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.
Eric Swidler is proud to oversee the group of radio stations that his father has maintained in Carlisle for over fifty years. Radio Carlisle under Swidler leadership will celebrate sixty plus years in 2025. In 1960, Eric’s father, Harold Z. Swidler, enjoyed listening to radio as much as anyone.
Indentured servants were men and women who agreed to work for a master without pay for a specified number of years, usually in return for having their passages to America paid. This 1775 advertisement in Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania Gazette announced that the ship Hawke had just arrived from London and was lying off the Market Street wharf with a shipment of “a few likely healthy servants” of many different trades “whose times are to be disposed of.”
In 1856, Solomon Gorgas, a successful businessman, state legislator, and influential resident of Mechanicsburg donated land for an institution for the education of women.
Robert Lee Jacobs was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on December 7, 1910 to T. Ralph Jacobs and Flora Alma Lee Jacobs.
Carlisle Herald, September 1, 1870. “MAGNIFICENT BIRTHDAY DEMONSTRATION—Splendid Pyrotechnic Display.—Mr. James W. Bosler, a citizen of this place, residing in the suburbs of the borough, gave a grand birthday party, pyrotechnic display, etc., in honor of his little son Charlie’s fifth birthday.
David “D.J.” Javitch opened the Carlisle Meat Market, a two-man butcher shop, in 1923, and by 1937, Javitch expanded his vision to create a Giant Food Shopping Center in Lewistown, Pennsylvania.
To-Night! To-Night!
“The Ford Brothers, exterminators of Jesse James, the noted outlaw chief and his band of desperadoes, are with the Ramblers’ Comedy company. The manager says that nothing will be done to offend the most fastidious.”
From 1857 until the 1880s, residents of Cumberland County migrated en masse to the plains of central Kansas.
Born in France during the reign of King Louis Philippe, Peter Karlskind arrived in America in 1863, fought with the Irish Brigade during the Civil War and died in Cumberland County on or about New Year’s Day 1900.
Mary Wheeler King was born on December 24, 1901 in Newville.1 After graduating from Carlisle High School in the spring of 1919, King moved away to continue her education at Wilson College in Chambersburg.