Heisey, Daniel J.

The Mechanicsburg Legend of Washington Irving

Perhaps if a symbol were to be chosen for historians, it would be an owl. The wise old owl, who listens more than he speaks, just as the historian is supposed to observe and study before he publishes his essay into the past. Yet, upon reading historical essays, one begins to sense that historians might more appropriately march beneath the sign of the parrot. History, which began as the most inquisitive of arts, often degrades into repeating accepted wisdom, and the received tradition replaces individual inquiry.

Charles Nisbet

Portrait of Rev. Charles Nisbet first President of Dickinson College

Charles Nisbet (21 January, 1736-18 January, 1804), was born near Haddington, Scotland, and died in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Educated at the University of Edinburgh, he was a Presbyterian minister and formidable scholar, known to contemporaries as a walking library. From 1785 to 1804 he served as the first principal (president) of Dickinson College.

Poets and Patricians: The Bosler Library at One Hundred

"He gave River City the library building, bur he left all the books to her." Meredith Willson, The Music Man. That verse summarizes the history of public libraries in many American small towns. A generous citizen provides for a library and puts it in the care of a guardian. The public library in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, is no exception, and it is the purpose here to address some aspects of its history, in particular its nature as a public and memorial library.

Review Article: Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766

Fred Anderson, Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766. (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 2000). xxiii, 862, illustrated, maps, index. Hardcover $40.00 (ISBN 0-375-40642- 5); Paperback (New York: Vintage Books, 2001) $20.00 (ISBN 0-375- 70636-4)

The Silk Road to New Cumberland

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.

Harold Stone

Mechanicsburg High School yearbook. CCHS yearbook Collection.

Roy Harold Stone (22 June, 1914-18 November, 2007), universally known as Harold, often as Stoney, was a barber in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. He worked as a barber from his days as an apprentice at age fourteen until his retirement at age ninety-two.1

The Topless Bathing Suit Revisited

In April 1968, syndicated columnist James J. Kilpatrick delivered the Detroit Historical Society's annual Lewis Cass Lecture.  The lectureship was then twenty years old, and Kilpatrick followed such distinguished historians as Bruce Carron and Sylvester K. Stevens. Unlike his predecessors, Kilpatrick was a journalist, and so he took his inspiration from Thomas Carlyle's belief that "Histories are a kind of distilled newspapers."

Why Hampden?

In 1995 Hampden Township observed its sesquicentenary, causing one to wonder why it is called Hampden. While there is no documentary proof, it can with some confidence be concluded that it bears the name of a little known, almost forgotten hero of the English Civil War. Cumberland County's standard histories-Wing, Beers, Donehoo, and Godcharles-dutifully note the formation of the township in January, 1845, but none inquires into the name it bears. The county's prothonotary records the actions in civil court creating the township, but such transcripts offer no reason for the name.

The Works of Henry Ganss

For twenty years, from 1890 to 1910, Father Henry Ganss served as pastor of Saint Patrick's Catholic Church in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. During that time he produced historical and musical works achieving international appreciation. He has merited entries in two prominent works of reference-The Dictionary of American Biography and The New Catholic Encyclopedia-rare for one whose activities one would assume deserved only parochial notice.

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