turned the shoes and made them ready. All of this wrapped +hard muscles over a body that was unusually large for his age. His +companions began to call him "The Big-un" and the by-name still clings +to him. This, together with a calmness and an unmatched reserve, gave +him the prestige of leader among his boy associates. At the age of +fifteen he swung the sledge with either hand and was a man's match in +wrestling bouts. One of his neighbors gave this view of him: + +"Alvin wuz a quiet, straight-going boy. When he started to shoe a mule +he always did hit no matter how troublesome the mule. He wuz so quiet +about what he wuz doing that we never noticed much o' that side of his +character before he went away. But now we see hit." + +In a season of prosperity William York moved from the cave and built a +blacksmith's shop beside the road where it forks, where one of the forks +turns down the middle of the spring-branch bed, on its way to the mill +and to Byrdstown. + +And he and Mary remodeled their home, making a two-room cabin of it. +Eleven children were born to them--eight boys and three girls. + +Most of the winters of the thirty years of married life pressed +privations upon them. Much of the seventy-five acres was poor soil, and +the earnings from the shop were small. The charge of William York for +blacksmith's work was always made in full realization that it was +something done for a friend and neighbor. Seldom was a job done for +cash. Instead, at some time that was convenient to the customer, he +would call and ask the amount he owed, and usually from William York's +book of memory the account was made out. And not in thirty years was it +disputed, or held to be exorbitant. + +There have been winters of privation in the valley for all of those +dependent upon small acreage and uncertain crops, but there was no real +want or suffering from the lack of the necessaries of life. Then, as it +is today, the community spirit in the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the +Wolf" stood guard at the mountain passes and no real poverty could +enter. The farmers' bins were open to any neighbor in need. The +storekeeper willingly waited until some livestock were sold, or even +until the next crop came in. For the wants of his family there was +credit for the man who lived in the valley and worked. He could not +speculate on the wealth of his neighbor, but there was never the need of +a real need. Old Coonrod Pile's theory of the distinctive difference in +the location of trouser patches is still regarded as a sound basis for +business transactions. Those who have tried to live there upon as little +work as they could do have sooner or later followed the path of the +setting sun, and from the valley that indents the western slope of the +great mountain range, that path leads downward. + +A visitor from the city once asked Mrs. York if she did her own work: + +"Sure enough," the little lady said, "and part of other people's. We had +to. To raise so many children and keep them right is a great big job." + +A number of years went by in the period of Alvin's boyhood when no +school was held that he could attend. The school term was only for three +months, beginning early in July. It was found impractical to hold +sessions in the winter, for many of the children lived long distances +away and the branches from the mountain springs that crossed the +roadways and fed the River Wolf, would go on rampages that could hold +the pupils water-bound over night. The schools in the mountains received +no aid from the state and in the remote districts it was difficult to +secure teachers except in the pleasant summer months. The school term +could not begin earlier than July, for it must wait until crops were +laid by, for the students ranged in ages from six to twenty years, and +the larger boys were needed on the farms. Then it was the time for the +potatoes to be gathered, and tomatoes hung red upon the vine and were +ready for pulling. The fall period of the farm was on. + +The progress which Sergeant York was able to make in all the years of +his school life would be about equal to the completion of the third +grade of a public school. He was not sufficiently advanced to become +interested in reading and self-instruction before he was called to the +army. He had been but a few miles away from the valley, where the men, +as do other men of the mountains, live in the open of the farm and +forest and think in terms of their environments. The need of an +education had not come home to him. + +It was thus equipped that Sergeant York came into the presence of the +generals of the Allied armies and sat at banquet boards with the leading +men of this country in politics and business. + +But never in the experiences that have been crowded into the past two +years of his life has he met a situation he could not command, or one +that broke his calmness and reserve. + +Clearly and quickly he thinks, but those thoughts flow slowly into +words. He is keenly appreciative of his own limitations and quietly he +observes everything around him. From early childhood he had been taught +to be swift and keen in observation--the rustling of a leaf might be +related to a squirrel's presence, and behind each moving shadow there is +a cause and a meaning. + +When he came to Prauthoy, France, the soldiers sought to honor him by +having him carry the Division flag in the horse show. All was new to him +and he was told but little of the routine expected of him. He had become +the man whom all the American soldiers wished to see, and his presence +was the feature of the occasion. The officers of his own regiment +watched him closely, and not a mistake did he make in all the day's +maneuvers. A comment of one of the officers was; "He seems always +instinctively to know the right thing to do." + +He came from a cabin in the backwoods of Tennessee but he was raised +under influences that make real men. A boy's ideal, in his early life, +is the father who guides him, and Sergeant York had before him a +character that was picturesque in its rugged manhood and honesty, and +inspiring in its devotion to right and justice. The very privations he +endured and that he saw influencing his home throughout his childhood +were due to principle, for William York would owe no man beyond the +period of his promise to pay. In the light of the sparks from the anvil +in the shop in the cave, sparks that burned brighter even than the light +of day, a comradeship between father and son was formed, and they were +companions until the boy reached manhood when the death of the father +separated them. + +There was nothing pretentious about the home in which he was raised. It +was but a cabin, yet the chairs, the tables were of seasoned oak, +hand-made, solid. The puncheon floor was worn smooth with use and over +it was a polished glow from the care of cleanliness, showing purity was +there. The walls were papered with newspapers. That was to keep out the +winter's wind, but over the windows were curtains of white muslin, and a +scarf of it ran the length of the simple board mantel-shelf, and in +season the blossom of some flower swayed there. Within the home, no +angry words were heard, but often there was laughter and song, and when +the formulas for conduct were not followed, even the words of correction +were affectionately spoken. + +As the boy's first steps were guided by tender hands, so the proper way +to walk through life was pointed out with gentle words and simple +truths. The mother's teachings were the products of an untrained mind, +but her philosophies came from a brain that has the power to think +clearly and quickly and is never influenced by either anger or +excitement--qualities transmitted eminently to her son. This little +mother in the mountains, unread and untutored, with only the dictates of +her own heart to guide her, had early adopted as her guiding philosophy +the belief that the greatest thing in life is love. + +So the impressionable, observant boy realized that life in the rugged +mountains around him called for strength and endurance, but in his home, +or wherever his mother was concerned there must be gentleness and love. + +And she has been the greatest influence in his life. He has always +listened to her counsels, except in a brief period of wildness in young +manhood. As his standard of life was formed under her teachings, it may +be again said of him--but this time from the moral standpoint: "He seems +always instinctively to know the right thing to do." + +It was the love for his mother, his love of his homelife in Pall +Mall--and the sweetheart who was waiting for him there--that called him +back to the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf" after he had gone +out into the world and won fame among men. + +The very sunlight falls gently on the verdant beauty of that valley, and +the seven mountains rise around it as tho they would shield it from the +contending currents of the world. + +Over the valley there comes a long gray dawn, for the sun is high in the +heavens when its slanting rays first fall on the silver waters of the +Wolf. And through this dawn the men are moving, feeding stock, +harnessing their teams, and many of them sing as they ride to their work +in the fields, for they are content. The tinkling of the bells on the +cows grow fainter as the cows browse along the paths that lead to their +mountain pastures. Up and down the road in companionable groups the pigs +are moving, audibly condoling with each other over the lack of business +methods that caused the loss of the location of the entrance to the +field of corn. A crow flaps lazily across the valley, and over the crest +of the mountain the sun comes up. + +And the summer twilight there is long, and as it dips into night a +drowsiness rises fog-like over the valley. When a half-moon hangs +between the mountains its light is that of drooping drowsy lids. The +lamps in the cabins on the mountainsides gleam but a brief time and go +out. The descending of the shade of night is the universal bedtime of +the mountain people. + +An occasional swinging light may still be seen, but it is the +mountaineer giving attention to some trouble among his stock. Then, +there is silence over the valley, except for the chorus of katydids and +the whistle of the gray owl to his mate in the woods. Now and then there +comes the soft, faint clank of a cow-bell, different from its sound as +the cows run the road or feed in the pasture. It is a slow and sleepy +tang that soothes the ear. + +But the mountain curfew is the bark of a dog. Somewhere up on the range +a hound will call to another that all is well with him in his watch of +the night, and the family he guards are all abed. The aroused neighbor +calls to the dog at the cabin next to him, and the message that "all's +well" sweeps on the voices of the hounds on down the valley until it +ends in an echo in the crags. + + + +V +The People of Pall Mall + +They are a tranquil people who pass their days as do those who now live +in the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf." They are free from +invidious jealousies and the blight of avarice toward each other, free +from doubt of the rectitude of their daughters and relieved from +solicitude that the future of their sons, if they remain in the valley, +will be influenced by dissipation or dishonesty--a people who find in +the changes of the weather and its effect upon crops their chief cause +for worry. + +Through the gray dawn the farmer looks up to the skies for his weather +report for the day. As he works he watches the clouds scurrying across +the mountaintops, and when he notes they are banking against the unseen +summit of the Blue Mountains that rises to the east, he knows that rain +is soon to come. Some local unknown bard, watching those banking clouds, +has left a lyric to his people, and I heard a gray-bearded mountaineer +singing it as he predicted the break of a summer drought: + + "The sun rose bright + But hid its head soon, + 'Twill rain a-fore night + Ef hit don't rain a-fore noon." + +With their homes back in the mountains nearly fifty miles from the +railway, with a journey before them over rocky roads and up +mountainsides to the other communities of Fentress county, the people of +Pall Mall live in the communion and democracy of one great family. +Children call old men by their Christian names. In it is not the +slightest element of disrespect, and it is instead an appreciated +propriety which the old men recall as the custom of their boyhood. Rev. +R. C. Pile, pastor of the Church of Christ in Christian Union, the +church of the valley, is "Rosier" to everyone. All worship together in +the same church; all toil alike in the fields. In the predial, peaceful +routine of their days there