In his book, The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics, Christopher Lasch cautions that "Nostalgia appeals to the feeling that the past offered delights no longer attainable ...," a past that "stands outside time, frozen in unchanging perfection." "The hallmark of nostalgia," he writes, "is a dependency on the disparagement of the present."
This author's interest in the cityscape of Mechanicsburg was aroused several years ago during a bit of genealogical research. A letter written by Mollie Schafhirt in 1893 describes as "Tower Hill" the section of Mechanicsburg to which she had come as a bride. The house, on East Coover Street, still displays a tower. Nearby are five other houses with towers, all sitting on a hill at Coover and Market Streets.
David A. Plank was born near Churchtown, Cumberland County on June 13, 1838, the son of Anna Maria and Jacob Plank, Sr.1 David spent his early years on his father’s farm and later worked in his wheel factory at Churchtown.
Private William Pope served in Co. B 32nd Regt. U.S.C.T. He was born about 1842 as a slave in Page County, Virginia.[1] [2] He was mustered into the war at age 21 on Feb. 9, 1864. He enlisted in Chambersburg for 3 years and claimed that he worked as a laborer. Pope was always present except for a short period in February 1865; however, the documentation is unclear about his disappearance.
According to his headstone, George Riley was born around 1855. He served in the U.S.C.T., and lived in in the Cumberland County area. While it may not be the same person, a George Riley and his wife lost two young children to a house fire in 1880.1 He died on May 15, 1887, at the age of 32, and is buried in Lincoln Cemetery, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.2
Bibliography:
Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on May 30, 1882, Jane Deeter was the middle child of five and the youngest of the daughters.1 She lived in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania with her mother while her father worked in Harrisburg, but came home on the weekends.
Maximillian Sappelt and his parents Joseph and Ottillia Sappelt left the port of Hamburg, Germany on June 1, 1867 aboard the ship “Cimbria” bound for America.1 They settled in New York City where Joseph Sappelt practiced medicine, and Max went to school.2
Sarah Mather Deeter was a prototype for a mid-19th- mid-20th century middle class woman. The daughter of an enterprising couple, she was a good student in school, studied voice, married a singer, kept house and reared a family of five children in Mechanicsburg, a fairly typical, largely middle-class town in central Pennsylvania.
Interview of Eugene Schlosnagle for the Second Presbyterian Church and the Elizabeth V. and George F. Gardner Digital Library. Schlosnagle discusses his involvement with Second Presbyterian as well as his experiences during World War II and teaching veterans how to farm.
Note: Dr. Herrold delivered the Annual Address at the dinner of the Cumberland County Historical Society on October 17, 2000. The address was principally the Reverend Mr. Ault's sermon of 1873, which contained an historical account of the Reformed Church in Pennsylvania and the Cumberland Valley. It is reprinted here from the original manuscript in possession of St. Paul's United Church of Christ, Mechanicsburg.