Captain John York

Notes:

YORK, JOHN (1800?1848). John York, Indian fighter and soldier in the Texas Revolution, was born in Kentucky on July 4, 1800. He moved to Texas in 1829, when his family settled near San Felipe de Austin at the site of future Industry, Texas. York was soon engaged in leading expeditions against the Indians. During the Texas Revolution, the Convention of 1835qv at San Felipe appointed him a first lieutenant in the regular infantry in the Texas army. As such he participated in James W. Fannin's search in the Frio and Medina river areas in November 1835 for Domingo de Ugartechea, then bringing Mexican reinforcements to Martín Perfecto de Cos at Bexar. That same month Stephen F. Austin appointed York, along with Edward Burleson, as appraiser of horses and equipment of the Texan volunteers at Bexar. In early December 1835 York participated as a captain in the siege of Bexar. On December 20, 1835, he was elected a captain in the legion of cavalry under Lt. Col. William B. Travis. Later the General Council appointed him one of the agents to raise a mounted company to fight Indians in the Mill Creek (in present Austin County) and Colorado River areas. York married Letitia Crain and reared ten children. John Henry Brown described him as "a man of portly and commanding presence" with blond hair and blue eyes. York settled on Mill Creek in Austin County. In January 1837 he was serving as county sheriff, and in 1840 he was listed as owning one slave, twenty-five cattle, twenty workhorses, and one "pleasure carriage." In March 1844 York was among the six men appointed commissioners by the Republic of Texas Congress to select the seat of Austin County, and in 1846 he was elected one of the commissioners for newly established DeWitt County, where he had resettled on Coleto Creek. Two years later he sold his half interest in a league of land for one dollar in cash. The purchasers agreed to lay out the town of Yorktown, named in his honor, and York was to retain each alternate lot, block, and acre lot. The veteran soldier was chosen to lead his neighbors, including Robert Justus Klebergqv, in a retaliatory campaign against Indians in October 1848. York and his son-in-law, John Madison Bell, were among those killed on October 11 on Escondida Creek in a battle that generated much notorious publicity. York was buried eight miles east of Yorktown in the same grave with Bell. The state erected a marker at the gravesite in 1936.

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fyo05

historical marker:
A member of one of Austin's ranging companies at San Felipe in 1829. Commanded A Company at the capture of San Antonio in 1835. Yorktown, named in his honor was laid out in 1848 on his land. Born July 4, 1800. Killed by Indians, October 11, 1848.
hwy 237, east of 2718 intersection

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Miriam York was born on 22 Aug 1822 in Austin, Travis Co, Texas; died in Jan 1898.