is a positive similarity. A farmer will ride +direct to the cornfield or the meadow of a neighbor, knowing the +neighbor will be found at work there. And, as through the gray dawn of +the day they look up to the skies, the wish of one for rain will be +found to be the community desire. + +The social meeting-point of the people of the valley is the general +store of John Marion Rains. The storehouse sits by the roadside at the +foot of a mountain in the western end of the valley, just where the road +tumbles down to the solid log cabin old Coonrod Pile had built, to the +spring and the York home. + +One end of the long porch of the store-house, as it runs with the road, +is but a step from the ground, and the mountain falls away until the +floor is conveniently up to the height of a wagon's bed; then the road +dips again until the porch is on a level with the saddle-stirrups and +the women dismount with ease from their high-backed, tasseled +side-saddles as they come in sunbonnets and ginghams. + +The men of the mountains seldom hurry on any mission. Their walk is a +slow and foot-sure tread. When they come to the store, if only for a +plug of tobacco, they remain with John Marion for a social hour or more. +Their purchase is an incident, the last act before they depart. + +It is rare during the daylight hours that someone is not sitting on the +porch, or in one of the chairs of the row that skirts the show-cased +counter just within the door, or somewhere upon the open horseshoe kegs +that border the floor of the counter opposite. They are waiting to hear +if anything new has happened, for all the news of the neighborhood comes +to the store. The storekeeper is sure to know whether the stranger seen +passing along the road in the morning stopped at the York's, or went on +to Possum Trot or to Byrdstown. + +The very commodities upon the shelves and counters of that store are in +friendly confusion. Canned meats, pepper, candy, soap and +chewing-tobacco may be found in one partition; while next to them, +groceries, shotgun-shells, powder and chinaware are in a position of +prominence according to the needs of the past purchaser. In the rear, +piled high, are overalls and "store clothes," hats and shoes. + +But the counter, facing the shelves of dress-goods for the women, is +free of obstructions, and its surface is worn smooth and polished by the +years of unrolling of bolts of cloth, while at every quarter-yard along +the counter's rear edge is a shining brass tack-head--the yardstick of +the department. A pair of large shears swing prominently from an upright +partition. The department is orderly and neat, a mute tribute to those +who patronize it. + +Into the show-cases has crept every article of small dimension that had +no habitat or kind upon the shelves around--from laces to lead pencils. +Upon nails in the rafters of the ceiling swing buckets and dippers and +lamps, currycombs and brushes. + +Off in an L that runs at a right angle from the main store are bacon and +tires for wagon wheels, country-cured hams and brooms, flour, kerosene +and plows. + +Under the counter by the door is an open wooden box of crackers, and its +exact location and the volume of the supply are known to every child in +the mountains around. Out of it comes their lagnappe for making a +journey to the store. + +Beside the door upon a shelf sits the water-bucket, kept cool by +frequent replenishing from the York spring. Here every man who enters +stops; and, after he has shifted his quid of tobacco, looked around, and +made his cheerful greeting a hearty one with, "Howdy people!" he lifts +the dipper filled with its pleasing refreshment--and the surplus goes +accurately, in a crystal curve, to the back of some venturesome chicken +that has come upon the store porch. + +Above the door as you enter hangs a stenciled, uneven, unpunctuated +sign, "NO CREDIT CASH OR BARTER." But that sign has lost its potency. It +is yellow with age and no longer is there anyone who believes in it. It +was hung when John Marion first opened his store, and before he knew his +people and wanted cash or barter for his wares. + +There is trading every day that is barter. But it is the women bringing +chickens under their arms, or it basket of eggs. The eggs are deposited +in a box, the storekeeper counting them aloud as he packs them for +shipment; or one of the eleven Rains' "kids" is bestirred to the barn +with the chickens, where they remain in semi-captivity until the egg and +poultry man, in an old canvas covered schooner, comes on his weekly +rounds. And the cash value to the barter is traded to a cent. A "poke" +of flour or of sugar or a cut of tobacco usually evens the transaction. + +It is many a journey around the store that John Marion makes in a day. +The decision to purchase each article is announced slowly and as tho it +were the only thing desired. The plump and genial storekeeper goes +leisurely for it, and with a smile of satisfaction places it before the +customer. There is a moment of silence, then a journey for the next +need, and it is only in balancing the barter that the merchant makes a +suggestion. + +In a small glass show-case is refuting testimony that the sign over the +door of NO CREDIT had been discredited long ago. The charge account is +open to everyone. A memorandum of the purchase is made upon a strip torn +from a writing-tablet or upon a piece of wrapping-paper and tossed into +the show-case, among many others of its kind, until the customer "comes +around to settle up." Then, with an unerring instinct, John Marion can +pull from the tumbled pile of memoranda the records of the charges he +seeks. If the charge account is to remain open until the next crop comes +in, on some rainy day he will transcribe the charge to his day-book. + +The clocks of the valley are not controlled by the government's or the +railroads' standard of time. They go by "sun time" and are regulated by +the hour the almanacs say the sun should rise. John Marion winds the +store clock after it has run down and he sets it by no consultation with +anything but his feeling as to what hour of the day it should be. + +At least once a week every man who lives in the valley is at the store, +but Saturday is the popular meeting-time. When the chairs and the row of +horseshoe kegs are occupied, the men rest their hands behind them on the +counter and swing to a place of comfort upon it, or they sit upon the +window-sills, keeping well within the range of raillery that welcomes +the coming and speeds the parting guest. It is a good-natured humor that +these mountaineers love, quick as the crack of a rifle and as direct as +its speeding ball. There is never an effort to wound. But always there +is the open challenge to measure resource and wit. + +Many a trade in mules that owners have ridden to the store has resulted +from the defense against the mule-wise critics who several times +outnumber the man who rode the mule. If the mount is a newly acquired +one, especial pleasure is found in a seemingly serious pointing out why +any sort of trade was a bad one for that particular animal. + +A mule trade is a measure of business capability. No lie is ever told in +answer to a direct question, but no information is relinquished unless a +question is asked. If no hand is passed over the mule's eyes, and there +is no specific inquiry about the eyes before the trade is consummated, +and the animal proves blind in one of them, the fault lies in the +mule-swapping ability of the new owner. Over no question could two men +be seemingly so widely apart as the two when both are anxious to trade. +They are jockeying for that "something to boot" which always makes at +least one participant satisfied in a mountain mule trade. + +There are pitfalls for the unwary in the conversations that pass across +the store aisle. Bill Sharpe, who has spent eighty-two summers in the +valley--and the winters, as well--with seeming innocence started a +discussion as to how far a cow-bell could be heard. He sat quietly as +several compared their experiences while hunting cattle in the +mountains. Finally the old man said his hearing was not so good as it +used to be, but he remembered once "hearing a cow-bell all the way from +Overton county." Down the line a rural statistician figured it must be +seventy miles from Pall Mall to the nearest point in Overton county, and +the jests began to explode in the old man's vicinity. He conceded many +changes since he was young, but so far as he could see there was +evidently no improvement in man's hearing powers. When all his efforts +to secure a side bet that he could prove his assertion were futile, he +explained: + +"Wall, boys, ye got away. En once I won two gallons o' whisky on hit. I +was in Overton county. I bought a cow. As she had a bell on her, and I +drove her home, I heard that cow-bell all the way from Overton county." + +On Saturday afternoon, or a rainy afternoon, when Alvin York and the +"Wright boys," and one of them, "Will" Wright, is president of the bank +at Jamestown; Ab Williams, gray of hair and bent, but vigorous of +tongue; his son, Sam Williams, tall and straight as an Indian and +equally upstanding for his opinions; John Evans, a local justice of the +peace; Bill Sharpe, who lives in the shadow of "Old Crow"; T. C. Frogge, +of Frogge's Chapel, who farms, preaches or teaches school as the demand +arises; "Paster" Pile and his brother, Virgil Pile, who has been County +Trustee; when any of these are among those gathered at the store, there +is a tournament of wit, with a constant change of program. + +Many a time John Marion is compelled to retreat behind a grin when in a +lull "a shot" is taken at him, and his smile is his acknowledgment that +he cannot be expected to add up a charge-slip and at the same time +defend himself against a care-free man upon a keg of horseshoes. + +But the storekeeper is never taken by surprize at the badinage of his +patrons. One afternoon after a long wait and another day in the valley +seemed sure to pass with no unusual incident, an old fellow arose from +one of the chairs, stretched himself, and said: + +"John Marion, I want a shift o' shirts. Else, I got to go to bed to git +this-un washed." + +The storekeeper laid out several of dark color: + +"Here's some you can wear without change till the shirt falls off." + +"That's right, John; gimme one thet won't advertise thet the ole woman's +neglectin' me." + +Another was uncertain about the size of a pair of overalls for his boy: + +"Dunknow, John Marion! One tight enough to keep the bees out--a kid +shore wastes energy when a bee gits in 'em." + +When it is "good dusk" the storekeeper closes the wooden shutters and +fastens them by looping a small cotton string over a nail. All the +mountaineers are on their way home, but they had not parted without an +interchange of invitation: + +"Home with me, boys; home! Ef I can't feed ye well, I'll be friendly." + +Or, maybe, the invitation is not so sweeping, and holds a reservation: + +"Spend the night with me! I'll not stop you; I'll let you leave afore +breakfast." + +Over any gathering at the store a pall of silence descends when a +stranger rides up. If the newcomer is a new drummer unfamiliar with the +ways of the mountains, if he comes imbued with the belief that the voice +with the smile wins, and talkatively radiates his individual idea of +fellowship and democracy, one by one his auditors silently drop away. To +them, an insincere, a false note of democracy has been struck. Perhaps +around the door there will linger some of the mountain boys waiting to +satisfy their curiosity over the contents of the drummer's cases. + +John Marion Rains always listens to the story of prices, but his shelves +are really replenished by the drummers who drive to the barn instead of +the store, who unhitch their own horses and feed them from the +storekeeper's supply of corn, who come into the center of the crowd only +after they have unobtrusively lingered awhile in the fringe of it. + +One afternoon one of these mountaineers who had withdrawn to the porch, +unhitched, without being solicited, a drummer's horse, and he had +trouble in pulling off a loose shoe and renailing it. The drummer wanted +to pay for the work, but the mountaineer shook his head. The deed had +been done for the horse. The visitor insisted, and finally the price was +fixed: + +"Bout a nickel!" + +A mountaineer seldom asks questions. Instead he makes a statement of +that which appears to him to be the fact, and if unchallenged or +uncorrected, it is accepted as the proper deduction. Early in my visit +to Pall Mall I learned my lesson. + +"Have you lived all your life in the valley?" I asked an old mountaineer +whom I met on the road as he was carrying on his shoulder a sack of corn +to the