Uriah And Eliza Jane Livingston York

Uriah And Eliza Jane Livingston York

Uriah York was born about 1825. It has not been documented as to who was his father. Some say John, some Thomas. Could it be John Thomas? The Fentress Colmtv census has no John, but has a Thomas. Cowan in Sgt. York and His People says the Yorks came to Fentress County from North Carolina and that Uriah is the son of John from Buncombe County, N.C. The Yorks settled first on Indian Creek, where they farmed, There Uriah started one of the first schools in Fentress County. He used two books - "the Blue-backed Speller" and the Bible. His brothers and sisters are unknown by the author.

He married Eliza Jane Livingston about 1850. She is the daughter of Thomas and Sarah Livingston. Her father was born January 31, 1802 in Ky. and her mother was born about 1800 in N.C. Eliza Jane was born about 1830 in Fentress County, Tennessee. Her brothers and sister are: Thomas Elliott, Celia, Jesse, John, Malissa and Peyton.

Uriah and Eliza Jane had five children: Celia, John W., William, George and Bates. Celia, born May 24, 1858, married Francis Marion (Head) Hatfield; John W. born about 1860, died August, 1924; William, born May 15, 1863 at Pall Mall, Tennessee, married Mary Elizabeth Brooks on December 25, 1881, he died November 17, 1911; George, born about 1865, married Harriet Jennings, he died December 20, 1898; Bates born October 6, 1868 in Ky., married first Emma Crabtree, second, Nora Carter, then Eva Green, he died July 14, 1922.

Uriah was a veteran of the Mexican War where he took part in the storming of the heights of Chaputtepec and the capture of Mexico City. He was a soldier on the Union side during the Civil War. While he was home sick he heard that the Southern Bushwhackers were coming to the house of his father-inlaw in Jamestown where he was staying. He arose from his sick bed and fled in a sleet and rain storm to "Rock Castle". He died there from the exposure and is buried somewhere in the "Cove" in an unmarked grave.

Eliza Jane raised her family alone. She is buried in the Livingston Cemetery at Jamestown, Tennessee. Lucy York Rains can remember going with her mother, Marv Brooks York to decorate her grave, but it is unmarked, therefore, lost forever to her many relatives.

William, the third child of Uriah and Eliza Jane Livingston York, was the father of eleven children including my mother, Lucy York Rains, and Sgt. Alvin C. York of World War I fame.

by Lorene Rains Cargile

 

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Posted with permission from Curtis Media Corporation
This page was last updated on 03/27/99.