Van Baker of Newville: Ex-slave
Known in town as “Bossy” Baker, Van Baker was born a slave in Virginia about the year 1820. When The Star and Enterprise newspaper reported that Mr.
Newville Star and Enterprise
Newville’s Big Spring Hotel -1860
The Big Spring Hotel was situated near the Newville Depot on the Cumberland Valley Rail Road. It was enlarged and improved by its owners, the Ahl brothers, in 1860. By May 1860, a three-story brick addition to the back of the hotel was almost finished.1
Weavers working in Carlisle in 1814
When the Septennial Census of Carlisle was taken in 1814, it included the names and occupations of all the borough’s taxables. Nineteen of them, including two women, were identified as weavers, and at least half of them were born in Ireland.