mill. + +Into his eye there came a light of playfulness, then pity, quickly to be +followed by a twinkle of fun. He simply could not let the opening pass. + +"Not yit," he said. + +Later I saw a little fellow of six years of age chasing a chicken barren +of feathers over a yard that was barren of grass. When I accused him of +maliciously picking that chicken, his face was a spot of smiles as he +vigorously denied it. + +"Are you going to school?" I asked him. + +The smile changed to a look of surprize at an inquiry so out of line +with his immediate activities. + +"When it starts," he called back as he and the chicken disappeared under +the cabin. + +I dropped questions and adopted the direct statement as a method of +procedure in which there was less personal liability. + +Alvin Terry, dressed in a patched corduroy with a hunting-pouch made of +the skin of a gray fox and with his long rifle in his hand, stopped at +the store and told how he "got a bear." There was a hunter's pride in +the achievement with apparently little value given to the bravery of the +personal role he had played. + +He had been on a hunt back in the hills. His dogs had gone ahead of him +and he "knowed they had somethin'." When he came in sight of them they +rushed into a cave and some came out yelping and bloody. When they +wouldn't go back, then it was he "sized hit wur a bear." He looked at +the mountains around him, but there was not a cabin in sight where he +could get help. + +"Ez the dogs couldn't git out whatever wuz in there, and wuz only +keepin' hit in, I sat down to think hit over. I lowed I would tell some +one en folks would say, 'that's the man who had a bear in a cave, and +did not git him.' Ef I went in en come out alive with scratches on me, +folks would say 'a bear done that, but he got the bear.'" + +He cut a long pole, fastened a pine knot to the end of it and set it +afire. Getting to the side of the mouth of the cave he began slowly to +push in the burning knot, "leavin' the channel open ef anything wanted +to come out." + +But the bear didn't come out, and the hunter grew afraid that the smoke +would not move his prey yet would prevent him seeing around in the cave +if he had to go in. The cave's mouth was low, a rock hung over it and he +could not crawl upon his hands and knees. + +"I pushed the pine knot ez fur ez hit would go. I set my rifle, en +pushed hit ahead of me. Got my knife where I could git hit. Went down +flat en begun to pull myself on my elbows. When I could jes peep around +a rock I seed the bear. He wuz settin' on his haunches, his head turned +alookin' at the pine knot. I picked out a spot about three inches below +his collar-bone, en never drew such a bead on anything. Then I tetched +her oft. Ye should have seed me come backward out o' there." + +He waited and there was no sound in the cave. He sent the dogs in and +they would not come out at his call. He reloaded his rifle and began to +crawl in again. + +"As soon as I seed him I knowed he wuz dead. I got both hands on his paw +and began to pull. He wuz heavier than I wuz, so I slid to him. I tried +ketchin' my toes in the rocks, but I couldn't hold, en I never moved +him." + +He went ten miles over the mountains to get help to pull his bear out of +the cave. + +The language of the people of the Great Smokies and the Blue Ridge +mountains is filled with a quaintness of expression. Many of their words +and phrases that attract through their oddity were at one time in +popular use and grammatically correct. These people are clinging to the +dialect of their fathers who were Anglo-Saxons. The use of "hit" for +"it" is not confined to the mountains, but the Old English grammars give +"hit" as the neuter of the pronoun "he." + +"Uns," too, had once a grammatical sanction, for "uon" or "un" was the +Early English for "one," and "uns" was more than the one. In many parts +of the South are found the expressions, "you-uns" and "we-uns." The +mountaineer says "you-uns" when he is addressing more than one person. +It is one of his plural forms for "you," and he is adopting an Early +English ending. But the true mountaineer does not employ "we-uns" The +"we" to him is plural, the suffix is superfluous. In the same way he +says "ye" when speaking to more than one, but he uses "you" when +addressing an individual. He seems, too, to make a distinction between +"you-uns" and "ye." The former is usually the nominative and the latter +the objective. + +When he wishes to convey the idea of past tense, the ending "ed" is +popularly employed, but when he may he drops the "e." While he will +properly use the present tense of a verb he goes out of his way to add +the "(e)d." So he says "know-d," "see-d." But he is not always +consistent. He prefers "kilt," the old form, to "killed." + +Generations passed in which they had little opportunity to attend +school, and there are today a number of the older people of the "Valley +of the Three Forks o' the Wolf" who can not read nor write. Some of the +younger generation have been away to college, but, as with Alvin York, +most of them grew to manhood with only a month or a month and a half at +school during a year, with many years no school in session. + +The church is in the center of the valley at the edge of a grove of +forest trees. It is a frame structure, built by the Methodists during +the past century. The board walls of the interior are unplastered and +unpainted, and the pews are movable benches. The pulpit is slightly +elevated with a railing in front, ending in two pillars upon which rest +the preacher's Bible, song books and lamps. Along the entire front of +the pulpit runs the mourners' bench. In the rear of the church a ladder +rests against the wall and down toward it swings a rope from the open +belfry. + +Everyone in the valley attends church and there are but few who do not +go to every service without regard to the denomination conducting it. +They come on horse- and mule-back, on foot, in wagons in the beds of +which are chairs for the entire family. In summer many of the men wear +their overalls, and all, excepting the young men acting as escorts, come +in their shirt-sleeves. Some of the women are in silks, but more of them +are in ginghams, and many sunbonnets are to be seen. At the door of the +church the men and women part and they sit in separate pews. + +I attended a service at the end of a revival that was being conducted by +the Rev. Melvin Herbert Russell, of the Church of Christ in Christian +Union, the frail and eager evangelist who three years before had brought +Sergeant York to his knees before the altar of that church. + +It was an August day and the sun's rays fell into the valley without a +single cloud for a screen. The little church was filled with worshipers, +while many sat in the shade of the trees that sheltered it, within the +sound of the minister's voice. Down through the grove the hitched horses +"stomped" and switched, but this was the only evidence of restlessness. + +The minister conducted the services in his shirt-sleeves, without +collar, and with the sleeves rolled up. There is no organ in the church +and he played a guitar as he led the earnest singing. + +The mountain evangelist had but few of the pulpit arts of the minister, +but he had the soul of a great preacher. His life, to him, was a mission +to the unconverted to point out the imminence of death and its meaning. +His belief had carried him beyond and above the pleading of the +uncertainty of death to arouse fear in the hearts of his congregation. +Instead, to him, the great clock of time was actually ticking off an +opportunity which the unconverted could not permit to pass. In his +earnest pleading his voice would rise from a conversational tone until +it rang penetratingly through the hall, and he would emphasize his words +with a startling resound from his open palm upon the altar-rail. + +The mountaineers had brought their entire families, and during the +service the smaller children would fall asleep, to awaken with a cry at +the changing vibrations. Up and down the sounding, carpetless aisles the +parents would pass, carrying out some child to comfort it. + +But the incidents were unnoticed by the minister, nor did they break the +chant of amens or the growing number of repetitions of the minister's +words by the devout worshipers. When the eyes of the auditors were +turned from the evangelist they reverently sought the face of some +expected convert. In the service, in the feelings of the people there +was real religion. + +Sundays pass when there is no preaching in the church. Pastor Pile, the +local minister, has several charges and can conduct the services at Pall +Mall but once a month. But each Sunday morning there is Sunday School, +and in the afternoon a singing-class. Some one of the York boys leads +the unaccompanied songs, and Alvin's leadership and interest in these +services caused the catchy phrase, "a singing Elder," to be a part of +nearly every newspaper story of him that went over the country. + +The singing-class draws to the church on Sunday afternoon the younger +element of the community. When the service is over, some go for a swim +in the Wolf River which runs along the foot of the grove, or on a +grassless space under a giant oak on the schoolhouse-yard there will be +a game of marbles. It is the old-fashioned "ring men" that they play, +where five large marbles are placed in a small square marked in the +dust, one marble on each corner and one in the middle. + +Over in France when the officers of Sergeant York's regiment were trying +to obtain all the facts of his wonderful exploit, they asked him what he +did with the German officers he had captured when he started to bring in +his line of prisoners. His reply was a simile from his boyhood in the +mountains: + +"I jes made a middler out of myself." + + Among all the American officers present there was but one who + recognized his reference to the old marble game. + +The death of his father when Alvin was twenty-one, relaxed a hand that +had protected and guided him more than he realized. His two older +brothers were married and he became the head of the family of ten that +remained. He left to his younger brothers the care of the crops upon the +farm and he hired out on any job that brought an extra revenue. In +summer he worked on neighboring farms, and in winter hauled staves and +merchandise when the roads could be traveled, or logged in the lumber +camps. + +He formed new associates and under the new influences began to drink and +gamble. With his companions on Saturday and Sunday he would "go to the +Kentucky line." + +Through the mountains along the state-line between Tennessee and +Kentucky there were road-houses, or saloons, that were so built that +one-half of the house would be in Kentucky and one-half in Tennessee. +The keeper paid his federal license and was free from the clutches of +the United States Government. But he avoided the licenses of the states +by carrying a customer from Tennessee into the Kentucky side of the +house for the business transaction, and the Kentuckian was invited into +Tennessee. No customer of the state-line saloons could swear before a +grand jury that he had violated the liquor laws of his state, and he was +not subject to a summons at his home by the grand jury of the county or +state in which he made his purchase. Upon receipt of a "grapevine" +signal that officers were approaching, the entire stock of liquids would +disappear and when the officers arrived the saloonkeeper would be at +work in the fields of his farm. + +The nearest state-line saloon to Pall Mall was seven miles by the road +and but little over half the distance by paths on the mountains. + +This was the only period of Alvin's life when the wishes of his mother +did not control him. These week-end sprees were relaxation and fun, and +he worked steadily the remainder of the week. In them he grew jovial and +the friends he drew around him were fun, not trouble, makers. His +physical strength and the influence of his personality were quickly used +to check in incipiency any evidence of approaching disorder. + +His "shooting-up" consisted of pumping lead from an old revolver he +owned into the spots on beech trees as he and his friends galloped along +the road. And he became so expert that he would pass the revolver from +hand to hand and empty it against a tree as he went by. When the eight +Germans charged him in the fight in the Argonne, he never raised his +automatic pistol higher than his cartridge-belt. + +His mother knew the latent determination of her boy and she was ever in +dread that there might arise some trouble among the men when he was away +on these drinking trips. + +"Alvin is jes like his father," she said. "They were both slow to start +trouble, but ef either