Henry J. Young Award - Lila Fourhman-Shaull, July 2018
Lila, born in York County, is one of four children of Glen Rock native Stanley Fourhman and Bettie Lou Fisher from Shenks Ferry. Although her address growing up was Red Lion, living within a half mile of the borough, Lila graduated from Dallastown Area High School.
Her personal interests focus on history and genealogy. She attributes her passion for history to the close proximity to Gettysburg where she still recalls the fourth grade trip to the battlefield that spurred her interest in the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln. Her roots in genealogy are traced to a 1949 volume, written by the late Dr. Charles H. Glatfelter, on the Bortner family that her paternal grandmother from Glen Rock owned. She enjoyed reading the numerous names found in it, especially those pages that had been annotated by her grandmother.
Upon her grandmother’s death, Lila inherited the Bortner volume as well as a large box of mostly unidentified family pictures. Following her high school graduation, she began exploring her genealogy. Some of the families that she descends from, in alphabetical order, include Bortner, Fisher, Fourhman, Jones, Kirchner, McKinsey, Oberlander, Rigdon and Smith. During one of her genealogy-related visits to the Kaltreider Library in Red Lion, she met long-time Historical Society of York County library volunteer Betty Brown. Betty encouraged her to visit the library of the historical society. What began as a research trips to the HSYC library on Saturdays with her younger sister Lisa grew into cemetery visits, calling all of the Fourhmans in the white pages and interviewing numerous family members.
Employed by the York County History Center for over twenty-five years, Lila’s path to employment there was rather a unique journey, following her employment at a sewing factory and a tank ammunition plant. Beginning as a library volunteer as the result of a New Year’s resolution, she was encouraged by June Lloyd, Librarian at that time, to apply for the Assistant Librarian position. She was hired in 1992 and became the Director of the library in 2005. A graduate of York College with a B.A. in History, she also completed the certificate program for Studies in Local History offered by Penn State, York, as well as attended numerous archival seminars. She is a long-time member and board member of the South Central Pennsylvania Genealogical Society.
Lila co-authored with June Lloyd Lewis Miller’s People, a recent publication by the York County History Center and two other York County Heritage Trust/York County History Center publications: Millers’ Tales: The Mills of York County and A Walking Tour of Civil War Era Residents at Prospect Hill Cemetery, York, Pa. She also compiled SCPGS Special Publication Number 63, Gazetteer of York and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania in 2004.
Lila lives in Felton with her husband Brian.