Obit of Young, William Allison - Roger Mills County, Oklahoma Submitted by: Wanda Purcell 05 Nov 2006 Return to Roger Mills County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/rogermills/rogermills.html ========================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ========================================================================== ::Fairlawn Cemetery--?? Surnames: Young, Blackburn, Hopkins, JKester, Brumbrack Originally posted at: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/5YB.2ACE/6810 PIONEER RESIDENT OF ROGER MILLS PASSES With the passsing of W.A. Young, the Cheyenne and Arapaho country loses one of its most colorful characters and one who has played an important part in making the history of the counry. A large crowd from Cheyenne and vicinity and all parts of the county were present at the funeral in Elk City Monday afternoon, to pay tribute to one of the pioneers of the county. An account of the life of Mr. Young, as it appears in the Elk City Daily News, follows; William Allison Young, 92 years old, pioneer ranchman, frontiersman and Civil War veteran, died at his home in Elk City early Sunday, December 1, 1935. Funeral services were conducted at the First Christian Church. Burial with military honors were made in Fairlawn Cemetery. The pioneer ranchman, one of the best known figures in Western Oklahoma had been in ill health for more than three years. He came to Elk City in 1932 when he retired from active ranch life in Roger Mills County and with Mrs. Young made his home here with his daughter, Mrs. Verna Blackburn. Of English descent, his ancestors having come to America in 16800 from England. Mr. Young had lived the life of a soldier under the Union flag during the war between the states; and a mail guard in the days when the Stage coaches made their perilous way acrosss the plains of Western Kansas; as a guard over hostile Indians straining against military bonds in New Mexico; as a trail driver in moving cattle herds to the Texas Panhandle; and as a ranchman in the Panhandle and in Western Oklahoma. Native of Indiana Born November 6, 1843 in Johnson County, Indiana he was believed to be Elk City's oldest resident. When seven years of age he accompanied his parents to Missouri, later moving to Kansas, near the present site of the state capital, Topeka. At the outbreak of the Civil War he joined the Union army and advanced to the rank of sergeant. He remained in the west during the war, guarding the mail coaches through Colorado and New Mexico and escorting wagon trains enroute to California. He also served as a member of the cavalry guard at Fort Sumneer, N M placed there to hold in check 9,000 hostile Indians. On Janurary 1, 1867 he was married to Elizabeth Hopkins at Wakarus, Kan. with whom he hads hoped to celebrate his 69th wedding anniversay New Yeatrs Day. The story of his life reads like a page from Horaltio Algier--the poor boy who met riches. At the time of their marriage, Mr. Young's worldly possessions consisted of one horse, one steer and a wagon. With that start he built into one of the early day cattle fortunes in Western Oklahoma. Mr. and Mrs. Young crossed the plains to Colorado in 1872, traveling by wagon with their two sons. During the summers of 1876-78 he rode with the Goodnight, Cresswell and Pollard herds from Colorado to the Texas Panhandle and saw the beginning of his fortune in his interest in the herds. In 1882 he sold his cattle for $35,000 cash range delivery and returned to Kansas. Then came the opening of the Cheyenne-Arapaho country and in 1892 he moved to Roger Mills County to establish the Y-Cross Ranch on Dead Indian Creek nine miles north of Cheyenne. His holdings then were valued at $100,000. Had 5,000 acre Ranch The ranch included approximately 5,000 acres. It was the same territory on which he had established a horse ranch in 1880. During his early ranch days. Mr. Young carried a gun as a man would wear his hat, but he always recalled he never fired a shot at a man or was ever shot at. The code of the West held him during his lifetime. He had only the greatest contempt for dishonesty, evasion of debts and littleness in dealing. He never gambled and was never intoxicated. This was the code he followed during the 60 years he sat in the saddle. These are Survivors He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Hopkins Young, Elk City; three sons, Clyde of Cheyene, Poy C. of Tulare, Calif. and Leon of Strong City; a daughter, Mrs. Verna Blackburn, Elk City; two brothers, James W. Young of Crawford and S.P. Young of Eskridge, Kan.; two sisters, Mrs. Jennie Jester and Mrs. Clarie Brumbrack of Eureka Springs, Ark; a daughter-in- law, Mrs. Mattie Young of Oklahoma City; nine grandchildren and nine great grandchildren. One son, Guy Young, preceded him in death about forty years ago. Cheyenne Star, Cheyenne, OK 5-Dec-1935 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to Roger Mills Archives http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/rogermills/rogermills.html