Sergeant York And His People

by Sam K. Cowan

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.]