This is a gold mine of a book. Mrs. Schaumann has done some real digging in official County records and in doing so has come up with an excellent overview of Carlisle as found in tax lists.
The major section deals with the original 312 lots, each 60' x 240' as laid out by John Armstrong for the Penn proprietors. In the beginning, each lot sold for seven pence sterling with the condition that the purchaser erect thereon within a year a 20 foot square house of stone, brick or frame (i.e., log) with a stone or brick chimney. Each original lot holder is named and all subsequent changes of ownership are given up to 1835, often with cost, description and sometimes the occupation of the purchaser. As the compiler notes " not every deed was traceable, in an unbroken chain from the first lot owners, the deeds unrecorded or lost." But any such losses fail to impair interest or the value of the research. The result is fascinating. Lots were not all sold, some not purchased until several decades into the 19th century, presumably they had reverted to town ownership. One is not told to whom the purchase price at that time was paid.
Following the introduction to town development, tax lists of 1779, 1789, 1799, 1811, 1820 and 1835 are set forth. In the latter year, not only are occupations given but also statistics on the type of buildings, businesses, churches, etc. Log houses (126) which must include one and two structures and frame houses (152) some undoubtedly over log walls as originally constructed, lead all other dwellings in number. As for occupations, the title "gentleman" leads with 42 men so designated and next, attorneys at law 23, as befitted the county seat. A judge, the president of the college and bank president are so given. Were they, and the lawyers, not "gentlemen"? And where, indeed, in those years were the ladies, save those few given as “widows”?
For nearly half a century until his death on January 2 at the age of 85 Milton Embick Flower was the best informed, most authoritative, and most widely known historian of Carlisle and Cumberland County. He was the author of books, monographs, and catalogues that recorded and interpreted the past of this area, and, in the words of one of his successors as president of the Cumberland County Historical Society...
When Post Masters received letters, they listed the names in the newspapers of those to whom the letters were addressed. If the letters were not picked up by a specified date, they went to the Dead Letter Office.