Shippensburg

The 1880s Roller Skating Craze

Roller Skating Rink Engraving

A roller skating craze swept the country in the 1880s. Opinions were divided on whether roller skating rinks provided the public with “healthful amusement” or were “pits of perdition” as some preachers claimed.1 Regardless, roller skating was so popular that rinks were built in Carlisle, Mechanicsburg, Mt. Holly and Shippensburg.

Americans Shall Rule America! The Know-Nothing Party in Cumberland County

In 1854 Americans took a detour from the road to civil war. It was the year of the Kansas-Nebraska act, which allowed slavery to spread into the formerly free Kansas territory. This act, the warfare between pro- and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas that followed, and the rise of the free soil Republican party, so inflamed hostile feelings between North and South that the firing on Fort Sumter took place less than seven years later.

John A. Barnet

John A. Barnet served in the 3rd U.S.C.T with Company B from December 23, 1864, to October 31, 1865. He was born in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania on May 20, 1845, to parents John J. Barnett and Mary Cook.1 According to the 1860 Census, before his enlistment he was living with the family of Alexander and Eunice Stewart, in Shippensburg.

Book Review: Pictorial History: Shippensburg Area, Big Spring Area, Carlisle Area, Mechanicsburg Area and West Shore Area

Merri Lou Schaumann, ed., Pictorial History: Shippensburg Area, Big Spring Area, Cm-lisle Area, Mechanicsburg Area and West Shore Area (Carlisle: Cumberland County 250'" Anniversary Committee, 2000). 5 volumes, 96 pp. each. Photographs, maps. $16.95 each volume, $75.00 set.

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