Brantley York

Richard Brantley York (January 3, 1805 – October 7, 1891) 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.

Early life and education York was born in Randolph County, North Carolina, as the seventh of nine children to Eli and Susanah Harden York. While his father worked as a distiller and miner, his employment was unstable and the family often relied on income earned by Brantley and his siblings as hired hands. York had little formal education, only attending school for thirteen months over a ten-year period. His education was largely self-taught through the library at Ebenezer Church, where he was also introduced to the Methodist religion and converted in 1823.

While he never became a member of the North Carolina Methodist conference, he did serve as the first president of the North Carolina Local Ministers Conference, and continued to preach, giving an estimated 8,000 lectures or sermons. He also served as a President of the Randolph County Temperance Society in 1853 and spoke publicly in support of North Carolina's prohibition campaign in 1881.