Borough History

The borough of North York was incorporated April 17, 1899 when a charter was issued by the County Court (The Honorable W. F. Bay Stewart, presiding). The borough contained about 146 acres.

The first official borough council meeting was held on May 12, 1899 and the elected officers were:

On the night of May 10, 1899 North York had the most destructive fire in its history. The Wolfgang Candy factory, owned and operated by Clinton and Abtill Wolfgang, burned to the ground. It was located in the rear of 1013 North George Street at 6th Avenue and North Court Alley. The Union Fire Company of York was called but arrived too late to save any of the property. The Jacoby Butcher Shop was destroyed and their slaughter house and barns owned by David Foose, Jesse Shindler and Ben Myers were damaged.

On May 11, 1899, W.W. Williams, president of the borough council fathered the idea of a fire company and the Liberty Fire Company No. 1 was organized June 29, 1899. The fire company building on North George Street was begun in 1901 and had its dedication in 1902. Before the company was a year old, it was the proud owner of a four-wheel horse drawn apparatus. The horses that pulled this apparatus were owned by Samuel Shettel and housed in a barn at the rear of West 7th Avenue and North George Street. In 1917 the first motor-driven fire engine was purchased.

Curtis D. Sowers was born July 18, 1895.

Sowers was a World War I veteran, serving with the artillery of the Sixth Division of the U.S. Army. He was married, had no children, and lived on Dewey Avenue in North York.

Sowers was a motorcycle officer in North York Borough, appointed on June 24, 1927, earning a salary of $30 a week. Sowers moonlighted as a sheriff’s deputy, assisting constables in the performance of their duties.

On December 26, 1928, two of Albert Toomey’s calves went missing from his Newberry Township farm. Toomey went to the justice of the peace in Emigsville and swore out a complaint against the three men he suspected of stealing his calves. One of the men was Jacob Troup, an illiterate 30-year-old farm hand from Bald Hills in Newberry Township.

Police tried to arrest Troup in February. Constable Caleb Altland and Sowers went to arrest Troup at the home of a neighbor. Troup saw the officers coming and fled out the back door, disappearing into the hills.

Troup remained on the lam for three months. In mid-May, he and a friend named Norman Wire went to Virginia, where Troup had previously worked at a mill. Troup told Wire that the police were after him, and he had to get out of town. He told Wire that he would “blow” the first officer who tried to arrest him.

On Monday, May 20, 1929, they returned to York County and the home of Troup’s father in Bald Hills.

On Tuesday, May 21, 1929, the cops came looking for him again. Altland had received a tip that Troup was at his father’s house and made plans to arrest him. This time, Troup wouldn’t be running out the back door as police approached the front.

Altland enlisted Sowers’ help again. He recruited two other men, North York Constable B.F. Emenheiser and a civilian named Ray Bentzel. They approached the Troup home after dark, at about 9:15 p.m. A light shone from the front window, the only light in the area on that dark night. Altland and Emenheiser went to the front door. Sowers and Bentzel went to the back.

Inside, Troup was playing cards with Wire and two of his sisters when they heard the dogs barking outside. Moments later, there was a knock on the door, and Altland asked whether Sam (Sam Troup, Jacob Troup’s father) was home. Wire told Altland that Sam had gone to York. Altland pushed his way into the front room.

Jacob Troup, at the sound of the knock on the door, had grabbed his shotgun and ran to the back of the house. Sowers yelled to Troup: “Come on out; it’s no use hiding in there.” There was more shouting. Witnesses heard voices shouting, “I’ll riddle you through of holes,” and “Don’t shoot.” Bentzel said he heard Troup yell, “I’m not going to shoot.” A moment later, the shotgun roared. Bentzel saw Sowers fall backwards. Bentzel turned and ran. Out front, Altland said to Emenheiser, “I wonder what that shot was.”

Altland, Emenheiser and Bentzel left to seek help. They called state police and returned to the Troup house about an hour and fifteen minutes later. Sowers’ body lay at the back door, his revolver in his right hand, a blackjack in his left. The shotgun blast entered his face, shattered the roof of his mouth and his nose and obliterated a portion of his spinal column.