one would git into hit, they'd go through with +the job and there'd be a-hurtin'." + +But since the fist fights of boyhood Alvin York has never had a personal +encounter. His intents and deeds do not lead him into difficulties, and +in his eye there is a calm blue light that steadies the impulses of men +given to explosions of passion and anger. + +At a basket-dinner where he and his friends were drinking he took his +last drink. To these outings the girls bring, in a woven, hickory +basket, a dinner for two. The baskets are auctioned, the proceeds are +given to some church charity, and the purchaser and the girl have dinner +together. They are often expensive parties to a serious-minded mountain +swain who can not surrender the day's privileges to a rival or will not +yield his dignity and rights to fun-makers who enliven the biddings by +making the basket, brought by "his girl," cost at least as much as a +marriage license. + +Alvin's mother had often pleaded with her boy that he was not his real +self--not his better self--while drinking. Something happened at a +basket-party in 1914 that caused the full meaning of his mother's +solicitude to come to him. He left, declaring he would never take +another drink, and his drinking and gambling days ended together. + + +Late in the afternoons in the fall months, when the squirrels are out +[so the story runs in the valley, but without confirmation from the +Sergeant], Alvin would be seen leaving home with his gun. He would cut +across the fields to the west and pass along the outskirts of the farm +of Squire F. A. Williams. Those who saw him wondered why he should take +this long course to the woods, while on the mountain above his home the +oak and beech masts were plentiful and other hunters were going there +for the squirrels. + +About this same time, the wife of Squire Williams noted with pleasure +that Gracie, her youngest daughter--a girl of sixteen with golden hair +and eyes that mirror the blue of the sky--went willingly to the woodlots +for the cows. When she returned with them she was singing, and this, +too, pleased Mrs. Williams. + +The road from Squire Williams' home to the church passes the York home; +and, after the service, as far as his gate, Alvin would often walk with +them. As Gracie was silent and timid when any stranger was near, so +diffident that when on their way home from church she walked far away +from Alvin, the neighbors for a long while had no explanation for +Alvin's squirrel-hunts along the base of the mountain instead of up +toward the top of it; and Mrs. Williams, at her home, heard so many +gunshots off in the woods in the course of a day that she attached no +significance to them. + +But Alvin's and Gracie's meetings along the shaded roadway that leads to +the Williams home were discovered, and Mrs. Williams put a ban upon +them--for Gracie was too young, she maintained, to have thoughts of +marriage. + +The real facts in that mountain courtship are known to but two, and even +now are as carefully guarded as tho the romance had not become a reality +and culminated happily. + +But the neighbors have fragments out of which they build a story, and it +varies with the imagination of the relator. The big Sergeant's +confirmation or denial is a smile and a playful, taunting silence that +leaves conclusion in doubt. + +There is a path that leads from the store around the side of the +mountain that edges a shoulder between the store and the Williams home. +A little off this path is a large flat rock. Around it massive beech +trees grow and their boughs arch into a dome above the rock. There are +carvings on the trunks of those trees that were not found until the rock +was selected as the altar for a woodland wedding at which the Governor +of Tennessee officiated. + +When Gracie would come to the store she passed the York home on her way. +Often, when alone, she would return by the mountain path. It was longer +than by the road, but it was shaded by trees, and as it bends around the +mountain glimpses of the valley could be seen. The rock ledge among the +beech trees was not half way to her home, but it was a picturesque place +to rest, and down below was the roof of the York home and the +spring-branch, as it wound its way to the Wolf River. It was their +favorite meeting-place. + + +When the war broke in Europe, those who lived in the valley gave little +heed to it. When there was talk of the United States' entry, there was +deep opposition. They were opposed to any war. The wounds of the Civil +War had healed, but the scars it left were deep. The thought of another +armed conflict meant more to the old people than it did to the younger +generation. + +"I did not know," Alvin said of himself, "why we were going to war. We +never had any speakings in here, and I did not read the papers closely, +and did not know the objects of the war. I did not feel I wanted to go." + +He had given up his work on the farm and was making more money than he +had ever made before. The shortcut of the Dixie Highway--that part that +runs from Louisville to Chattanooga--had been surveyed and was being +graded through Fentress county. It runs through the "Valley of the Three +Forks o' the Wolf," He was "driving steel on the pike," for his days in +the blacksmith shop had taught him to wield a sledgehammer and many +rocks were to be blasted to make a roadway. For this he was receiving +$1.65 a day, for ten hours' work, while on the farm he had not been able +to earn more than $25 a month, working from "can't see to can't see." + +When he joined the church he had given himself to it unreservedly. They +were holding many meetings and the church was growing. He had become the +Second Elder. At the time, too, he was planning for the day when he +could marry. + +In June following the country's entry into the war Alvin registered for +the draft and in October at Jamestown took his examination. + +"They looked at me, they weighed me," he told on his return, "and I +weighed 170 pounds and was 72 inches tall. So they said I passed all +right!" + +He was with Pastor Pile, and he turned to him: + +"This means good-bye for me. But I'll go." + +After his registration his mother had never ceased to worry over his +going to a war so far away from her. + +The situation troubled him. At times he would see his mother looking +steadily at him, and there was always a sadness in her face. He knew +that she needed him, for the next oldest of the brothers of those who +were at home was only seventeen. But his country had asked him to stand +by and would call him if it needed him. + +The struggle within him lasted for weeks. Then he asked that they seek +no exemption for him. + +In his presence his mother never again referred to his going, but he +would see her troubled face watching him. + +But she talked with the influential men in the valley hoping there would +be some suggestion that would honorably relieve Alvin from the duty of +going. Pastor Pile had gone ahead to see what he could do, and he +learned that those who were "conscientious objectors" would not have to +go. The tenets of his church, he held, were against all wars. Alvin was +an elder; he had subscribed to and was living the principles of his +religion. He hurried home to Mrs. York. + +But the soldier, himself, had to make the plea for exemption, no one +could make it for him. + +Alvin never made it. + +In the middle of November his summons reached him. He had but +twenty-four hours to respond. + +He sent a note to Gracie, telling her his "little blue card" had come +and he asked her to meet him at the church--which always stands open by +the roadside. As they walked toward her home they arranged to meet the +next morning at the rock under the beech trees, when she would leave to +carry the cows to the pasture. And it was there she promised to marry +him--when he returned from the war. + +Men at the store saw Alvin come down from the mountain and he could not +escape some banterings over the success or failure of his early morning +tryst. + +"Jes left it to her," he is said to have frankly confessed, "she can +have me for the takin' when I git back." + +He and his mother were alone in their home for several hours. When he +left he stopped at the Brooks' porch where relatives and neighbors had +assembled. As he walked away he turned, unexpectedly, up the path toward +the rock on the mountainside. It is now known he went there to kneel +alone in prayer. + +When he came down to the store, to the men waiting for him, he spoke +with an assured faith he had not shown before. "I know, now, that I'll +be back," he told them. + +His mother, weeping, tho hiding it from him, had slowly followed as far +as the Brooks' porch. + +Alvin, looking back toward the old Coonrod Pile home, saw her and waved +to her, then hurried to the buggy that was to take him to Jamestown. + +As the grating of the moving buggy wheels on the road reached the Brooks +porch, Mrs. York gave a cry that went to responsive hearts in every home +in that part of the valley. And she secluded herself, and sobbed for +days. + + + +VI +Sergeant York's Own Story + +When Alvin went to war he carried with him a small, red, cloth-covered +memorandum book, which was to be his diary. He knew that beyond the +mountains that encircled his home there was a world that would be new to +him. He kept the little volume--now with broken-back and +worn--constantly with him, and he wrote in it while in camp, on +shipboard and in the trenches in France. It was in his pocket while he +fought the German machine gun battalion in the Forest of Argonne. + +The book with its records was intended for no eyes but his own. Yet +painstaking, using ink, he had headed the volume: "A History of places +where I have been." + +As a whole, the volume would be unintelligible to a reader, for while it +records the things he wished to remember of his camp-life, the trip +through England, his stay in France, and tells in order the "places he +had been," it is made up of swift-moving notes that enter into no +explanatory details. But to him the notations could--even in the evening +of his life--revive the chain of incidents in memory. His handling of +his diary is typical of his mind and his methods. + +To him details are essential, but when they are done carefully and +thoroughly their functions are performed and thereafter they are +uninteresting. They are but the steps that must be taken to walk a given +distance. His mind instead dwells upon the object of the walk. + +When he left his home at Pall Mall he reported to the local recruiting +station at Jamestown, the county seat. He was sent to Camp Gordon near +Atlanta, Ga., and reached there the night of November 16, 1917. His +diary runs: + +"I was placed in the 21st training battalion. Then I was called the +first morning of my army life to police up in the yard all the old +cigarette butts and I thought that was pretty hard as I didn't smoke. +But I did it just the same." + +His history tells in one sentence, of months of his experience in +training with the "awkward squad" and of his regimental assignment: + +"I stayed there and done squads right and squads left until the first of +February, 1918, and then I was sent to Company G, 328 Inf. 82nd Div." + +This was the "All America" Division, made up of selected men from every +state in the Union and in its ranks were the descendants of men who came +from every nation that composed the Allies that were fighting Germany. + +In his notes Alvin records temptations that came to him while at Camp +Gordon: + +"Well they gave me a gun and, oh my! that old gun was just full of +grease, and I had to clean that old gun for inspection. So I had a hard +time to get that old gun clean, and oh, those were trying hours for a +boy like me trying to live for God and do his blessed will. ... Then the +Lord would help me to bear my hard tasks. + +"So there I was. I was the homesickest boy you ever seen." + +When he entered the army Alvin York stood six feet in the clear. There +were but few in camp physically his equal. In any crowd of men he drew +attention. The huge muscles of his body glided lithely over each other. +He had been swinging with long, firm strides up the mountainsides. His +arms and shoulders had developed by lifting hay-ladened pitchforks in +the fields and in the swing of the sledge in his father's blacksmith's +shop. The military training coordinated these muscles and he moved among +the men a commanding figure, whose quiet reserve power seemed never +fully called into action by the arduous duties of the soldier. + +The strength of his mind, the brain force he possessed were yet to be +recognized and tested. And even to-day, with all the experiences he has +had and the advancement he has made, that force is not yet measured. It +is in the years