Rosier Pile went on to become the church's pastor. Blessed with a melodious singing voice, York became the song leader and a Sunday School teacher at the local church. Though raised Methodist, York joined the Church of Christ in Christian Union and in the process convinced one of his best friends, Rosier Pile, to join as well. Delk's senseless death convinced York that he needed to change his ways or suffer a fate similar to his fallen comrade, which prompted him to attend the prayer meeting.Ī strict fundamentalist sect with a following limited to three states-Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee-the Church of Christ in Christian Union espoused a strict moral code which forbade drinking, dancing, movies, swimming, swearing, popular literature, and moral injunctions against violence and war. Russell of the Church of Christ in Christian Union. In that year two significant events occurred: his best friend, Everett Delk, was killed in a bar fight in Static, Kentucky and he attended a revival conducted by H.H. Drinking and gambling in borderline bars known as "Blind Tigers," York was generally considered a nuisance and someone who "would never amount to anything." That reputation underwent a serious overhaul when York experienced a religious conversion in 1914. (York spent money when he had it, gave it away to other people who he believed needed it, and invested poorly).Īs York came of age he earned a reputation as a deadly accurate shot and a hell raiser. As a result, York had little experience with managing money and later suffered from chronic fiscal problems. Prior to the advent of the World War, York was employed as a day laborer on the railroad near Harriman. York's father, William York (who died in 1911), also acted as a part time blacksmith to provide some extra income for the family. Living in a region that saw little need for education, York had a grand total of nine-months schooling at a subscription school he attended in his youth. The third oldest of a family of eleven children, the York family eked out a hardscrabble existence of subsistence farming supplemented by hunting, and York became a competent marksman at an early age. Quite literally having never traveled more than fifty miles from his home, York's war experience served as an epiphany awakening him to a more complex world. Born Decemin a two-room dogtrot log cabin in Pall Mall, Tennessee, and raised in a rural backwater in the northern section of Fentress County, York was a semi-skilled laborer when drafted in 1917. Known as the greatest hero of World War I, York avoided profiting from his war record before 1939. The Legends and Traditions of the Great War: Sergeant Alvin York
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