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The day of prosperity and religious contentment at Pall Mall lasted
until the coming of the Civil War.
Fentress county had contributed its pro rata of volunteers to the
conflict with Mexico, and Uriah York, 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.
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