The Cumberland County Historical Encyclopedia is an expanding publication on the history of the Cumberland County. Covering a wide range of topics and the entire Cumberland County geographic region, the Encyclopedia seeks to be an initial entry point to those interested in the County's history. Entries seek to provide a list of resources available as well as showcasing some of the Cumberland County Historical Society's own collections.
On Saturday, March 30, 1822, Gilson Craighead, a prosperous South Middleton Township farmer and mill owner, went to Carlisle for the day with his son Major James. They would both be dead within a week.
Thomas Craighead’s slave Venus: Sister of the first published American Negro poet Phillis Wheatley. T.C. was Thomas Craighead (1789-1865) the son of John Craighead and his wife Jane Lamb. The “old Thomas Craighead” he refers to in his letter was his grandfather who died in 1807. In 1845, T.C. also contributed a history of incidents relating to his family that was published in I.D. Rupp’s History of Dauphin, Cumberland, Perry Counties…. p. 440-444.
On January 27, 1749/1750, the General Assembly of Pennsylvania created Cumberland County from Lancaster County in an Act titled “An Act for erecting part of the province of Pennsylvania, westward of Susquehanna, and northward and westward of York, into a county.”1 Theories differ as to
Patrick Culp, a "mulatto," and the only documented African American cabinetmaker in Cumberland County, was born in Pennsylvania in 1790. A member of Allison United Methodist Church1 and later St.
Horses were vital for transportation and farming, and horse stealing was a chronic problem. In the nineteenth century, horse thief detection and protection societies were formed in many states.
Cumberland County place names under the following lists: named after the founder or an early settler, geographical/geological features, and miscellaneous.
The Cumberland County Register of Historic Places was organized by the Cumberland County Historical Society (CCHS) to recognize places of local historic significance that may not qualify for placement on the National Register of Historic Places.
The following list of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania servicemen who died in Vietnam appears in alphabetical order and was compiled from official and non-official sources.
This is a list of the seventy-four Cumberland County, Pennsylvania servicemen who sacrificed their lives in service to their country during World War I. The list is compiled from the book Service records: Cumberland County in the World War 1917-1918 printed in 1935 by the Cumberland Cou
George Ross (May 10, 1730—July 14, 1779) was born in New Castle, Delaware, the son of Rev. George and Catherine Van Gezel Ross, studied in Philadelphia, opened his law practice in Lancaster in 1751, and was named the King’s attorney for Cumberland County.