of the future that the real mission of Sergeant York +will be told. + +He came out of the mountains of Tennessee with an education equal to +that of a child of eight or nine years of age, with no experience in the +world beyond the primitive, wholesome life of his mountain community, +with but little knowledge of the lives and customs, the ambitions and +struggles of men who lived over the summit of the Blue Ridge and beyond +the foot-hills of the Cumberlands. + +But he was wise enough to know there were many things he did not know. +He was brave enough to frankly admit them. When placed in a situation +that was new to him, he would try quietly to think his way out of it; +and through inheritance and training he thought calmly. He had the +mental power to stand at ease under any condition and await sufficient +developments to justify him to speak or act. Even German bullets could +not hurry nor disconcert him. + +He was keenly observant of all that went on around him in the +training-camp. Few sounds or motions escaped him, though it was in a +seemingly stoic mien that he contemplated the things that were new to +him. In the presence of those whose knowledge or training he recognized +as superior to his own he calmly waited for them to act, and so accurate +were his observations that the officers of his regiment looked upon him +as one by nature a soldier, and they said of him that he "always seemed +instinctively to know the right thing to do." + +Placed at his first banquet board--the guest of honor--with a row of +silver by his plate so different from the table service in his humble +home, he did not misuse a piece from among them or select one in error. +But throughout the courses he was not the first to pick up a needed +piece. + +His ability to think clearly and quickly, under conditions that tried +both heart and brain, was shown in the fight in the Argonne. With eight +men, not twenty yards away, charging him with bayonets, he calmly +decided to shoot the last man first, and to continue this policy in +selecting his mark, so that those remaining would "not see their +comrades falling and in panic stop and fire a volley at him." + +Military critics analyzing the tactics York used in this fight have been +able to find no superior way for removing the menace of the German +machine guns that were over the crest of the hill and between him and +his regiment, than to form the prisoners he had captured in a column, +put the officers in front and march directly to each machine gun-nest, +compelling the German officers to order the gunners to surrender and to +take their place in line. + +Calm and self-controlled, with hair of copper-red and face and neck +browned and furrowed by the sun and mountain winds, enured to hardships +and ready for them, this young mountaineer moved among his new-found +companions at Camp Gordon. Reticent he seemed, but his answer to an +inquiry was direct, and his quiet blue-eyes never shifted from the eyes +of the man who addressed him. As friendships were formed, his moods were +noted by his comrades. At times he was playful as a boy, using +cautiously, even gently, the strength he possessed. Then again he would +remain, in the midst of the sports, thoughtful, and as tho he were +troubled. + +Back in the mountains he had but little opportunity to attend school, +and his sentences were framed in the quaint construction of his people, +and nearly all of them were ungrammatical. There were many who would +have regarded him as ignorant. By the standards that hold that education +is enlightenment that comes from acquaintance with books and that wisdom +is a knowledge of the ways of the world, he was. But he had a training +that is rare; advantages that come to too few. + +From his father he inherited physical courage; from his mother, moral +courage. And both of them spent their lives developing these qualities +of manhood in their boy. His father hiked him through the mountains on +hunts that would have stoutened the heart of any man to have kept the +pace. And he never tolerated the least evidence of fear of man or beast. +He taught his boy to so live that he owed apology or explanation to no +man. + +While I was at Pall Mall, one of his neighbors, speaking of Alvin, said: + +"Even as a boy he had his say and did his do, and never stopped to +explain a statement or tell what prompted an act. Left those to stand +for themselves." + +And the little mother, whose frail body was worn from hard work and +wracked by the birth of eleven children, was before him the embodiment +of gentleness, spirit and faith. When he came from the hunt into the +door of that cabin home and hung his gun above the mantel, or came in +from the fields where the work was physical, he put from him all feeling +of the possession of strength. When he was with her, he was as gentle as +the mother herself. + +She, too, wanted her son to live in such a way that he would not fear +any man. But she wanted his course through life to be over the path her +Bible pointed out, so that he would not have the impulse to do those +deeds that called for explanation or demanded apology. + +From her he inherited those qualities of mind that gave him at all times +the full possession of himself. Her simple, home-made philosophy was +ever urging her boy to "think clear through" whatever proposition was +before him, and when in a situation where those around him were excited +"to slow down on what he was doing, and think fast." I have heard her +say: + +"There hain't no good in gitting excited you can't do what you ought to +do." + +She had not seen a railroad-train until she went to the capital of +Tennessee to the presentation of the medal of honor given her son by the +people of the state. She came upon the platform of the Tabernacle at +Nashville wearing the sunbonnet of stays she wore to church in the +"Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf." The Governor in greeting her, +lifted off the sunbonnet. His possession was momentary, for Mrs. York +recaptured it in true York style. Her smiling face and nodding head told +that the Governor had capitulated. It was pantomime, for the thousands +were on their feet waving to her and cheering her. Calm and still +smiling, she looked over the demonstration in the vast auditorium more +as a spectator than as the cause of the outburst of applause. Later, at +the reception at the Governor's mansion, guests gathered around her and +she held a levee that crowded one of the big drawing-rooms. Those who +sought to measure wit with her found her never at a loss for a reply, +and woven through her responses were many similes drawn from her +mountain life. + +Under her proctorship the moral courage of her son had developed. In her +code of manhood there was no tolerance for infirmity of purpose, and +mental fear was as degrading and as disintegrating as physical +cowardice. He had been a man of the world in the miniature world that +the miles of mountains had enclosed around him. He had lived every phase +of the life of his people, and lived them openly. When he renounced +drinking and gambling he was through with them for all time. When he +joined the church, his religion was made the large part of the new plan +of his life. + +It was while at Camp Gordon that he reconciled his religious convictions +with his patriotic duty to his country. + +The rugged manhood within him had made him refuse to ask exemption from +service and danger on the ground that the doctrine of his church opposed +war. But his conscience was troubled that he was deliberately on the +mission to kill his fellow man. It was these thoughts that caused his +companions to note his moody silences. + +In behalf of his mother, who, with many mothers of the land, was bravely +trying to still her heart with the thought that her son was on an errand +of mercy, the pastor of the church in the valley made out the strongest +case he could for Alvin's exemption, and sent it to the officers of his +regiment. + +Lieut. Col. Edward Buxton, Jr., and Maj. E. C. B. Danford, who was then +the captain of York's company, sent for him. They explained the +conditions under which it were possible, if he chose, to secure +exemption. They pointed out the way he could remain in the service of +his country and not be among the combat troops. The sincerity, the +earnestness of York impressed the officers, and they had not one but a +number of talks in which the Scriptures were quoted to show the Savior's +teachings "when man seeth the sword come upon the land." They brought +out many facts about the war that the Tennessee mountaineer had not +known. + +York did not take the release that lay within his grasp. Instead, he +thumbed his Bible in search of passages that justified the use of force. + +One day, before the regiment sailed for France, when York's company was +leaving the drill-field, Capt. Danford sent for him. Together they went +over many passages of the Bible which both had found. + +"If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight." + +They were together several hours. At last York said: + +"All right; I'm satisfied." + +After that there was no reference to religious objection. From the first +he had seen the justice of the war. He now saw the righteousness of it. + +York's abilities as a soldier were soon revealed. He quickly qualified +as a sharp-shooter, both as skirmisher and from the top of the trench. +In battalion contest formation, where the soldiers run and fall and +fire, "shooting at moving targets," it was not difficult for him to +score eight hits out of ten shots, and, with a rifle that was new to +him. This, too, over a range that began at 600 yards and went down to +100 yards, with the targets in the shape of the head and shoulders of a +man. In these maneuvers he attracted the attention of his officers. + +The impressive figure of the man with its ever present evidence of +reserve force, the strength of his personality, uneducated as he was, +made him a natural leader of the men around him. Officers of the +regiment have said that he would have received a promotion while in the +training-camp but for the policy of not placing in command a man who +might be a conscientious objector. + +The "All America" Division passed through England on its way to France +and the first real fighting they had was in the St. Mihiel Salient. From +there they went to the Argonne Forest, where the division was on the +front line of the battle for twenty-six days and nights without relief. + +It was in the St. Mihiel Salient that York was made a Corporal, and when +he came out of the Argonne Forest he was a Sergeant. The armistice was +signed a fortnight later. + +The war made York more deeply religious. The diary he kept passed from +simple notations about "places he had been" to a record of his thoughts +and feelings. In it are many quotations from the Bible; many texts of +sermons he heard while on the battlefields of France. With the texts +were brief notes that would recall the sermons to his memory. The book +is really "a history" of his religious development. + +When he would kneel by a dying soldier he would record in his diary the +talk he had with his comrade and would write the passages of Scripture +that he or the dying man had spoken. It was upon this his interests +centered. To others he left the task of telling of the battle's result. + +He wrote in his diary this simple story of his fight with the battalion +of German machine guns: + + +"On the 7th day of October we lay in some little holes on the roadside +all day. That night we went out and stayed a little while and came back +to our holes, the shells bursting all around us. I saw men just blown up +by the big German shells which were bursting all around us. + +"So the order came for us to take Hill 223 and 240 the 8th. + +"So the morning of the 8th just before daylight, we started for the hill +at Chatel Chehery. Before we got there it got light and the Germans sent +over a heavy barrage and also gas and we put on our gas-masks and just +pressed right on through those shells and got to the top of Hill 223 to +where we were to start over at 6:10 A.M. + +"They were to give us a barrage. The time came and no barrage, and we +had to go without one. So we started over the top at 6:10 A.M. and the +Germans were putting their machine guns to working all over the hill in +front of us and on our left and right. I was in support and I could see +my pals getting picked off until it almost looked like there was none +left. + +"So 17 of us boys went around on the left flank to see if we couldn't +put those guns out of action. + +"So when we went around and fell in behind those guns we first saw two +Germans with Red Cross band on their arms. + +"Some one of the boys shot at them and they ran back to our right. + +"So we