Milton Garrett York, Sr.

The plaque gives York four years in the Confederate army without naming his regiment: he was a private in the Fifth Texas Cavalry. Mustered at San Antonio in 1861 with 926 men under Col. Tom Green, the regiment followed Sibley up the Rio Grande into New Mexico, fought at Valverde and Glorieta, and came home with 454 fit for duty. It joined the recapture of Galveston on January 1, 1863, fought across south Louisiana that year, and stood at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill in April 1864. It disbanded at Huntsville before the Trans-Mississippi surrender of June 1865.

What the plaque says

Milton Garrett York, Sr. Was born in East Texas (San Augustine County) on Sept. 5, 1843. After the death of his parents, Aaron and Ruth (lucas) York, he went to live with an uncle in Arkansas. Milton returned to Texas about 1860 and briefly taught school in the Evergreen community, in what is now Lee County. After serving in the Confederate army from 1861 to 1865, M. G. York returned to this area and married Matilda Heck. They settled on land along the Brenham-Austin Trace and lived there until they moved to Giddings about 1880. As a member of the J. G. Giddings Masonic Lodge, York was a strong supporter of education for the children of the area. After Lee County was created in 1874 out of portions of Bastrop, Burleson, Washington, and Fayette counties, he was appointed to a commission, along with C. Perry, A. P. Gaines, Solomon Fehr, and O. G. Jones, to help organize the new county. He later was elected county commissioner of Precinct 1. York's interest in public affairs continued with his election to the Texas House of Representatives in 1890. He represented Lee and Burleson counties during his two-year term. Upon his death in 1911, M. G. York was survived by his wife and six children. His role in early Lee County history is an important part of the area's heritage. (1985)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas Wendish Heritage Museum — 5.3 mi
  A museum at Serbin of the Wends, a Slavic people from Lusatia whose congregation of nearly 600 crossed on the Ben Nevis in 1854, losing seventy-three to cholera on the way.
• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 15 mi
  Two park units on an 11,000-acre lake between Austin and College Station, joined by a thirteen-mile trailway for hikers, cyclists and riders with primitive camps along the way.
• Round Top and Festival Hill — 17 mi
  A German village on the old La Bahía Road, named for a house tower, with an 1867 stone church, a Fourth of July kept since 1851 and a concert hall a pianist built without blueprints.
• Monument Hill and Kreische Brewery State Historic Sites — 21 mi
  A shared tomb on the Colorado River bluff for the men of the Dawson fight and the black bean lottery, beside the ruins of a German stonemason's spring-fed brewery.

More markers nearby

• Lee County — steps away
• City of Giddings — steps away
• County Named for Beloved Confederate General Robert E. Lee — steps away
• First National Bank — steps away