The Life and Times of Brantley York ....: From a History of Jonesville, NC

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

From a History of Jonesville, NC

Brantley York (1805-1891), a Methodist circuit preacher and lecturer at the Jonesville Academy, established his headquarters in Jonesville. From here, York rode a bi-weekly two-hundred mile circuit throughout the region. He is credited with starting the Olin Institute at Union Grove, York Institute at Hiddenite and the Union Institute at Trinity, near High Point. The Trinity-Union Institute was moved to Durham (later to be re-named Duke University). York opened numerous high schools in North Carolina, including Clemmonsville High School. His autobiography is edited by Jonesville's Charles Mathis.

-- Notable Citizens

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From settlement schools to regional institutes and academies, from Trinity College to Duke University ....

"It is probable that Brantley York organized more schools than any other man in America. In the villages and in the backwoods, in log cabins and in churches, in parlors and in hotels, on farms and under clear skies, he organized his grammar classes. From Morehead City to Asheville, from Columbia, South Carolina, to Danville, Virginia, in Tennessee and Arkansas, he taught youth and old age the principles of the mother tongue. He wrote his own textbooks and published them at his own expense."

"In education, he was a real circuit rider."

The Author

Charles G. Mathis: Former newspaper editor, writer, local historian; Publicity Director for the North Carolina Society of Historians; secretary of Jonesville Historical Committee; edited The Autobiography of Brantley York, Amanuensis Two edition, upon which this blog is based. Mathis has compiled family genealogy files and photo-journals (Precious Memories, Marked For Remembrance, Passing On, Pulling Teeth & Extracting History); produced extensive displays of local history; published the history of his congregation, The Little Church In Jonesville, A Bicentennial Account of Jonesville's First United Methodist, which received the 2001 Religious History Book Award of the North Carolina Society of Historians.