all ran after them, and when we jumped across a little stream of +water that was there, there was about 15 or 20 Germans jumped up and +threw up their hands and said, 'Comrade.' The one in charge of us boys +told us not to shoot, they were going to give up anyway. + +"By this time the Germans from on the hill was shooting at me. Well I +was giving them the best I had. + +"The Germans had got their machine guns turned around. + +"They killed 6 and wounded 3. That just left 8 and then we got into it +right. So we had a hard battle for a little while. + +"I got hold of a German major and he told me if I wouldn't kill any more +of them he would make them quit firing. + +"So I told him all right. If he would do it now. + +"So he blew a little whistle and they quit shooting and came down and +gave up. I had about 80 or 90 Germans there. + +"They disarmed and we had another line of Germans to go through to get +out. So I called for my men and one answered me from behind a big oak +tree and the other men were on my right in the brush. + +"So I said, 'Let's get these Germans out of here.' One of my men said, +'It's impossible.' So I said, 'No, let's get them out of here.' + +"When my men said that this German major said, 'How many have you got?' + +"And I said, 'I got a plenty,' and pointed my pistol at him all the +time. + +"In this battle I was using a rifle or a 45 Colt automatic pistol. + +"So I lined the Germans up in a line of twos and I got between the ones +in front and I had the German major before me. So I marched them right +straight into those other machine guns, and I got them. When I got back +to my Major's P. C. I had 132 prisoners. + +"So you can see here in this case of mine where God helped me out. I had +been living for God and working in church work sometime before I came to +the army. I am a witness to the fact that God did help me out of that +hard battle for the bushes were shot off all around me and I never got a +scrach. + +"So you can see that God will be with you if you will only trust Him, +and I say He did save me." + + +"By this time," he wrote; "the Germans from on the hill was shooting at +me. 'Well, I was giving them the best I had." + +That best was the courage to stand his ground and fight it out with +them, regardless of their number, for they were the defilers of +civilization, murderers of men, the enemies of fair play who had shown +no quarter to his pals who were slain unwarned while in the act of +granting mercy to men in their power. + +That best was the morale of the soldier who believes that justice is on +his side and that the justness of God will shield him from harm. + +And in physical qualities, it included a heart that was stout and a +brain that was clear--a mind that did not weaken when all the hilltop +above flashed in a hostile blaze, when the hillside rattled with the +death drum-beat of machine gun-fire and while the very air around him +was filled with darting lead. As he fought, his mind visualized the +tactics of the enemy in the moves they made, and whether the attack upon +him was with rifle or machine gun, hand-grenade or bayonet, he met it +with an unfailing marksmanship that equalized the disparity in numbers. + +Another passage in his direct and simple story shows the character of +this man who came from a distant recess of the mountains with no code of +ethics except a confidence in his fellow man. + +Those of the Americans who were not killed or wounded in the first +machine gun-fire had saved themselves as York had done. They had dived +into the brush and lay flat upon the ground, behind trees, among the +prisoners, protected by any obstruction they could find, and the stream +of bullets passed over them. + +York was at the left, beyond the edge of the thicket. The others were +shut off by the underbrush from a view of the German machine guns that +were firing on them. York had the open of the slope of the hill, and it +fell to him to fight the fight. He wrote in his diary when he could find +time, and the story was written in "fox-holes" in the Forest of Argonne, +in the evenings after the American soldiers had dug in. Tho his records +were for no one but himself, he had no thought that raised his +performance of duty above that of his comrades: + +"They killed 6 and wounded 3. That just left 8 and we got into it right. +So we had a hard battle for a little while." + +Yet, in the height of the fight, not a shot was fired but by York. + +In their admiration for him and his remarkable achievement, so that the +honor should rest where it belonged, the members of the American patrol +who were the survivors of the fight made affidavits that accounted for +all of them who were not killed or wounded, and showed the part each +took. These affidavits are among the records of Lieut. Col. G. Edward +Buxton, Jr., Official Historian of the Eighty-Second Division. At the +time of the fight Sergeant York was still a Corporal. + +From the affidavit by Private Patrick Donohue: + +"During the shooting, I was guarding the mass of Germans taken prisoners +and devoted my attention to watching them. When we first came in on the +Germans, I fired a shot at them before they surrendered. Afterwards I +was busy guarding the prisoners and did not shoot. I could only see +Privates Wills, Sacina and Sok. They were also guarding prisoners as I +was doing." + +From the affidavit by Private Michael A. Sacina: + +"I was guarding the prisoners with my rifle and bayonet on the right +flank of the group of prisoners. I was so close to these prisoners that +the machine gunners could not shoot at me without hitting their own men. +This I think saved me from being hit. During the firing, I remained on +guard watching these prisoners and unable to turn around and fire myself +for this reason. I could not see any of the other men in my detachment. +From this point I saw the German captain and had aimed my rifle at him +when he blew his whistle for the Germans to stop firing. I saw Corporal +York, who called out to us, and when we all joined him, I saw seven +Americans beside myself. These were Corp. York, Privates Beardsley, +Donohue, Wills, Sok, Johnson and Konatski." + +From the affidavit by Private Percy Beardsley: + +"I was at first near Corp. York, but soon after thought it would be +better to take to cover behind a large tree about fifteen paces in rear +of Corp. York. Privates Dymowski and Waring were on each side of me and +both were killed by machine gun-fire. I saw Corp. York fire his pistol +repeatedly in front of me. I saw Germans who had been hit fall down. I +saw the German prisoners who were still in a bunch together waving their +hands at the machine gunners on the hill as if motioning for them to go +back. Finally the fire stopped and Corp. York told me to have the +prisoners fall in columns of two's and take my place in the rear." + +From the affidavit by Private George W. Wills: + +"When the heavy firing from the machine guns commenced, I was guarding +some of the German prisoners. During this time I saw only Privates +Donohue, Sacina, Beardsley and Muzzi. Private Swanson was right near me +when he was shot. I closed up very close to the Germans with my bayonet +on my rifle and prevented some of them who tried to leave the bunch and +get into the bushes from leaving. I knew my only chance was to keep them +together and also keep them between me and the Germans who were +shooting. I heard Corp. York several times shouting to the machine +gunners on the hill to come down and surrender, but from where I stood I +could not see Corp. York. I saw him, however, when the firing stopped +and he told us to get along sides of the column. I formed those near me +in columns of two's." + +The report which the officers of the Eighty-Second Division made to General +Headquarters contained these statements: + +"The part which Corporal York individually played in this attack (the +capture of the Decauville Railroad) is difficult to estimate. +Practically unassisted, he captured 132 Germans (three of whom were +officers), took about 35 machine guns and killed no less than 25 of the +enemy, later found by others on the scene of York's extraordinary +exploit. + +"The story has been carefully checked in every possible detail from +Headquarters of this Division and is entirely substantiated. + +"Altho Corporal York's statement tends to underestimate the desperate +odds which he overcame, it has been decided to forward to higher +authority the account given in his own words. + +"The success of this assault had a far-reaching effect in relieving the +enemy pressure against American forces in the heart of the Argonne +Forest." + +In decorating Sergeant York with the Croix de Guerre with Palm, Marshal +Foch said to him: + +"What you did was the greatest thing accomplished by any private soldier +of all of the armies of Europe." + +When the officers of York's regiment were securing the facts for their +report to General Headquarters and were recording the stories of the +survivors, York was questioned on his efforts to escape the onslaught of +the machine guns: + +"By this time, those of my men who were left had gotten behind trees, +and the men sniped at the Boche. But there wasn't any tree for me, so I +just sat in the mud and used my rifle, shooting at the machine gunners." + +The officers recall his quaint and memorable answer to the inquiry on +the tactics he used to defend himself against the Boche who were in the +gun-pits, shooting at him from behind trees and crawling for him through +the brush. His method was simple and effective: + +"When I seed a German, I jes' tetched him off." + +In the afternoon of October 8--York had brought in his prisoners by 10 +o'clock in the morning--in the seventeenth hour of that day, the +Eighty-Second Division cut the Decauville Railroad and drove the Germans +from it. The pressure against the American forces in the heart of the +Argonne Forest was not only relieved, but the advance of the division +had aided in the relief of the "Lost Battalion" under the command of the +late Col. Whittlesey, which had made its stand in another hollow of +those hills only a short distance from the hillside where Sergeant York +made his fight. + +As the Eighty-Second Division swept up the three hills across the valley +from Hill No. 223, the hill on the left--York's Hill--was found cleared +of the enemy and there was only the wreckage of the battle that had been +fought there. + +York's fight occurred on the eighth day of the twenty-eight day and +night battle of the Eighty-Second Division in the Argonne. They were in +the forest fighting on, when the story went over the world that an +American soldier had fought and captured a battalion of German machine +gunners. + +Even military men doubted its possibility, until the "All America" +Division came out of the forest with the records they had made upon the +scene, and with the clear exposition of the tactics and the remarkable +bravery and generalship that made Sergeant York's achievement possible. + +Alvin York faced a new experience. He found himself famous. + + + +VII +Two More Deeds of Distinction + +Alvin was not prepared for the ovations that awaited him. The world +gives generously to those who succeed in an extraordinary endeavor where +the resource and ability of men are in competition. For intellectual +achievement there is deference and wonder, for moral accomplishment +there is approbation and love, but for physical courage there are all of +these and an added admiration that bursts in such fervor of approval +that men shout and toss their caps in air. It has been true, since the +world began. + +The first honors came to him from his soldier associates. Then the men +of other regiments, and the regiments of other nations, wanted to see +the American who single-handed had fought and forced a battalion of +machine gunners to come to him. The people of France, too, were calling +for him. + +It was with a military yardstick the soldiers measured the deed, for +they knew the fighting competency of a single machine gun and had seen +the destructive power of the scythe-like sweep of a battalion of them. +The civilian, in doubt and wonder, realized the magnitude of the +achievement in visualizing the number of prisoners that had surrendered +to one man. + +The only contact Alvin York had had to the role of a man of prominence +was to stand in line, at attention, as persons of importance passed +before him. But when his regiment came out of the Argonne Forest, where +its almost unbroken battle had lasted twenty-eight days, he was taken +from the line and passed in review before the soldiers of other +regiments. Under orders from headquarters of the American Expeditionary +Force he traveled through the war zone. As a guest of honor he was sent +to cities in southern France. In