Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-30
FORK STILL A HERO
NO TENNESSEANS
Sergeant's Chief Interest Is
in the School He
Founded.
Written Exclusively for The Evening star
and North American Newspaper Alliance.

JAMESTOWN. Tenn. September 90.
For 10 years Sergt. York has never
been allowed to forget he is hero.
Since he put a battalion of Germans
out Of the war the big mountaineer has
found himself the center of every circle
And, like every one whom the spot
light follows over the stage. Sergt.
York has grown able to stare back into
its glitter without blinking.
Reporters he admits, still see him
often. Tourists stop every day for
look at the one-time soldier. who has
reached 40 years and $40 pounds, and
has fathered four children.
There used to be sign next TO his
home explaining why Pail Mall, Tenn,
was famous. but 1t has been taken down.
Everybody around here knows where
I live" the sergeant says.
As matter of fact, everybody does.
Miles away, across the Kentucky line,
he is called by his first name Even
there he has friends and foes on a per.
eonal basis.
We don't pay no attention to Alvin.
He pokes his nose into everybody's buSi-
ness" volunteered a hostile neighbor,
q youth who left the shade of the drug
! store in Albany. KY. to pass the time
of day with strangers. Their mud
covered automobile, an arrival through
the help of several mules, was the only
traffic In sight, and conversations were
easy to start.
Just Seven and Six
The general storekeeper at Albany
!, gNve his verdict in terms of shillings
and pence, as if before the Revolution.
Hes just seven and Six the Ken
tuckian opined; l. e., "he just the same
as ever"
To be fair, the sergeant made enemies
through his finest aforementioned
ing school 1t is the Alvin G. York
Agricultural Institute, at Jamestown,
the county seat nearest Pail Mall.
Another Institution with strikingly
similar name, the Alvin c. York In
dustrial Institute, is being allowed to die
quietly. Sergeant" as all his friends
call him, let 1t be known that he dis
approved of the moral situation at the
school, including dances, and withdrew
the use of his name. Or such is the
story of Mrs. Suva Sells, owner of the
4; City Cafe at jamestown and the SER
geant's most loyal partisan, Others
mention more practical items, especially
mix-ups in real estate and financing.
Of herself Mrs. Sells recountS how
Nhe excluded whole lumber crew from
room and board because the advance
agent spoke slightingly of the sergeant
She allowed the erring lumberman to
finish breakfast, however, before kicking
him out, and breakfast at Mrs. Sells,
If one eats at ALL takes the best part Of
an hour.
Mrs. Sells has lust added the novelty
of bathroom to her establishment.
Such elegance bespeaks the prosperity
that has swept over Fentress County
because 10 years ago. and more than
5000 miles away Alvin York captured
1872 Germans.
Roads Named for Him.
One of the several York highways,
State road from the South, is the OPEN
ing by which the modern world has
crept into the rampartS of the York
country. An extension will soon reach
up through Kentucky, and branch
heading toward Nashville has been !
vouched for. !
!. So, with the daily train still miles !
away by muleback. jamestown has its
truckloadS of ice, cream and its travel
ing statesmen =. whose groceries and |
And Pail Mall is only 10 miles from |
Jamestown over a high-speed road.
It was impossible for York, who had |
been dined by millionaires and kissed !
by generaliSSimos, to settle back into
the rut worn deep by his i)refathers. |
Even supposing that he himself during
war years had never been nowfar and
seen nothin'," the rut was covered with
a concrete pavement, named in his
honor. And his admirers gave, him MOI
chance of returning TO the old farm
life like Cincinnatus.
Instead they settled him with his
bride on 400 acres of bottom land 'front.'
ing on the York Trail Flivvers honk |
past under the windows of the new
frame house. Sergeant, to whom 1t was
once. as natural to outhank German
battalion as to stalk arturkey lives there
in telephone contact with his private
secretary.
OF course. he had temptations by the
dozens to draw on his fame for cash.
Like Lindbergh, he turned down every
jecteJ $4,000 of movie money and
$4,000 week preferred by vaudeville.
He refused to pose with a certain make
OF machine gum a photograph that
would have brought him $4,000.
Diary Lifted Mortgage.
HIS farm was given to him through
a civic club in Nashville, niortgaged
after a fire, and finally freed of debt
by the market value of his diary. Sew
eral of his brothers take care of it,
though York himself remarked as one
of them walked past, He does all the
work around the place"
The sergeant is frankly concerned
with the responsibilities of the York
Agricultural Institute, of which he is
president There have been trips to
New York and luncheons with men like
the younger Rockefeller. York has
raised thousands of dollars on tour,
and he. is listed this season by lee
tire bureau . - ~ rs
Four boys and his wife. Mrs. Oracle
williams York, make up the sergeant'S
family. The youngest is only 5 months
old.
YOU'D better come on III here to
your boy" the sergeant called to
"Gracie" when visitors dropped III on
a hot day, and little Sam Houston York
set Up caterwauling.
woodrow Wilson York, barely B., got
hold Of a baby bird during the visit
and set about to analyze the pfenome-
non. Alvin c. York, jr., who IS Z AM
George Edward Burton York, 5, gave
advice on how to handle the captive's
legs until the seageant himself inter-
coded for It's life -
Apart from the war, York had reason
to name his third child for the Presi-
Cent. He IS chairman of the Fentres.
County Democratic Committee and
member Of an old Democratic family.
Davy Crockett Recalled.
The sergeant's great-grandfather,
Coonrod York, hunted squirrels with
Davy Crockett. He himself. it will be
remembered, won his spurs with rifle
s1d pistol, Cunning remains his ia
vor1te sport. The natives hold occa-
slonal turkey shoots using til. head
for target at so yards, the body at 200.
Coonrod York, the first settler IN