PUNXSUTAWNEY - State Police Memorial Day is a day to remember troopers who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Pennsylvania State Police from the Punxsutawney barracks in Jefferson County honored the first two Pennsylvania troopers killed in the line of duty Monday.
A historical roadside marker was unveiled in memory of Pvt. John Henry and Pvt. Francis Zehringer.
"We wear this uniform but it's the members who come before us that earned all the respect," said Bernard Petrovsky, PSP commander. "We want to recognize everybody because they made the ultimate sacrifice."
Punxsutawney was home to Troop D, one of the four original troops of the state police.
On Sept. 2, 1906, Troop D attempted to arrest heavily armed Black Hand Society fugitives. The fugitives were wanted for murder and barricaded inside a home in Florence.
When the first group of troopers responded to a call for help from Sgt. Joseph Logan, Pvt. Henry was mortally wounded and privates Homer Chambers and William Mullen were seriously wounded attempting to rescue Henry.
"When Henry approached the house, he was shot," Petrovsky said. "He was the the first Pennsylvania trooper killed in the line of duty. There was a second detachment of troopers summoned and they came en mass and they took on the fugitives in the house."
Zehringer was among the second detachment summoned to the scene. Along with other troopers, Zehringer rushed to the house, battered in the side door, and entered the dwelling. He was fired upon by fugitives from a stairway and mortally wounded.
Realizing that lives were being sacrificed uselessly, the troopers planted dynamite at the base of the house. At dawn, the dynamite was detonated, the house was destroyed and its inhabitants were killed.
Pete Carlton's father was part of that second detachment. Carlton said his father, O.D. Carlton, never spoke about the battle.
"I have four older brothers and he never wanted any of them to become state troopers because of what happened here," Carlton said.
The sign sits off Route 310 in the Village of Anita, a couple hundred yards away from where the troopers lost their lives.
"The sign helps my memory and I hold it in my heart," Carlton said. "I'm very proud that my father was an original state police trooper."
The $1,800 sign has been in the works for 10 years. After being rejected by the Historical Society, it was finally approved in December 2014.
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