Some Early York family history and possible family connection ?
This from York's diary:
"My grandpap on my mother's side, William Brooks, was a Northerner. He came down with the cavalry from Detroit, Michigan, and after the war he got into it with some bushwhackers. There was no law and everybody toted a gun. And they said he shot down one of their leaders; (Pres Huff) but they never proved it. But they killed him just the same. They hooked him to a mule and dragged him through the streets of Jamestown, the county seat, and they shot him to pieces."
York's Maternal Grandmother:
**Nancy (Pile) Brooks was a local girl that William Brooks went AWOL from the service for and married. Nancy's brother Jeff Pile, was murdered enroute to visit their brother Rod Pile.**
**There were tensions stemming from the Civil War near the Kentucky / Tennessee border. Nancy Pile's brother, Rod, a non-combatant but a northern sympathizer, was captured by the Confederates. The war-feuds of Fentress County did not end with the ending of the war.**
** Pres Huff (Possibly AKA Preston Hough) was found murdered after he had threatened William Brooks, who was Jeff Pile's brother-in-law. Brooks disappeared from the Tennessee valley and Nancy (Pile) Brooks followed his path north.**
**Months later a letter that Nancy (Pile) Brooks had mailed home to Tennessee, letting her family know that "she and her husband were at a logging camp in the woods of northern Michigan" was intercepted. Brooks was arrested and extradited from Michigan to Tennessee where he was subjected to vigilante justice, being dragged through town tied to a donkey and shot multiple times.
Originally I had some of this from the book "Sergeant York and his people" and when trying to help my Sister follow our family tree. But we were coming from a different angle tracking a Ely Hatfield as she was looking in to our families Hatfield & McCoy connection.
The Michigan courthouse working on this end is near me in St. Johns, in Clinton County, (next county north). They brought attention to the name William Brooks being an alias for William W. Herrington.
The name Ely Hatfield is included on some of these documents. He was spotted by my Sister in her research as being married in my Mothers home town of Pikeville Kentucky, Pike County. Ely Hatfield having married Anna (Evans) Hatfield on 9/20/1827 in Pike Co., KY.
But after my Sisters early passing in 2010 the trail ran cold. I had bookmarked links she had passed on to me, but many of the links with in are now no longer.
Is there a odd family tie to Alvin York? That question will likely never be answered, but I'd have to say we weren't looking for that answer.
If interested I do have this Bloggers Link where they visited The Alvin C. York Historic Site where Sergeant York's son, Andrew Jackson York, is the ranger. Upon learning the Blogger was from Michigan he shared quite a bit about his connection with Michigan because of his maternal grandfather, William Brooks.
It's worth reading if you've made it this far: Detour Through History: Sergeant York and His Michigan Ancestor
York's Diary: https://acacia.pairsite.com/Acacia.V...r%208th%201918
@Aragorn243,
Thanks for the thread it brought back some memories spent with Sis :thup:
FWIW