Paris he was received with impressive +ceremonies by President Poincare and the government officials, It was +during this period that many of the military awards were made to him, +and brigade reviews were selected as the occasions for his decoration. + +Against this background of enthusiasm, the tall, reserved, silent +mountaineer, in natural repose, moved through the varying programs of a +day. As all was new to him, he complied with almost childlike docility +to the demands upon him, but he was ever watchful that his conduct +should conform to that of those around him. If called upon to speak, he +responded; and he stood before the cheering crowds in noticeable mental +control. The few words he used did not misfire nor jam. They ended in a +smile of real fellowship that beamed from a rugged face that was +furrowed and tanned, and always with the quaint mountain phrase of +appreciation, "I thank ye!" In the months he remained with the army in +France he grew in personal popularity from his unaffected bearing. + +The letters written home to his mother during this period show him +basically unchanged. + +These letters, usually two a week, were the same as those he had been +writing all the while. In them were but few references to himself. Even +in the privacy of his correspondence with his home, there was not a +boastful thought over a thing that he had done, and only the vaguest +reference to the homage paid to him, as tho it were all a part of a +soldier's life. It was only through others that the mother learned of +the honors given to her son in France. + +At the beginning of each letter he quieted his mother's forebodings for +him, and he turned to inquiries about home. Out of his pay of $30 a +month as a private soldier he had assigned $25 of it to his mother. He +wanted to know that the remittances had reached her. Two brothers had +married and moved away. Henry, the eldest, was living in Idaho, and +Albert in Kentucky. He wanted news of them. Two other married brothers, +Joe and Sam, while still living in the valley, were not at the old home. +He wanted every detail about their crops that told of their welfare. + +His most valuable personal possession was two mules. Were George and Jim +and Robert, the younger brothers, keeping those mules fat? How much of +the farm were they preparing to "put in corn"? Corn was sure to be +scarce and would be worth $2.50 by harvest time! Was Mrs. Embry Wright, +his only married sister, staying with his mother to comfort her? Were +Lilly and Lucy, his little sisters, still helping her with the hard +work--of course they were! And in every letter there was an inquiry +about the sweetheart he had left behind. + +The mother, when each letter had been read, placed it upright on the +board shelf which was the mantel of the family fireplace. When a new +letter came she took down the old one and put it carefully away. So +there was always "some news from Alvin" which was accessible to all the +neighbors. + +"Will" Wright, president of the Bank of Jamestown, received the first +printed story that gave any description of the fight Alvin had "put up" +in the Forest of Argonne, and Mr. Wright hurried to Mrs. York with it. +With the family gathered around her in that hut in the mountains, and +with tears running down her expectant face, she learned for the first +time what her boy had done. She made Mr. Wright read the story--not +once, but seven times. + +America was ready for Sergeant York when among the returning soldiers +his troop-ship touched port--the harbor of New York in May, 1919. The +story of the man had run ahead--his fight in the forest, that had added +to the cubic stature of the American soldier; the artlessness of his +life and the genuineness of his character, which as yet showed no alloy; +the modest, becoming acceptance of illustrious honors paid to him in +France. The people saw in this simple, earnest mountaineer the type of +American that had made America. They thought of him as coming from that +stratum of clay that could be molded into a rail-splitter and, when the +need arose, remodeled into the nation's leader. And quickly and +unexpectedly, Sergeant York was destined to show by two other deeds, +prompted by an inborn eminence, that the esteem was not misplaced. + +In New York and Washington there were receptions and banquets in his +honor, and around him gathered high officials of the army and navy and +the Government, and men who were leaders in civilian life. It was with +impetuous enthusiasm that the people crowded the sidewalks to greet him +as he passed along the streets--the worn service uniform, the color of +his hair, the calm face that showed exposure to stress and hardships, +set in the luxurious leathers of an automobile, surrounded by men so +different in personal attire and appearance, marked him as the man they +sought. There is something in the man that creates the desire in others +to express outwardly their approval of him. At the New York Stock +Exchange business was suspended as the members rode him upon their +shoulders over the floor of the Exchange where visitors are not allowed. +In Washington the House of Representatives stopped debate and the +members arose and cheered him when he appeared in the gallery. + +There were ovations for him at the railroad stations along his way to +Fort Oglethorpe, near Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he was mustered out +of service. + +And in the midst of all of these mental-distracting demonstrations Alvin +York was put to the test. He was offered a contract that guaranteed him +$75,000 to appear in a moving picture play that would be staged in the +Argonne in France and would tell the story of his mountain life. There +was another proposition of $50,000. There were offers of vaudeville and +theatrical engagements that ranged up to $1,000 a week, and totaled many +thousands. On these his decision was reached on the instant they were +offered. The theater was condemned by the tenets of his church, and all +through his youth the ministers of the gospel, whom he had heard, +preached against it. The theater in any form was, as he saw it, against +the principles of religion to which he had made avowal. + +Then up to the surface among those who were crowding around him there +wormed men who saw in Sergeant York's popularity the opportunity for +them to make money for themselves. Some of the propositions that were +made to him were sound, some whimsical, others strangely balanced upon a +business idea--but back of all of them ran the same motive. The past in +Sergeant York's life had been filled with hard work and hardships, the +present was new, the future uncharted, but to him there was something in +the voices of the people who were acclaiming him that was not for sale. + +When he left Fort Oglethorpe for his home, the people of his mountain +country, in automobiles, on horseback, upon mules, whole families riding +in chairs in the beds of farm wagons, met him along the roadway as he +traveled the forty-eight miles over the mountains from the railroad +station to Pall Mall, and they formed a procession as they wound their +way toward the valley. + +Only a few months before, when Alvin had returned home on a furlough +which he secured while in training at Camp Gordon, he had "picked up" a +wagon ride over the thirty-six miles from the railroad station to +Jamestown, and had walked the twelve miles from "Jimtown" to Pall Mall, +carrying his grip. + +His mother was among those who met him at Jamestown. They rode together, +and the last of the long shadows had faded from the "Valley of the Three +Forks o' the Wolf" when they reached their cabin home. + +The next morning, while it was not yet noon, the Sergeant and Miss +Gracie Williams met on "the big road" near the Rains' store. Those +sitting on the store porch--and there was to be but little work done on +the farms that day--saw the two meet, bow and pass on. Pall Mall is but +little given to gossip. Yet there was a strange story to be carried back +to the woman-folk in the homes in the valley and on the mountainsides. + +Only the foxhound, that moved slowly behind his newly returned master, +knew of an earlier meeting that day between Sergeant York and his +sweetheart, and of a walk down a tree-shaded path that had given the +hound time to explore every fence-rail corner and verify his belief that +nothing worth while had been along that road for days. + +But a quiet, uneventful life in the valley was not to return to Sergeant +York. + +The Sunday following was Tennessee's Decoration Day. From the mountains +for miles around the people came to Pall Mall. During the ceremonies, +while the flowers were being placed upon the graves in the little +cemetery, they wanted Alvin to talk to them. He and Gracie were seated +in the empty bed of an unhitched wagon down at the edge of the grove of +forest trees that surrounds the church. He came to the cemetery, and his +talk was the untrammelled outpouring of his heart for all that had been +done for him. The spirit of the day, with his own people around him, his +experiences and the changes that had come into his life since the last +decoration services he had attended there, seemed to move him deeply, +and here was first displayed a power of oratory which he was so rapidly +to develop. + +The people of Tennessee began to gather gifts for him before he left +France, and the Tennessee Society of New York City entertained him when +he left his troop-ship. The people of the South had always remembered +with added reverence that Robert E. Lee had declined to commercialize +his military fame, while some of the other generals of the Confederacy +had sacrificed their reputations upon the altar of expediency. So when +it became known that Sergeant York, with no knowledge of history to +guide him, but acting from principle, had refused to capitalize the +record of the few brief months he had spent in the service of his +country, there was nothing within the gift of the people he could not +have had. + +His welcome home by the State of Tennessee was to be held at the capital +on June 9th. But Sergeant York, before he went to war, had given an +option--one over which he was showing deep concern. His mountain +sweetheart was to "have him for the taking when he got back." So it was +mutually--amicably--arranged that the foreclosure proceedings should +take place in Pall Mall on June 7th, and their bridal tour would be to +Nashville. + +It was an out-of-door wedding so that all of the guests in Pall Mall for +that day could be present, and they came not only from all parts of +Tennessee but from neighboring States. The altar was the rock ledge on +the mountainside, above the spring, under the beech trees that arched +their boughs into a verdant cathedral dome. It had been their +meeting-place when he was an unknown mountain boy and she a +golden-haired school-girl. As the sunlight flickered on the trunks of +those trees it showed scars of knife carvings that carried the dates of +other meetings there. + +The swaying boughs were draped with flags and flowers. The ceremony was +performed by Governor Roberts of Tennessee, assisted by Rev. Rosier +Pile, the pastor of the church in the valley, and Rev. W. T. Haggard, +chaplain-general of the Governor's staff. The bridesmaids were Miss Ida +Wright, Miss Maud Brier and Miss Adelia Darwin, and Sergeant York's best +man was Sergeant Clay Brier, of Jamestown. Their friendship had been +proved upon the fields of France. The wedding march was the wind among +the laurels and the pines. + +The "Welcome Home" for him, at Nashville, by the people of Tennessee, +will long be remembered among the public demonstrations of the State. +Tennessee has always been proud of the fact that the conduct of her sons +in those times when the nation went to war had entitled her to the name +of "The Volunteer State." That one of her sons should come back from the +World War, having done, in the sum of its accomplishment, that which the +Commander of the Armies of the Allies called the greatest feat of valor, +while fighting solely on his own resources, of any soldier of all of the +armies of Europe, made the welcome one that sprang joyously from the +hearts of the people. And that this soldier, while poor and still facing +the possibility of a life filled with the deprivation of poverty, with +no assurance but the continued labor of his hands, should turn down the +offers of fortunes because, to him, they were prompted by a motive that +was unworthy--opened the very inner sanctuary of their hearts and the +people came with gifts, that he should sustain no loss of opportunity +and should never be in need. The offerings were not in money. They were +presents from the people. There were fertile acres that he could till, +as that was his