Raphael S. Hays II, John Hays: Civil War Soldier; Lawyer; Businessman. (Carlisle 250th Anniversary Committee, 2000). Illustrated. Paperback $10.00
Civic commemoration, while a mainstay of the ship of state, can be hazardous to history. The facts of life and death and the commerce between remain the same, bur interpretation based on the pride of a town or a family sometimes whitewashes a colorful reality. This is a genuine mess when it happens, not only for later historians who must peel off such nonsense, but also for the town or family who thought they were doing a good job in putting together something nice and leaving it at that. An attempt at real history, with its mud and sweat and laughter and yelling, is far more interesting and lasting than any featureless cover-up.
Raphael Hays II, the author of this portrait of his great-grandfather, John Hays, which was published for the recent county anniversary, has attempted real history and has succeeded decisively. John Hays (1837-1921) was a scion of a distinguished Carlisle family, a Dickinson College graduate, a battle-hardened Civil War veteran of the 130'" Pennsylvania Volunteers, a successful lawyer, and a businessman noted for his management of Carlisle Gas & Water Company, Carlisle Light, Heat, & Power Company, and Frog, Switch & Manufacturing Company. He was our homegrown representative of the Gilded Age, part of that grand age of local Names that included Bosler, Biddle, Lindner, and Watts, among others. He was a vocal and opinionated town leader who led a life in high profile and apologized to no one for it. His life, as given to us by our own Mr. Hays, is a dramatic ride through Carlisle history.
The book opens brilliantly with a preface by Mr. Hays that recalls Memorial Day of 1940, a jewel of description that suggests the relationships between family and memory and history. In the first chapter we go back thirty years to another masterful set-piece of prose, a walk by John Hays from his office to his home on North Hanover Street. Then the account takes up a straightforward chronology of Hays's life, from college and courtship to war and professional advancement. Each major business interest receives its own chapter. Controversies and corporate battles, especially the fights between Hays's utilities and the borough, are clearly recounted. The Frog, Switch chapter, since it has continuing relevance to the Carlisle of today, is especially compelling with its tale of entrepreneurial rescue, innovative industrial design, arson, and heroic recovery. The final major chapter accompanies Hays on his quest to recover his role in the battle of Chancellorsville and his possible accidental involvement in the death of Stonewall Jackson. For all his later success and strenuous engagement in the life of his beloved hometown, the war and its chances of life and death always haunted John Hays.
In the early morning hours of March 24, 1845, the Cumberland County court house and Carlisle town hall burned down. The next morning the Carlisle Herald & Expositor printed an "extra," which was distributed in large numbers "through the county and to a distance." DESTRUCTIVE FIRE! County Court-House & Town Hall burned down!
Wilhelm Schimmel was a German-born itinerant who traipsed Pennsylvania’s Cumberland Valley doing odd jobs. In payment for food and sleeping quarters in the barns and lofts of local families, he carved and painted eagles and animal figures of various sizes.