Frank York (1874-1965)

Born May 22, 18714 in Junction City, Kansas;

Died December 28, 1965 in Junction City, Kansas;

Buried in Highland Cemetery in Junction City, Kansas.

Married November 1, 1905 in Junction City, Kansas to Fannie Holmgren who was born July 14, 1884 in Junction

City, Kansas. Her father was a contractor that the York boys laid stone for also. Fannie died September 2, 1963 in Junction City and is buried in the Highland Cemetery in Junction City, Kansas.

Frank was a stone mason all his life and built many, many of the stone buildings in Junction City and Fort Riley.

Frank York was an avid trap shooter who was state champion in Kansas and two or three other states. He belonged to a local gun club called the Seven Springs Gun Club that was approximately six to seven miles west of Junction City. Other members were Dr. Smiley, Emil Wetzig, Dr. Lehayne, Bounce Hicks, Henry Thiele, Tom Gray, John Haney, Oscar Schlatter.

Frank held the Junction City gold medal for some time. It was a circulating award held for trap shooting. Others

who had it for a time were Henry Thiele, Henry Wetzig, and Herman Wetzig.

Marvin, his son, recounts the time that Frank’s friends arranged a match between him and a super shooter from elsewhere. They put up $100.00 among them, and gave him boughten shells. They were to shoot 100 birds. Frank missed the first three birds, then went and got his own reloads that he was used to shooting and hit 97 straight. The other guy got nervous after his 91^st shot and could hardly reload. He began to miss and Frank won the match.

Frank and Ed York went to many of the shoots together. Frank was said to be the consistent shooter and Ed was said to have hot streaks where he couldn’t be beat.

Frank built a house at 539 West Second where all of his children were born. Then for about fifteen to sixteen years they lived in a large stone house west of Junction City on the Horace McFarland place that is on the road that goes past the swimming pool . It had on it a log cabin school that was said to be one of the first schools in the territory. It also had a deep, good, hand-dug, round well that many people from the areas around would use during time of droughts. They moved back to Junction City when Frank decided that they would never be able to buy the house and 55 acres because Horace was going to hang on to it forever. He died the next year.

 He built the house at 107 East First, where his son Lester lived for years, and his grandson Jeffrey York now lives.

 Frank and Fannie had three children.