Brantley York

Brantley York
Brantley York, 1855, Courtesy of the Duke University Archives
President of Duke University
In office 1838–1842
Succeeded by	Braxton Craven
Personal details
Born	January 3, 1805 Randolph County, North Carolina
Died	October 7, 1891 (aged 86) Rutherford County, North Carolina

Richard Brantley York (January 3, 1805^[1] – October 7, 1891^[2]) was a Methodist minister and educator best known for founding and serving as president of the institution that would become Duke University, Union Institute Academy in Randolph County, North Carolina. Overall, York founded six schools.^[3]

A largely self-taught educator, Methodist minister, and author of a series of English grammars, Brantley York was asked by Methodist and Quaker farmers in rural Randolph County to help provide education for their sons and daughters. He organized Union Institute Academy in 1838 and met with instant success, having to build two new buildings within a year-and-a-half. Though gratified at his accomplishment, he worked extremely hard raising money, and he began to go blind working late at night preparing recitations in subjects he had not adequately studied. In fact, he recorded in his diary a statement saying he considered his years at Union Institute to be "truly onerous." York, however, had found his life's work at Union Institute and though completely blind by age forty-eight, he lived to be eighty-six and founded half-a-dozen schools, lectured over 8,000 times, and taught more than 15,000 pupils.^[4]

Notes

1. http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/york/york.html
3. Duke's President's. Duke University Archives. Accessed on December 11, 2006.
4. Brantley York. Duke University Archives. Accessed on January 25, 2008.

External links

• Guide to the Brantley York Records and Papers, University Archives, Duke University