rk, 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 th