Underground Mysteries — July 22, 2025
YORKSHIRE, NY — It has been nearly a century since Stephen Maslanka vanished from his dairy farm in Yorkshire, New York, without a trace. Though he would now be deceased, his descendants are still searching for answers—not in the hope of a reunion, but for long-overdue closure.
Stephen Maslanka, born November 11, 1888, in Poland, immigrated to the United States in 1911 in pursuit of a better life. By 1930, he had built one: a family, a successful dairy farm, and a strong community reputation. On the morning of June 27, 1930, however, all of that changed. Stephen disappeared without a word, leaving behind his wife, Josephine, and their three daughters.
Stephen’s granddaughter recently submitted his case to the Underground Mysteries’ missing person database. His case is not made public elsewhere, and there have not been any published news articles on his disappearance until this publication. Hopefully that will soon change.
Stephen’s family lived on a dairy farm they had purchased in February 1929. When Stephen went missing, he was described as a healthy 41-year-old Caucasian man who was 5’9″ in height and approximately 160 pounds in weight. He had blue eyes and brown hair. At the time of his disappearance, he was living as a devoted husband and father. There were no known marital issues, no signs of tension at home, and no history of mental illness or instability.
Two accounts of Stephen’s disappearance survive in historical court filings. In a 1938 petition to declare Stephen legally deceased, his wife, Josephine, stated: “Stephen Maslanka disappeared from their farm in Yorkshire on the morning of 27th July, 1930, without any word as to where he was going or any reason for his departure.” The document also emphasized that their family life was pleasant. Stephen had shown no signs of distress or wanting to leave. In fact, he was quite a visionary and an established farmer. At the time of his disappearance, the Dairymen’s League owed him an outstanding balance, yet he did not collect this money. Meanwhile, he owed a local grocer $114.50 and had written a bad check for $44.30 a few weeks prior. Though he was not arrested, law enforcement did attempt to locate him regarding his debts.
A later court case in 1951, filed by Josephine in an attempt to collect on Stephen’s life insurance policy, presented a slightly different version: that he had left that morning “at the usual time in the morning and in the usual manner to go to Mt. Morris, New York, where he was employed; he never reached his place of business.” The family was left stunned. No contact was ever made again, and extensive efforts by local, state, and federal authorities, as well as by friends and relatives across the United States and Europe, failed to turn up any trace of him.
The family considered whether he might have returned to his native country, Poland, but a professional genealogist found no record of his return. He left no will. No missing person report is currently on file with any known law enforcement agency, but it is believed an attempt was made to report him missing.
Stephen’s disappearance was never treated as a homicide investigation, and his family remains unsure whether foul play was ever considered. They do, however, keep an open mind to the possibility.
Adding to the mystery is a chilling incident that took place just months before Stephen’s disappearance: around March 10, 1930, a Polish farmhand working for him was decapitated in a tragic accident involving a buzz saw. Whether this incident bears any connection to Stephen’s vanishing remains unknown.
The Maslanka family also owned property in Rochester and may have had business dealings there, but nothing from those assets offered further clues.
Today, Stephen’s case is listed in Underground Mysteries’ Missing Person Database, a platform dedicated to unreported, underrepresented, and inactive missing persons cases. The database serves as a digital memorial and investigative tool for families who have long been forgotten by traditional systems. If you have a loved one who is missing, please add the case to the database.
Because 1930 was so long ago and somewhat detached from current life, I wanted to share some insight to how life may have been in this town during this time. Yorkshire was a rural farming town with a population of about 1,200 back in 1930. It was unusual for someone to go missing in such a small, tight-knit community in those days. By about the early 1900s, small businesses such as grist mills, taverns, cheese factories, and a post office served its predominantly agricultural population. The infrastructure in the area at the time was modest. Roads were mostly unpaved, and electricity was not yet widespread. Air conditioning was a rarity, and the weather was hot during this month. Although the telephone was already invented, most families did not own one, and if they did, it was costly to use. Farmers during these days relied heavily on oral communication, in-person networking, and newspapers. Many people still traveled by horse and carriage, even though cars were becoming increasingly more popular. About 60% of American households owned a car in the year 1930, but rural ownership was lower.
Maslanka traveled to Rochester to tend to his other properties and to Mt. Morris for work, and there is a chance that he vanished while en route to one of these places. It is unknown which method of transportation he was taking on the day of his disappearance.
Back in 1930, the Canadian border was open for travel without a passport, and it is unknown if he ever traveled to Canada. (The Canadian border is only about an hour and a half away from where he had been residing.)
Anyone with historical records, photographs, or oral histories related to Stephen Maslanka or the Yorkshire area in the 1930s is encouraged to reach out through the contact form, here.
If you are a forensic genealogist interested in this otherwise undocumented case and need more information (in effort of identifying a John Doe), please contact me so I can send you more details of this case.
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