Alexander M. York.

A. M. York came to Kansas in 1870, and located at Independence, where he was engaged in the practice of law until 1875. In 1872 he was elected a member of the State Senate. In 1875, he went to Shreveport, La., and remained there two years, engaged in mail contracts in that State and Texas. He then came to Fort Scott and became interested in the York nursery with his father and brother. He is a native of Byron, Ogle Co., Ill.; born July 7, 1838. That was his home until September, 1862, when he enlisted in Company I, Ninety-second Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant, and in 1863 was promoted to First Lieutenant. In 1864, he was again promoted Captain of Company G, Fifteenth Colored Infantry, and was the same year raised to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of the Fifteenth Colored Infantry. He was finally mustered out of service in April, 1866, and went to Shelbina, Mo., where he was engaged in practice until he removed to Independence.

He was married at Polo, Ogle Co., Ill., March 4, 1861, to Juliett Preston, a native of Oneida Co., N. Y. They had three children--Winnefred J., Ernest Preston and Frederick A. Mrs. York died April 9, 1875, and he was married to his present wife, Candace Tracey, a native of Payson, Ill., at Independence, Kan., March 26, 1877. They have one child--Roscoe Tracey. Col. York is a member of the A., F. & A. M.

Civil War Enlistment.

Alexander M. York.
Rank: 1st,Lieutenant.
Company: I.
Unit: 92nd, Illinois U. S. Infantry.
Residence: LANARK, CARROLL CO, IL.
Age: 24.
Height: 5' 8 1/2.
Hair: BROWN.
Eyes: BLUE.
Complexion: LIGHT.
Marital Status: MARRIED.
Occupation: LAWYER.
Nativity: BYRON, OGLE CO, IL.
Joined When: APR 23, 1863.
Joined Where: FRANKLIN, TN.
Period: 3, years.
Muster In: APR 23, 1863.
Muster In Where: FRANKLIN, TN.
Remarks: RESIGNED APR 4, 1864 COMMISSIONED CAPTAIN IN 15 US COLORED TROOPS.

Alexander M. York, Ordered to Kill Captain.
The following was taken from the History of the Ninety-Second Infantry.

Lieutenant Alexander M. York, of the nintey-second, heard the Captain of the steamer Tempest, in conversation with one of the pilots, perdicting a disaster at the bridge; and the Lieutenant believed that it was the intention of the captain and pilot, who were Reble sympataizers, deliberately to wreck the steamer Tempest, and the steamer Arizonia lashed to its side, on which ninety-second was being transported.  He was therefore directed by the Brigade Commander, to take a fiel of soldiers, let them load their guns, place the same piolt at the wheel and the captain by the pilot-house, and inform them, that if any accident happened at the Clarksville Bridge, he was directed to shoot them both.  Lieutenant York did as he was commanded, and there was no accident.

Alexander M. York. 

Birth: 1838.
Death: 1928.
Burial: Fairmount Cemetery, Denver, Denver County, Colorado.

New, June 16, 2012.

The following came from the History of Montgomery County.
By L. Wallace Duncan, Publ. 1903.

COL. ALEXANDER M. YORK was at one time a leading member of the bar of Montgomery county, to which he was admitted in August, 1871.

He was born at Byron. Illinois, July 7, 1838, and admitted to practice iu Carroll county, in that State, on December 31. 1861, and at once entered the practice at Lanark, Illinois. On September 4, 1863, he enlisted in the Ninety-second Illinois Volunteers and remained in the army till the close of the war, and was mustered out of the service in April, 1866. He entered the army as a private soldier and was then commissioned as second lieutenant of Company "I" of his regiment and, in 1863, promoted to the First Lieutenancy of the same company. In 1864 he was commissioned as Captain of Company "G." Fifteenth Colored Infantry, and afterward, in the same year, raised to the rank of colonel of that regiment.

After leaving the army Col. York began the practice of his profession at Shelbina. Missouri, in partnership with Col. J. W. Shaur, and afterward, in March. 1871, located at Independence, Kansas, where he, in company with Governor L. U. Humphrey and W. T. Yoe, established and conductrd the South Kansas Tribune. A little more than a year later the Colonel and the Governor. haviug sold their interests in the newspaper, fromed a paitnership to practice law, under the firm name of York & Humphrey. This firm at once established a profitable practice which it firmly held and increased for about five years, wlien tlie Governor began his political career in which he became distinguished, and the Colonel went to Louisiana and remained there two years, where he was interested in mail contracts in that State and in Texas. He then went to Fort Scott. Kansas, and became interested in the "York Nursery." in which business he continued five or six years. Since then he has been engaged in the real estate business at xarious places and is now located at Denver, Colorado, in that pursuit.

While Colonel York was a nam of fine native ability, and possessed a well trained mind, and was learned in the law, he lacked some of the necessary attributes to a successful life in the most learned of all professions. He could never have been the plodding. methodical and tireless student, that closely analyzes and rises to eminence in the law. He was too active, zealous and enthusiastic for that; he could not "sit down and contentedly wait for anything. He was a remarkably fluent and forceful public speaker. either at the bar or on the rostrum. Indeed on one occasion his oratory was superb and the student of Kansas history will, long after he is dead, read with pleasure and astonishment, his extraordinary ex tempore speech made in 1873 to the joint convention of the two Houses of the Kansas Legislature, in exposing the attempted bribery by U. S. Senator Pomeroy, of members of the Kansas Legislature. Col. York was then rei)resenting Montgomery county in the State Senate and closed his wonderful effort in these words: "I stand in the presence of this august and honorable body of representatives of the sovereign people; and before the Almighty Ruler of the I'niverse, I solemnly declare and affirm that every word T have si)oken is God's truth and nothing but the truth."