First Pennsylvania Troopers Killed in the Line of Duty
McCalmont Township, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
On September 2, 1906, Privates John F. Henry and Francis A. Zehringer were killed in the line of duty as they attempted to arrest fugitive murderers barricaded in a nearby house. Three other troopers were wounded. Their sacrifice symbolizes the Pa. State Police Call of Honor, which states, in part, "I must serve honestly, faithfully, and if need be, lay down my life as others have done before me, rather than swerve from the path of duty."Β
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
The Pennsylvania State Police, founded in 1905, was among the first state police forces in the country, created to bring law to rural and industrial districts beyond the reach of local sheriffs. Barely a year into its existence, two young troopers were killed and three wounded trying to arrest fugitives barricaded in a nearby house. Their deaths were the force's first in the line of duty and are remembered in its enduring Call of Honor.
Why it matters
The sacrifice marked the dangerous birth of modern state policing in America and the professional ethos of duty that still defines it.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the opening years of the twentieth century, much of rural and industrial America was hard to police. Local sheriffs and town constables could not always reach the countryside, the coal patches, and the scattered districts where trouble arose, and there was often no organized force able to respond across a wide area. Pennsylvania, with its sprawling farmland and booming industrial regions, felt that gap sharply.
The answer, in 1905, was the creation of the Pennsylvania State Police β among the first state police forces in the country. It was a new kind of institution: a mobile, professional body of officers who could bring law and order to places beyond the reach of local authorities. The idea was novel enough that the men who filled its ranks were, in a real sense, inventing the job as they did it.
The country around Jefferson County, in western Pennsylvania, was exactly the kind of territory this new force existed to serve. And barely a year into the experiment, in 1906, the danger of the work made itself brutally clear on this ground.
People & events
On September 2, 1906, troopers moved to arrest fugitive murderers who had barricaded themselves in a nearby house. It was the kind of confrontation the young force had been created to handle β dangerous men, holed up and armed, in a place no local officer could manage alone.
The attempt turned deadly. Privates John F. Henry and Francis A. Zehringer were killed in the line of duty, and three other troopers were wounded in the effort. These were the first members of the Pennsylvania State Police to die serving it β the force's first losses, suffered while it was still finding its feet.
The marker ties their sacrifice to the State Police Call of Honor, the pledge that speaks of serving honestly and faithfully and, if need be, laying down one's life rather than swerving from the path of duty. Henry and Zehringer did exactly that, and the words are not an abstraction where they are concerned β they are a description of what these two men actually gave.
Its place in the American story
The birth of state policing was a genuine turning point in American law enforcement, and Pennsylvania's force was a pioneer of the model. States across the country would eventually build their own state police and highway patrols, and the professional, duty-bound ethos that Pennsylvania helped define spread with them.
The deaths of Henry and Zehringer, coming so early in the force's life, marked the real and human cost of that experiment. It is one thing to establish a new institution on paper; it is another to send men into a barricaded house after armed fugitives. Their sacrifice showed, at the very start, that the dangers the new force was created to confront were mortal ones.
That is why the Call of Honor still matters. The pledge to serve faithfully and, if necessary, to give one's life carries the memory of those who did β and this marker names two of the first. The ideal of duty that defines modern policing was, in part, purchased here, on an ordinary day in western Pennsylvania in 1906.
If you visit
This is a memorial to two young men who died in the line of duty, and it deserves a respectful pause. Standing here, you are near where the Pennsylvania State Police suffered its first losses β the ground where a brand-new idea about public safety met its first hard cost.
Let the specifics stay with you: two troopers killed, three more wounded, on a single day in 1906, going after fugitives so that the countryside could be safe. The Call of Honor quoted on the marker reads differently once you know it describes what actually happened to Henry and Zehringer.
The surrounding country of western Pennsylvania is quiet and rural, which only sharpens the contrast with the violence remembered here. If your route carries you through Jefferson County, this stop connects a peaceful landscape to the demanding birth of modern state policing β and to two names worth carrying away with you.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the markerβs inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- Β· John F. Henry
- Β· Francis A. Zehringer
Themes & tags
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