Silver spoons and tableware were considered valuable assets in 1780. Spoons and a few other pieces of tableware such as “Mustard Potts” represent entries among a handful of the county’s residents. They are not found in the earliest county tax lists.
Carlisle, the county seat of Cumberland County, was founded in 1751. It is the oldest borough in Cumberland County and the third oldest town in Pennsylvania west of the Susquehannah River.
During the presidency of George Washington one of the early major issues confronting him was raising taxes to pay the debt of the states incurred during the Revolutionary War. Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton in 1790 recommended an excise tax on domestically produced distilled spirits (the Whiskey Act of 1791).1