During 1906 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania required that a death certificate be submitted to one of its agencies at the time of death or soon thereafter. Access to the general public was limited because copies of these records were issued to relatives only. Also; the Department of Health searched only one month on either side of the estimated date of death or, when supplied with only the year of death, restricted the search to only January or February of that year. Consequently, historians and genealogists were handicapped in their efforts.
Necrology scrapbook compiled by Flower family. Obituaries of prominent Carlisle and Carlisle-area persons, clipped from local newspapers, 1916-1983, Listed below, in this order: Name, date of notice, page in scrapbook, type of notice.
The Indian Industrial School operated on the site of what is now known as Carlisle Barracks from 1879 to 1918. The school has been extensively documented and its best known student, Jim Thorpe, put Carlisle in the international spotlight for his performance at the Olympic Games in 1912.
Northeast of Carlisle borough near the intersection of Cavalry Road and Route 11 sits a distinguished, white-washed, brick home known as the Wilson House. That impressive structure bore witness to a part of the compelling story of Revolutionary War officer Major James Armstrong Wilson. He has frequently been confused with another James Wilson (1742-1798) who signed the Declaration of Independence and was a resident of Carlisle for a time.
Most studies of the economic impact of the War of 1812 focus on early economic growth including manufacturing, shipbuilding, and canal and road improvements, and later issues of economic decline including the failure of the First Bank, decline of-specie supply, and issuance of Treasury Notes. These macroeconomic studies target such things as the inadequacy of the banking system, depreciation, inflation, the depression beginning in 1815, the Panic of 1819, and subsequent recessions of the 1820s.
“Pressure of the times.” “Scarcity of money.” “Scarcity of work.” “Persistence of creditors.” “Family sickness.” “Low wages.” “Unemployment.” “Bought high and had to sell low.” Are these familiar phrases heard in the last couple of years? Yes. But they are also verbatim phrases found in petitions for insolvency to the Cumberland County courts from 1750-1860 by debtors who found themselves arrested on a judgment for debt.
In 2011 CCHS acquired an 1813 petition to the state legislature that sheds light on an intriguing yet little known episode in the County's history. The document reveals that Carlisle Constable James Hutton petitioned the General Assembly on January 28, 1813, in an effort to reverse the decision of two lawsuits against him that threatened to take away his property and leave him homeless.
On April 6, 1784, in the county courthouse in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the Board of Trustees of the fledgling Dickinson College met and asked two of its members, John Dickinson and Benjamin Rush, to devise a seal for the college.
Carlisle historian Ruth Hodge, representing the African-American community of Carlisle, was actively involved in the discussion about renaming Carlisle High School's West Building. She had several individuals in mind who qualified for the honor, but when requested to pick just one name, she had no difficulty in narrowing the selection to the late Emma Thompson McGowan, a teacher in the Carlisle school system for almost thirty years.