North Newton Township

Newville

Photo of High Street in Newville, Pennsylvania, decorated for the town's sesquicentennial.

The town of Newville lodges in the northwest corner of Cumberland County.1 The first settler, Andrew Ralston, arrived in 1728.2 The town was founded by Scots-Irish when the Big Spring Presbyterian Church, which dates to 1737, sold lots from its 89 acres in 1790.

A Year in the Life of a Village: Oakville 1910

Main Street in Oakville, PA, looking south.

It was a good day for Shippensburg photographer Clyde Laughlin to take photographs of Oakville because there were no leaves on the trees. Mr. Laughlin produces post cards from the photos he takes of the towns and villages of Cumberland County. His camera captures a horse and buggy traveling towards him on Main Street, and the two young boys who are peering over a fence watching what he is doing. The white-washed Rail Road Crossing sign post warns people to Stop, Look, Listen.

Isabella Oliver

Photo of the cover page from Oliver's Poems

Isabella Oliver, (July 16, 1771—June 7, 1843), once known as the “poetess of the Conodoguinet,” or more colorfully as that creek’s “muse,” was the second--and the first female--published Cumberland County poet in 1805 with Poems on Various Subjects, following the unknown writer of The Unequal Conflict in 1792.

South Newton Township

Photo of Big Pond Furnace at South Mountain, PA circa 1915

Newton Township first appeared in Cumberland county tax records in 1773 although it was organized by 1767.[1] In 1929, Newton divided into North Newton and South Newton Townships.[2] The early settlers in the area were Scots-Irish but German families began to move in toward the end of the 18th century.[3] By the time the township had formed, most of the land had been taken up and the area had a settled population.[4]

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