selection of the life he wished to follow. There was a +model, modern house in which he could live, and furnishings for it. +There were blooded fowls and stock and farming implements, down to the +files for his scythe. The donors were individuals, organizations and +communities. Waiting for him was the state's medal which bears the +device "Service Above Self." He was appointed a member of the Governor's +staff and upon him was conferred the rank of Colonel. This was the +wedding trip of Sergeant York and his bride. + +To Nashville, in the bridal party, to see and hear the honors to be paid +her son went Mrs. York, the mother. It was the first time she had ever +seen a railroad-train. And, now, it was Mrs. York's turn. She, too, +faced a battalion. Wearing her calico sunbonnet she came suddenly upon +the gorgeous social battalion--so fully equipped with the bayonets of +class and the machine guns of curiosity. And she captured it! As her son +had never seen the man or crowd of men of whom he was afraid, she, with +her philosophy of life, looked upon everyone as worthy of friendship and +the meeting with them a pleasure and not an occasion for disconcertment. +If they approached her with a greeting of wit, her answer was quick and +gentle, and as playful as a mountain stream. If their mood was serious, +she immediately impressed them with her frankness and her common sense. +She went everywhere the program provided, and enjoyed every moment of +it. As she was preparing to return home her appreciation was expressed +in her declaration that she "intended to come again, when she could go +quietly about and really see things--when policemen would not have to +make way for her." + +Alvin was beginning life anew, decorated with the Distinguished Service +Cross and the rare Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest award of +his country to a soldier; the Medaille Militaire and the Croix de Guerre +with Palm, of France; the Croca di Guerra, of Italy; the War Medal of +Montenegro; the Legion of Honor; medals for gallantry from Tennessee and +the Methodist Centenary, and the Commonwealth of Rhode Island was +beckoning to him, to decorate him with the medal the State's legislature +had voted. There were the gifts the people of Tennessee had given him, +and others that began to come from all sections of the Union. The +mountaineers of the State of Georgia clubbed together and sent a +remembrance--and presents came from the far West. + +Several cities offered him a home if he would come to live among their +people. Communities, wanting him, selected their most desirable farming +sites and tendered them. But the "Valley of the Three Forks o' the Wolf" +was home to him, and while in France he had said he wished to live +"nowhere but at Pall Mall." So the Rotary Clubs, headed by the Nashville +organization, raised the fund for the "York Home" through public +subscription, and there has been given to him four hundred acres of the +"bottom land" of the Valley of the Wolf and one of the timbered +mountainsides--land that had been homesteaded and first brought into +cultivation by "Old Coonrod" Pile, his pioneer ancestor--land that had +remained in the possession of his family until lost in the vicissitudes +of the days following the Civil War. + +As his residence on his new farm was yet to be built for him, he carried +his bride back to the valley and to the little two-room cabin that had +been his mother's and his home. + +It was impossible for Sergeant York to accept all of the invitations he +received to visit cities and address conventions, and he had often to +disappoint delegations who traveled the long, rough mountain road to +urge in person his acceptance. And he could not, with a slow-moving pen +upon a table of pine, answer all the communications that came. Before +the war two letters for him in half a year was an occasion worthy of +comment. Now each day, over the mountains upon a pacing roan, the +postman came, and the mail-pouches, swung as saddle-bags, swayed in +unison with the horse's step. Most of the letters were for the York +home. + +The public mind pays tribute to its heroes in ways that are odd. In the +growing mass of mail that was kept in a wide wooden box under the +bed--letters that in number "had got away" from the Sergeant's ability +to answer--there were displayed many mental idiosyncrasies and an +abundance of advice, and there were many strange requests. Some of them +were pathetic begging letters, as tho the Sergeant were a rich man; some +came from prison-cells, asking his influence to secure a pardon; some +from those still desirous of securing a business partnership with him. +Among them were even belated matrimonial proposals, describing the +writers' attractive qualities. These the big Sergeant teasingly turned +over to the golden-haired girl who, herself, had come but recently into +that home, and they may safely be classed among those letters the +Sergeant could never answer. + +While he was at home, which was now only for brief intervals between +trips in answer to the invitations he had accepted, it was noted that he +was unusually quiet. Often he would sit for an hour or more upon the +door-step, looking out past the arbor of honeysuckle, over the acres of +land that had been given him, gazing on to the mountains. But he kept +his own counsel. Some of those who lived in the valley, who saw him +sitting, thinking, wondered if there had come a longing into Alvin's +heart to be out in the world again. + +But his problem was far from that. He had asked himself two questions: +"What was the great need of the people who live far back in the +mountains?" "What--since the world had been so generous to him, and +lifted from his shoulders the trials of living--could he do for his +people?" He was trying to answer them. Subconsciously, a great and a +genuine appreciation of all that had been done for him was pushing him +onward. + +Unaided, he had solved the first. It was education. How keenly, within +the few months that had passed, had he realized his own need! + +But at that time he did not appreciate how rapidly he was building for +himself a bridge over that shortcoming. + +The second problem he found more difficult. He recognized he could do a +greater good and his efforts would be more lasting and far-reaching if +he proved to be an aid to the younger generation. In his effort to reach +a practical plan he went as far as he could, with his limited knowledge +of organization, before he sought counsel. + +Then he asked that no other gifts be made to him, but instead the money +be contributed to a fund to build simple, primary schools throughout the +mountain districts where there were no state or county tax +appropriations available for the purpose. Of the fund, not a dollar was +to be for his personal use, nor for any effort he might put forth in its +behalf. + +So again the form of Sergeant York rose out of the valley, above the +mountains, and the sunlight of the nation's approval fell upon it. Men +of prominence volunteered to aid him in his efforts for the children of +the mountains, and the result was the incorporation of the York +Foundation, a non-profit-sharing organization, that is to build +schoolhouses and operate schools. Among the trustees are an ex-Secretary +of the United States Treasury, bishops of the churches, a state +governor, a congressman, bankers, lawyers and business men. + + [Footnote: The Trustees of the York Foundation are: Bishop James + Atkins, Methodist Episcopal Church, South; W. B. Beauchamp, + Director-General of the Methodist Centenary, Nashville, Tenn.; George + E. Bennie, President, Alexander Bennie Co., Nashville, Tenn; C. H. + Brandon, President, Brandon Printing Co., Nashville, Tenn.; P. H. + Cain, Cain-Sloan Co., Nashville, Tenn.; Joel O. Cheek, President, + Cheek-Neal Coffee Co., Nashville, Tenn.; James N. Cox, Gainesboro + Telephone Co., Cookeville, Tenn.; Dr. G. W. Dyer, Vanderbilt + University, Nashville, Tenn.; Judge F. T. Fancher, Sparta, Tenn.; + Edgar M. Foster, Business Manager, "Nashville Banner," Nashville, + Tenn.; Judge Joseph Gardenhire, Carthage, Tenn.; T. Graham Hall, + Business Man, Nashville, Tenn.; Hon. Cordell Hull, Chairman of + Democratic National Committee and former Congressman from York's + district; Lee J. Loventhal, Business Man, Nashville, Tenn.; Hon. + William G. McAdoo, former secretary of the United States Treasury, New + York City; Hon. Hill McAllister, State Treasurer, Nashville, Tenn.; J. + S. McHenry, Vice-President, Fourth & First National Bank, Nashville, + Tenn.; Dr. Bruce R. Payne, President, George Peabody College for + Teachers, Nashville, Tenn.; Rev. R. C. Pile, Pall Mall, Tenn.; T. R. + Preston, President, Hamilton National Bank, Chattanooga, Tenn.; Hon. + A. H. Roberts, former Governor of Tennessee, Nashville, Tenn.; Bolton + Smith, Lawyer, Memphis, Tenn.; Judge C. E. Snodgrass, Crossville, + Tenn.; Dr. James I. Vance, First Presbyterian Church, Nashville, + Tenn.; Hon. George N. Welch, former State Commissioner of Public + Utilities, Nashville, Tenn.; F. A. Williams, Farmer, Pall Mall, Tenn.; + S. R. Williams, Farmer, Pall Mall, Tenn.; W. L. Wright, President, + Bank of Jamestown, Pall Mall, Tenn., and Sergeant Alvin C. York.] + +The fund is already a substantial one, steadily growing, and success is +assured. + +In connection with each school is to be land to be tilled by the +students as a farm, and besides providing instruction in agriculture, +the farm is to aid in the support of the school, and no child of the +community is to miss the opportunity to attend through inability to pay +the tuition charge. As each unit becomes self-supporting, another school +is to be established in a new district. + +In this new endeavor, Alvin wished to do what he could to shield the +boys now at play among the red brush upon the mountainsides from being +compelled to say, after they had grown to young manhood, what he himself +had been forced to confess: "I'm just an ignorant mountain boy." + +And he is making rapid strides of progress for himself. I saw him enter +the great banquet room of a leading hotel in one of the country's +largest cities. The hall was filled with men and women of refinement and +culture. As Sergeant York and his young wife entered, the banqueters +arose and cheered them. This demonstration was a welcome to "Sergeant +York, the soldier." + +He paused, with a smile of appreciation as he looked over the vast +assemblage, and he bowed with a grace and dignity far beyond that which +was expected of him from what his audience had read and heard. Then +without turning his head, he reached for the hand of his bride and led +her to the speakers' table upon a raised platform. And he was again to +bring that assemblage to its feet and fill that hall with its cheers. +This time it was for Alvin York, the man--as he talked to them about the +boys of the mountains. + +Three days afterward, he entered the store of John Marion Rains at Pall +Mall. As all the chairs and kegs of horseshoes were occupied, he put his +hands behind him, swung himself to a place of comfort upon the counter, +and took his part in the battle of wit as the firing flashed amid the +tobacco smoke. Pall Mall was home, and there he permitted no distinction +between individuals. + +This has wandered far afield as a biography of Sergeant York. It is but +a story of the strength and the simplicity of a man--a young man--whom +the nation has honored for what he has done, with something in it of +those who went before and left him as a legacy the qualities of mind and +heart that enabled him to fight his fight in the Forest of Argonne. The +biography no doubt will be written later. He has not planned for the +long years that lie ahead, but is following after a principle with a +force that can not be deflected or checked. The future alone will tell +where this is to lead him. This is really a story of but two years of +his life--the period of time that has elapsed since Alvin York first +found himself--a period in which he has done three things, and anyone of +them would have marked him for distinction. He fought a great fight, +declined to barter the honors that came to him, and using his new-found +strength he has reached a helping hand to the children of the mountains +who needed him. + + +PALMAM QUI MERUIT FERAT! +[Let him bear the palm who has deserved it!] + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Sergeant York And His People, by Sam Cowan + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERGEANT YORK AND HIS PEOPLE *** + +***** This file should be named 19117.txt or 19117.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/1/1/19117/ + +Produced by Don Kostuch + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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