The scene of the murder was the “Sign of the Indian Queen” tavern on Carlisle’s West High Street. The victim was tavernkeeper Robert Grayson. Grayson had been a tavernkeeper in between positions as the county jailer in the 1790s and High Sheriff from 1801-1804.
James Hamilton, Jr. (1793 - 1873), was born in and was a lifelong resident of Carlisle. His father was a wealthy attorney and James followed in his footsteps after graduating from Dickinson College. Beyond law, James was also interested in education, science, and history, and became an active philanthropist in support of those interests.
When one thinks of the past, crime is not the first thing that jumps to one's mind; it would probably be the last thing, if thought about at all. Today when one thinks of crime, one thinks of muggings, robbery, murder-the same things that took place then. The most common crime then was assault & battery.
Interview of Patrick Murphy for the Elizabeth V. and George F. Gardner Digital Library Memory Bank. Murphy discusses his life in Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania and his military service in World War II.
Interview of Patrick Murphy for the Elizabeth V. and George F. Gardner Digital Library Memory Bank. Murphy discusses some of his experiences in the European Theatre of World War II and his life following his discharge from the Army in including working at C. H. Maslands and Mount Holly Milk.
Children and those who wanted to play an instrument either learned at home from their parents, from relatives, or by instruction from private tutors or traveling music masters.
Nellie Clayton Cornman was born in Carlisle, and Robert Tempest in Philadelphia. Music was their common bond, but in personality and temperament they were complete opposites. Both were born in 1868 and were 39 years old when they met.
In January of 1883, an eleven-year-old boy from the Laguna pueblo in New Mexico Territory wrote a letter from the Carlisle Indian School to someone back home. Here is the letter:
So many of us go through life without thinking of the bigger picture- what can we do to better our communities after we are gone? I would like today to discuss Mary Wheeler King and to say to you that here is a friend who thought very carefully how she would influence future generations.
When a man sleepwalks and falls out of his hotel window on the second floor, that's odd. When two men sleepwalk and fall out of the windows of their rooms on the second floor of the same hotel, that's very odd. But when three men in three years sleepwalk and fall out of their windows on the second floor of the same hotel, that's a mystery.