BIOGRAPHIES:  Miami Sylvester YORK, Waterville, Pepin Co., WI

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Submitted by Nance Sampson, Pepin Co. Archives File Manager on 19 November 2004
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**Posted for informational purposes only - submitter is not related to the
subject of this biography and has no further information.

Miami Sylvester York (deceased) was born at Scio, Allegany county,
N. Y., July 27, 1822, and died at Waterville, December 18, 1888.  He
was a son of Barnabas and Ruth (Rathbon) York, the former probably of
English descent.  He came of a long-lived family noted for their
honorable and upright character.  The subject of this sketch spent
his boyhood in his native town and McKean county, Pa.  He attended
school but little, but by home study became an intelligent and well-
informed man.  At the age of twenty-eight he was accidentally injured
at a Fourth of July celebraion, receiving a wound on the head, the
scar of which he carried through life, and on another occasion he
came nearly being killed by a falling tree, but was saved under
circumstances which he always believed to be miraculous.  His mother
died when he was but eleven years old.  November 1, 1843, he married
Lydia Maria, daughter of Naboth B. and Freelove (Coats) Welch.  Mrs.
York was born in Otsego county, N. Y.  Her paternal grandparents,
Naboth and Amy (Crandall) Welch, were natives of Connecticut.  Her
maternal grandparents, Ambrose and Tacy (Partlow) Coats were Scotch. 
Seven children blessed this union, the two first mentioned being
twins:  William S., Welcome S., Barnabas, Charles, Maria A. (Mrs. J.
W. Hewitt), Milton H. and Nellie J.

In 1863 Mr. York made a visit to Eau Claire, and the following year
removed his family to Durand, where he worked on the river.  He was
an expert chopper and was engaged in lumbering for a number of years,
both in this and his native state.  Later he was engaged in faring
and lived successively in Dead Lake Prairie, in Frankfort township,
at Maple Springs, Dunn county, in Waubeek, and since 1885 in
Waterville.  At an early age he became an expert hunter, and was one
of the best marksmen in northern Wisconsin.  With one gun he killed
over eighty deer and several bears.  He also spent considerable time
as a book canvasser.  In politics he was formerly a republican, but
later became a prohibitionist.  He werved the town of Frankfort as
supervisor, and was a justice of the peace.  He was a member of the
Methodist church, and of the following societies:  the I. O. G. T.,
Temple of Honor, I. O. O. F. and P. of H.  He was very sociable and
fond of music, and played the fife, drum and violin.  He was often
called upon to speak in public and at social gatherings, his remarks
being original and entertaining, sometimes poetical.  A large circle
of friends mourned his demise.

-Transcribed from the "Historical & Biographical Album of the
Chippewa Valley Wisconsin, 1891-2," pages 738-739.


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