George McFeely was a true "officer and gentleman." As lieutenant colonel of the 22nd Regiment of Infantry and as colonel of the 25th Regiment, he acted as second in command of the force which invaded Canada. Then, after the war was over, McFeely was designated as a "gentleman" of Carlisle by the censors and the assessors of the septennial assessment of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.
Considering the time and the place, the first army seen in Cumberland County was of quite respectable size. Made up entirely of British regulars, it comprised two foot regiments, a detachment of artillery, and three independent (or unregimented) companies. With these units at less than full strength, the whole force numbered about twelve thousand.
Towns often start in strange ways, following paths not first expected by their planners. The farther we are removed from those founding days, furthermore, the more difficult it becomes to reconstruct just how a town began. After the passage of a century or more, most tangible vestiges of the early days are gone and we are left with only the old myths and oral traditions. So it is with Mechanicsburg. Almost.
This first issue of Cumberland County History inaugurates a new era in publishing for the Cumberland County Historical Society and the Hamilton Library Association. Publications, which have been a mainstay of the society's programming for more than a century, are an activity of great interest to the membership.
A 1768 Cumberland County incident created political dissension in the Pennsylvania Assembly, promoted bickering between provincial authorities over legal procedures, nearly caused an Indian war, and left frontier residents in shock. A backcountry settler, Frederick Stump, and his accomplice, John lroncutter, murdered ten Indians in cold blood.