Runaway Servants
Servants played an important role in the economy of colonial and post-Revolutionary War America.
Schaumann, Merri Lou
Lewie Sing: Carlisle’s Chinese Laundryman
In 1899, Chinaman Sing Gee, planning to make a trip to China, sold his laundry business at 120 West High Street to Lewie Sing for $160. Lewie paid Sing Gee $100 and agreed to pay him the balance when he returned from China.
Sleighing
Two very heavy falls of snow within the last week have made glorious sleighing and found everybody in the humor to enjoy it. Everything in the shape of a sleigh has been put in requisition, and the jingle of the merry bells is an unceasing sound from ‘tosy morn to dewey eve,’ and then as the evenings are splendidly moonlit, the merriment only fairly commences.
Sleighing Parties: February 1911
Young people eagerly anticipated sleighing parties. Once enough snow had fallen, and a destination was established, horses and sleighs were commandeered, and chaperones found to escort the parties hither and yon.
“A Sleighing Party’s Bad Luck”
Sleighing parties to Cumberland County hotels and private houses were managed by livery stable owners who provided sleighs, horses, drivers, blankets, robes, and foot warmers to keep the sleigh’s occupants warm as the horses carried them along wintry roads.
Distiller Nathaniel Smith
On May 30, 1757, Col. John Stanwix arrived in Carlisle with five companies of the Royal American Regiment's first battalion to begin constructing entrenchments.
John Spahr: Constable (1807-1876)
George Shrom, who grew up on East Street in Carlisle, wrote about John Spahr in an 1898 article in the American Volunteer newspaper.
Thompson Spottswood: Teacher, Dentist and Civil War Soldier
F. A. Harris, remembering his Carlisle school teacher Thompson Spottswood, wrote: “I could stand over his grave today and weep tears of friendship. He was one of the kindest men, and for one year disciplined that bad, bad school
St. Patrick’s Day in Carlisle and Cumberland County
On Saturday evening, February 27, 1836, a number of Irishmen and their descendants living in Carlisle and the surrounding area met at the Mansion House on West High Street to plan a St. Patrick’s Day celebration to honor the birth of the patron saint of Ireland.
St. Patrick’s Day Celebrated at a Carlisle tavern in 1807
The old Eagle and Harp tavern, built in 1803 for Charles McManus, is still standing in Carlisle at 131 North East Street. It was there on Tuesday, March 17, 1807, that “a few of the sons of St. Patrick” met to celebrate the patron of Ireland.