The Cumberland County Historical Encyclopedia is an expanding publication on the history of the Cumberland County. Covering a wide range of topics and the entire Cumberland County geographic region, the Encyclopedia seeks to be an initial entry point to those interested in the County's history. Entries seek to provide a list of resources available as well as showcasing some of the Cumberland County Historical Society's own collections.
Born March 6, 1909 in Carlisle, Philip Reynolds Hoffman graduated from Carlisle High School before moving to Schnectady, New York to enter training programs conducted General Electric to become a machinist in 1932. Hoffman married Verna P.
Walt Huber was an acclaimed cartoonist for several newspapers, who was born in Chambersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. While never achieving his dream of having his own comic strip, Huber, was one of the founders of the Seven Lively Artists.
Doing research into the history of a place can be a confusing exercise because county and township boundaries changed over the decades as well as the names of towns and villages.
Eric Swidler is proud to oversee the group of radio stations that his father has maintained in Carlisle for over fifty years. Radio Carlisle under Swidler leadership will celebrate sixty plus years in 2025. In 1960, Eric’s father, Harold Z. Swidler, enjoyed listening to radio as much as anyone.
Indentured servants were men and women who agreed to work for a master without pay for a specified number of years, usually in return for having their passages to America paid. This 1775 advertisement in Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania Gazette announced that the ship Hawke had just arrived from London and was lying off the Market Street wharf with a shipment of “a few likely healthy servants” of many different trades “whose times are to be disposed of.”
In 1856, Solomon Gorgas, a successful businessman, state legislator, and influential resident of Mechanicsburg donated land for an institution for the education of women.
Robert Lee Jacobs was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on December 7, 1910 to T. Ralph Jacobs and Flora Alma Lee Jacobs.
Carlisle Herald, September 1, 1870. “MAGNIFICENT BIRTHDAY DEMONSTRATION—Splendid Pyrotechnic Display.—Mr. James W. Bosler, a citizen of this place, residing in the suburbs of the borough, gave a grand birthday party, pyrotechnic display, etc., in honor of his little son Charlie’s fifth birthday.
David “D.J.” Javitch opened the Carlisle Meat Market, a two-man butcher shop, in 1923, and by 1937, Javitch expanded his vision to create a Giant Food Shopping Center in Lewistown, Pennsylvania.
From 1857 until the 1880s, residents of Cumberland County migrated en masse to the plains of central Kansas.