Mechanicsburg

Harold Stone of Mechanicsburg

Mechanicsburg High School yearbook. CCHS yearbook Collection.

Few things have stood out as more quintessential of an American small town than its barbershop, and fictional representations of those towns, whether Mayberry or Mitford, have been sure to portray the local barber, an affable and steadfast character. For generations of loyal customers, a barber named Harold Stone seemed to be a permanent institution in a small town that The Wall Street Journal had once called “the middle of nowhere.”

Phyllis Hershey (Women in World War II)

Photo of Phyllis Hershey during the Interview

Interview with Phyllis Hershey at her home in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania on July 30, 2002 with Jennifer Elliott as part of the Cumberland County Women During World War Two Oral History Project. Hershey discusses how students would assist the community during black outs and other civil defense drills, working at the Middletown Air Service Depot selling war bonds and collecting health insurance premiums for Blue Cross and later as a teletype operator. Hershey also talks about how German Prisonsers of War would clean the depot each night.

Ida G. Kast, Cumberland County's First Woman Attorney

On August 1, 1893, Ida G. Kast, of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, an instructor in Irving College in that town, in a letter to the Board of Examiners for Law Students requested permission to appear before the Board for preliminary examination to be registered as a law student. At the bottom of her letter it was noted "that the above Ida G. Kast is a person of good moral character and social standing."

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