Carlisle

A Tale of Two Towns: Divergent Views of Eighteenth-Century Carlisle

Founded in 1751 by Proprietor Thomas Penn, the town of Carlisle was erected to meet the mounting social, political, and economic needs of the ever-increasing number of people settling the rich agricultural hinterlands of Pennsylvania's Cumberland Valley. Once established, Carlisle served as both the official political and judicial seat of the newly-formed county of Cumberland and as one of the major social and economic focal points of backcountry  Pennsylvania—acting as a major transit point for many westward-bound travellers.

Jesse G. Thompson

Jesse G. Thompson was born around 1844, in Carlisle Pennsylvania, to parents Benjamin and Mary Thompson. In 1850 he was the youngest child in his household at six years old, with three older siblings named William, Richard, and Jane.1 In 1860 he was sixteen years old and working as a laborer, with two younger siblings named George and Mary.2 Thompson enlisted into Company A of the 32nd U.S.C.T. as a private, on February 17, 1864, in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.

A Train Ride Through Carlisle in 1920: A Reminiscence and Description

Today we will board an N-gauge passenger train in Harrisburg and travel through Carlisle 20 miles west of Harrisburg. This trip will be illustrated by using this 3' by 7' model of 1920 Carlisle. In 1920 tracks for Cumberland Valley Railroad passenger trains ran in the center of Main Street, now called High Street. These tracks were laid in 1837 and were in continuous use until 1936. The passenger station was located on the northwest corner of Main and North Pitt Streets.

Trains and Trolleys In and Out of Carlisle

Editor's Note: The late George M . Diffenderfer in 1972 '"womped' together for his own amazement, " as he wrote (and for his friends' amusement, one might add), a 126-page "compilation of nostaligia" that he titled “I Believe in Yesterday." Notes and vignettes of persons, places, and events, principally in Carlisle, that he remembered from his boyhood before World War I, the manuscript is remarkably detailed, personal, impressionistic, and often gossipy.

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