Before the days of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstate 81, and the attendant motels and restaurants, when motoring travelers passed through Carlisle’s downtown on Hanover and High Streets, Carlisle had a notable hotel named the Molly Pitcher Hotel.
Margaretta, her husband, John Cassilus Neff1 and their children, settled in Carlisle in 1838. Dr. Neff set up a practice as a dentist, and his wife, Margaretta, opened a millinery shop, both at No. 7 Harper's Row. Mrs.
Being the wife of a tavernkeeper meant that Elizabeth helped with the running of the tavern as well as taking care of her family. Washing, cleaning, cooking in a hot kitchen over a fire for hours as well as helping in the barroom was hard work.
Ephraim Steel, the youngest child of Ephraim and Esther Steel,1 was born in Carlisle on November 13, 1795. His father was a merchant and an Associate Judge of Cumberland County who died in 1814. 2 Ephraim, Jr., likely apprenticed with one of the many silversmiths working in Carlisle in the early decades of the nineteenth century.
Agnes Swansey was born on June 30, 1743, grew up on her parent’s farm in West Pennsborough Township, and in 1761 married John Steele a Carlisle tavernkeeper.1 Her husband died sometime between 1769 and 1776 when she appeared on Carlisle tax lists as Agnes Steel, widow.
Interview of Fred Wardecker for the Elizabeth V. and George F. Gardner Digital Library. Wardecker discusses the Wardecker/Blumenthal Clothing Store in Carlisle, Pennsylvania along with the history of downtown Carlisle, the Carlisle Indian School, and many other stories.
During the presidency of George Washington one of the early major issues confronting him was raising taxes to pay the debt of the states incurred during the Revolutionary War. Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton in 1790 recommended an excise tax on domestically produced distilled spirits (the Whiskey Act of 1791).1