The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1919-05-23
BY FREDERIC j. AASKIN.
In the Chicago Daily News

In the Chicago Daily News
Nashville, Tenn.-He began his mil
ftary career rs Il religious conscien-
tiouS Ohiector. He was convinced of
the need for killing Germans by argu-
ments drawn from the Bible. And he
acted on this conviction by killing "a
Germans in Il machine u nest, with
his rifle. and capturing, with five as
%sistants. 132 Of the enemy, including
four officers.
This achievement Of Corporal York,
which has been called by General Per.
shing The greatest single exploit Of
the war, has become famous, but the
man himself remains unknown. And
surely such Il man deserves 70 be eX-
planned. You want To know what sort
Of a chap he is. and what environment
fostered such a combination OF moral
courage and physical skill.
The answer to these questions is
found here I'm the section that pro-
duced Corporal York. 1t may be stated
In a sentence by saying that York be-
longs 10 the vanishing race Of old
Americans. Men who were just like
him In their faith I'm God, their courage
and their straight shooting won the
Revolution and several subsequent
wars.
OF Pure American Breed.
Such men have become scarce In
America now. New breeds have come
In and the old breed has been changed
by changing conditions. But there Is
one section of America in which the
old American race still breeds true to
type, and more than that still lives
almost as 1t lived when the Boones-
borO men threw down their axes, took
their rifles and went out TO. extermi-
nate General FergusOn's command at
Kings mountain.
The section referred TO Is the south
ern Allegheny mountain region. The
place where Corporal York was born
and lived all his life until he was called
TO war, Is a typical bit Of II. His
home post office is Pail Mall, Fentress
county, Tennessee, about 100 miles
east Of this city. There Is nothing at
Pail Mall except the post office, and
the three forks of the Wolf river,
which come together there. On all
sides are the wooded ridges of the AL
legheny mountains. Until two years
ago II was 81 miles to the nearest rail-
road. Many men who went to war
from this section say a railroad train
for the first time when they answered
H. col 80 IT, oil ~NDnNn NM
purposes they stepped out Of the eight.
zenith century and into the twentieth.
That Is what Corporal York did.
Region Where Clemens Vas Born.
All the people In this region are Of
| Scotch, English, Welsh and Irish stock.
Their ancestors came down through
the mountains from Virginia and North
Carolina In colonial days, and the
lands have beer held by the same fam
lilies ever since. One Of these families
Is the Clemens family, which produced
Mark Twain. He was born at James
town, the county seat of Fentress cOun-
ty. His father owned large areas Of
land near there. which he sold and
traded about In such a way as to i'm
mortalize his name, for they are still
trying to straighten out the titles TO
the Clemens lands, and the old mans
dealings promise to furnish occupation
for many more generations of law
yers.
York is the third from the top"
as they say down here, in a family Of
nine children, and is twenty-seven
years Did. His father having died,
and his two older brothers married, he
became the head Of the family and
took care of his mother and the fam
lily homestead. He once described him
self as being "a kind of a mommer's
boy"
He is not, however, given to describ-
ing himself at length. In this country
where people never talk much unless
they are running for Office. the YOrks
had q reputation for silence. His ia
ther is said often to have gone through
a whole day I'm the company Of a friend