The house pictured below was given to Sergeant York by the Nashville Rotary Club,
following his return from the European battlefields of World War I. York, his wife, Gracie
and son, Alvin, Jr. moved in on Valentine's Day, 1922. Some renovations to the home
have taken place over the years, including
the addition of a large front porch in 1961, to accomodate York's wheelchair. The
home, which is now preserved as the Sergeant York Museum, is open for public visits.
The following several pictures show memorabilia that are on display inside York's home
A picture of Gracie York hangs on the wall in this picture from the living room.
This is a picture of the old family grist mill, where Sergeant York worked. It was
conveniently located almost directly across the road from his home.
On September 2, 1964, Alvin York passed away at Veterans Hospital in Nashville, following
a series of health problems. He is buried next to his wife Gracie in a quiet cemetary
in the town of Pall Mall.
From the cemetary in which Sergeant York is buried, you get a true sense of tranquility when you look around at the surrounding hills. Feelings of pride,
awe and patriotism rise in your heart when you remember that many years ago, in the
dark days of World War I, a young man from the country named Alvin York took to the hills to
wrestle with his conscience and to search for a peaceful resolution between his
Christian values and the "un-Christian" realities of war.
Shortly after going into the Army, and while still in the states, York once remarked to his
Captain, "I'll keep being a soldier if I have to. I'll go overseas. I'll even kill
Germans if you order me to. But I don't believe in killing nohow, and it worries me
plenty." Shortly afterwards, York applied for leave and received a ten-day pass.
Alvin returned to his home in Pall Mall and prayed with his mother about his conflicted
feelings regarding the war. Yet, his heart and mind were still heavy. "Then,"
according to John Perry in his book Sgt.York, "[York] recalled a place he knew
in the mountains above the river where he might be able to think matters through. From
there he could see the valley in a single sweep and hear nothing but the water and the
wind. Because it was a long climb, hardly anyone ever went up there. It was where
he had thought and wished and dreamed about Gracie, and where he sorted through his
feelings about religion after making the vows that changed his life so completely one
still New Year's morning. He left his mother's cabin for the hillside, climbing higher
and higher up the northeastern face of the valley wall until he reached a rock ledge
below two huge, flat-sided limestone boulders sitting upright, side by side near the
top of the ridge. ... There Alvin knelt on a patch of grass and began to pray." In
York's own words, these are the events that followed:
"As I prayed there alone, a great peace kind of come into my soul and a great calm come
over me, and I received my assurance. He heard my prayer and He come to me on the
mountainside. I didn't hear Him, of course, but he was there just the same. I knowed
he was there. he understood that I didn't want to be a fighter or a killing man, that
I didn't want to go to war to hurt nobody nohow. And yet I wanted to do what my country
wanted me to do. I wanted to serve God and my country too. He understood all of this.
He seen right inside me, and He knowed I had been troubled and worried, not because
I was afraid, but because I put Him first, even before my country, and I only wanted
to do what would please Him.
So He took pity on me and He gave me the assurance I needed. I didn't understand
everything. I didn't understand how he could let me go to war and even kill and
yet not hold it against me. I didn't even want to understand. It was His will and
that was enough for me. So at last I begun to see the light. I begun to understand
that no matter what a man is forced to do, so long as he is right in his own soul
he remains a righteous man. I knowed I would go to war. I knowed I would be protected
from all harm, and that so long as I believed in Him He would not allow even a hair
on my head to be harmed."(Sgt York, pp. 30-31)
Alvin York later returned to his home in Pall Mall as the most decorated veteran
of World War I. His heroics are detailed in a number of books, including the
one by John Perry entitled, Sgt York (His Life, Legend and Legacy).
Here are a few more passages from John Perry's book:
"As he went about his duties, York continued his musings over a Chrisitan soldier's
position as both a defender of the faith and killer of his fellowman. He was no
longer worried about his own safety on the battlefield or about his soul. But what
a Christian soldier should worry about, the private wrote in his diary, was all
the men who 'passed out into the Deep of an unknown world and has left no testimony
as to the welfare of their souls.'
'There is no use of worrying a bout Shells," the diary entry went on, 'for you
cant keep them from busting in your trench nor you cant Stop the rain or prevent
a light from going up jes as you are half way over the parapet--So what is the use
of worrying if you can't alter things just ask God to help you and accept them and
make the best of them by the help of God; yet some men do worry, and By Doing So
they effectually destroy their peace of Mind without doing any one any good.'"
(Sgt. York, p. 74)
York once remarked, "In the war the hand of God was with us. It is impossible for
anyone to go through with what we did and come out without the hand of God. We
didn't want money; we didn't want land; we didn't want to lose our boys over there.
But we had to go into it to give our boys and young ladies a chance for peace in
the days to come. Those boys who fell have done a great deed and a deed that will never
be forgotten by America. Thank you." (Sgt. York,p.115)
Returning to the Argonne Forest (in France), where he had earlier captured
132 German prisoners, York was asked by one general, "How could you possibly have
done this, sergeant?" York responded, "Sir, it was not man power. It was divine
power that saved me. Before I went to war I prayed to God, and He gave me my
assurance that so long as I believed in Him, not one hair of my head would be
harmed. Even in front of machine guns, He knowed I believed in Him." According
to the account by John Perry , "...the general put his arm around the sergeant's
shoulders and said quietly, "York, you are right." (Sgt. York,p. 91)
To learn more about Sergeant York's life you can
order the highly acclaimed 1941 movie and
order the book, Sgt. York (1997), by John Perry.
