Settlers in colonial America adopted the use of tobacco after it was introduced to them by native peoples in the 1600s. Tobacco plantations proliferated as the demand for tobacco grew. After tobacco was harvested, it had to be cured.
When Jane Buchanan died in Shippensburg in 1888, she was the last survivor of the eight children of Capt.
In 1916, P. Lee Phillips, Chief of the Division of Maps and Charts at the Library of Congress, wrote to the editor of the Carlisle Evening Herald newspaper seeking information. The editor printed the letter under the following headlines.
Miss Minerva White and her mother, Matilda Vickers, came to Mt. Holly from Virginia in 1859. Minerva worked for several years in the paper mills in Mt. Holly, but about 1870 she and her mother took charge of the toll gate and ran a small store.1 After her mother’s death in 1885, Minerva continued to operate the Mt. Holly toll gate for another 19 years.