Jacob Troup remained on the lam for five days, hiding out in the hills of northern York County. He was arrested May 26 when he returned to his father’s house to get something to eat and encountered a phalanx of state police who had been looking for him. Following a three-day trial, Troup was convicted of first-degree murder on Aug. 28, 1929. The jury deliberated for a little more than two hours. Troup was sentenced to life in Eastern Penitentiary “at hard labor in the cells and workhouse yards of said penitentiary.” He was also fined $1. Troup was released from prison in 1940.

Sowers was buried May 25, 1929. At his funeral, the preacher, the Rev. Harry W. Zuse, of Fifth United Brethren Church, said, “Life is like a story. It may be good; it may be bad. The good story is remembered by the impression it makes upon our hearts, while the bad and indifferent tales are tossed aside with but little afterthought.”

The details of the death of Officer Sowers had been lost to history until unearthed by borough resident and Police Heritage Museum Chairman John Stine. Stine was browsing through old Fraternal Order of Police dance programs when he discovered a page dedicated to the slain officer. Although newspapers at the time wrote of the case and Officer Sowers, and North York Borough made a public recognition in a proclamation, beyond this no permanent recognition could be found.

Realizing this, the Police Heritage Museum set about establishing a memorial for the officer. Several meetings with the North York Borough Council resulted in a commitment to name the borough building for Officer Sowers.

On September 20, 2003, a dedication and memorial service was held in front of the North York Borough building, named in honor of Officer Sowers, with the presentation of a bronze plaque, followed by a reception.

In May of 2004, the name of slain Police Officer Curtis D. Sowers was added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Wall during their annual memorial ceremony.

Lloyd Z. Kauffman was born in York in 1899.

In 1919, Kauffman opened up his first barber shop in North York. In 1934, Kauffman moved to a new barber shop built fronting his home at 1055 North George Street. For 22 years, Kauffman was the borough tax collector, and would occasionally pause haircuts to walk over to the roll top desk in his barber shop to record tax payments brought to the shop. Kauffman was also a volunteer for the Liberty Fire Company, and many times left a customer to respond to a fire call, some times the customer following to also respond to the call.

For about 30 years, Kauffman was the executive director of the North York Playground Association. Kauffman helped build the North York playground auditorium in 1928. For a quarter century, the auditorium was the only gymnasium in the borough. The auditorium was built on property owned by the school board before there was a high school. Originally a pavilion, it was eventually enclosed and added on to until it became a venue for meetings, basketball games, conventions social functions, recreation, and the annual Christmas Treat for children on Christmas mornings. In 1954, the high school was constructed next to the auditorium, and in 1973 the auditorium was demolished to make room for an expansion of the high school.

In 1951, Kauffman ran for county clerk of courts and served a four year term. He also served as auditor for the borough, and was a member of the North York Borough Authority. Kauffman was also a member of the Civilian Defense Corps of Zone No. 8, which covered North York, during World War II. But his greatest passion remained recreation. Kauffman for many years was active in the North York Baseball Association, the Central York County Baseball League, the North York Fish and Game Association, and the Greater York County Basketball League. He also served as the grounds manager for the North York playground.

On Friday, May 30, 1969, a surprise ceremony was held for Kauffman at Fifth Avenue and Pine Street, where a new, 11-acre playground had been developed by the borough and the Recreation Commission. Kauffman was escorted to the ceremony by his wife, where the playground was officially named the Lloyd Kauffman Playground. Gordon Long, a member of the recreation commission, unveiled a bronze plaque designating the name of the playground. The playground was dedicated to Kauffman for his 40 years of service to the borough, and his tireless efforts in the institution and maintenance of recreational facilities in the borough.

Now known as Lloyd Kauffman Park, the facility remains as the cornerstone of recreation in the borough. Kauffman retired from barbering in 1972, renting his shop to a baber that worked with him since 1934. Kauffman passed away on May 17, 1983 at 84 years of age.