With the 2011 issue of Cumberland County History, a new feature will appear in the Journal. The new feature will be an opportunity for our readers to learn more about the extensive and varied collections housed at the Cumberland County Historical Society in irs library, museum, and photo archives.
In recognition of the 200th anniversary of the composing of the poem, “The Star Spangled Banner” by Francis Scott Key during the War of 1812, the staff has selected three items related to the theme, flags. Although in no way related to the iconic flag from Fort McHenry, the information about flags in our collections will hopefully be of interest and illustrate the uniqueness of our collections
In 2008, the daughters of John S. Steckbeck donated his research collection to the Cumberland County Historical Society. Steckbeck was a professor of physical education at Dickinson College from 1946-1955. He was also a backfield coach, track coach, swim coach, and a trainer for the college. When he was not busy with sporting events, he spent his time with music.
How many of our readers remember buying lollipops, clear toy candy, chocolates, and caramel corn from Little's Home-Made Candies booth in the Old Market House, the Wrightstone Market and at the Carlisle Fair? In 2010 the museum accessioned a large donation of Little's candy making equipment from Joanne Bear, granddaughter of Herbert P. Little.
We were extremely fortunate in 2012 to receive two outstanding collections that contained photos related to the Girl Scouts of America. This increased our number of Girl Scout related photos from just a handful to hundreds of significant images.
Forgotten roads shimmer like fragile cobwebs over the mountains and valleys of central Pennsylvania. Many have disappeared under later roads and tracks. Others wind over the ridges as hiking trails or forestry roads. A very few remain as narrow paths in the woodlands. Their histories have become confused by 300 years of European settlers’ traffic. There were many such roads near Carlisle for the town was always a knot in this skein. The Fort Granville Road, mapped in 1755-1756, is an example of a truly forgotten, but still existing road.
A visitor returns to a familiar scene to refresh his memory, he looks for once familiar landmarks, and he notes, with approval or regret, whatever changes have come about. An armchair revisitation to Fort Loudoun has been on the whole reassuring. Since I wrote about it sixteen years ago, the fort has not been neglected.
ln 1943 February 17 dawn found a hundred or more students shivering in overcoat and muffler weather as they stood about at the Pennsylvania Railroad Depot in Carlisle. About two score were going to war. Half a century later those who survived could recall only Whit Bell from the faculty, but Ralph Schecter must have been there as well, for the single cheerful element that morning was his Dickinson College band.
The history of a remarkable African-American family in Pennsylvania begins, in a sense, with a two-story frame house at 43 Baltimore Street in Carlisle. The builders of the house, Jonas and Mary Kee, came into Pennsylvania in the mid-nineteenth century from Maryland and Virginia respectively. Their daughter, Margaret, married William James Andrews, whose forebears were in Shippensburg as early as 1790. The Andrews were the second generation to inhabit the house.
Transcriptions of newspaper articles by Mark W Podvia and Joan McBride. On April 7, 1893, the Evening Sentinel reported that Frederick Douglass was making his first visit to Carlisle when he addressed the students at the Carlisle Indian School. His presence at the school was also subsequently reported in the school's publication, The Indian Helper, on April14, 1893 and April21, 1893.