Book Reviews: A Short History of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 1751 to 1936

A Short History of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 1751 to 1936. By Daniel J. Heisey. 58 pp. Carlisle, Pa. The New Loudon Press, 1997.

The "fair town" off Carlisle and its surrounding area has been favored by the presence of several excellent historians from the classic work of the Flowers in 1944 through current exemplars like Lewis D. Gobrecht and Daniel]. Heisey. Heisey's earlier gem, Pages of Histmy Essays on Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, has been followed by another brief work, centered on the evolution of Carlisle from "provincial outpost" in the 1750s to the last train roaring down High Street on 16 October 1936. As in his earlier works we find a well-written narrative containing anecdotes about the famous and less well-known residents of Carlisle-from James Wilson, co-author of the executive article in the Constitution of 1787, to Marianne Moore, the poet and writer, to Bessie Jones, granddaughter of a former slave, who ran an infamous institution in town until her dramatic death in 1972. Only one famed person is demoted ("sent packing") from her pedestal-" Molly Pitcher."

The connecting of national events and trends to local history is one of the most successful aspects ofHeisey's book. Whether it is the Revolution, the making of the Constitution, the first great challenge to the new government (which brought President Washington to Carlisle), or the crisis surrounding slavery that resulted in the Civil War, we read of Carlisle's response-both negative and positive. For example, when the poet Whittier came to Carlisle (brought by the new railroad) preaching abolition, the author observes that his message "fell on stony soil" and that Abraham Lincoln never carried Carlisle or Cumberland County. Yet when the call to arms came, many men volunteered and served (as reflected in the letters of the Faller brothers).

Continuing his concern with the leaders of society and politics, Heisey offers a description of the "grand old families" of Carlisle-the Baird, Bosler, Sadler, and Penrose clans, by concentrating on the Sadlers. Particularly rewarding is the vignette of life at Thornwald mansion with elegant dinners, nine hole golf course, and well-stocked liquor cellar. One of the appealing characteristics of the author's treatment of these families is constant reference to great families of literature. 

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