America's first historian, Abiel Holmes, records that by 1792 enterprising New Englanders were enjoying success in the cultivation of silk worms. The idea was to begin an American source for silk and thus avoid importing the luxury from France or other European brokers. Silk had been appreciated in the West since at least the days of Augustus, being brought from China to Syria by way of India.
In 1734 the land on the west shore of the Susquehanna River was opened for homesteading, and the first settlers were permitted to cross the river to legally obtain land. Trappers and Indian traders had been traveling through the valley to the west and the south for years, but they were not permitted to reside or claim land. The Penn's had previously purchased this land from the Indians, but some claims remained, and it had not been opened to the public.
Thomas Penn, a son of William Penn and a Proprietor of the lands remaining from his father's original grant, was actively involved in plans related to the design of Carlisle. The town, as originally developed, incorporated sixteen square blocks centered on a Square bounded by the cardinal streets: North, South, East and West.