sentences:  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.York began teaching at Bethlehem Church in Guilford County, North Carolina in 1831 and received a license to preach there in 1833.He was ordained as a deacon in 1838, but was not made a member of the North Carolina conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church due to an administrative error.