Cumberland county, which forms the eastern portion of the great Cumberland Valley, is made up, as we ordinarily know it, of three geological formations, viz: the slate on the north, the limestone in the center, and the sand or pinelands on the south. It is drained lengthwise by the Conodoguinet and the Yellow Breeches creeks.
As many are probably aware, Carlisle was chosen to be the County seat of Cumberland County after much debate in 1751. The Penn family had plans for the town drawn up that same year. The Penn plan for Carlisle "consisted of 312 lots, each sixty feet by two hundred and forty feet. The original boundaries of the town were North, South, East and West Streets.
Discontent and resistance against royal authority was found throughout the frontier and urban centers of pre-Revolutionary America. In an attempt to examine the defiant Pennsylvania frontiersmen, this paper will investigate a small portion of the life of one Pennsylvanian, James Smith, during the years he spent as leader of the rebellious "Black Boys."
The word "Shireman" is of English origin meaning "the official or steward of a shire, a sheriff." "Shire" or "Shires" also is of English origin and means "dweller in the shire or county; one who came from Shere (bright), in Surrey."