In 1808 Thomas Sully, artist to the rich and famous, painted the portrait of Henry Connelly. (Fig. 1) Connelly, looking contented, prosperous, and very Byronesque, was 39 years old at the time. He had reason to look both prosperous and contented for he was one of the leading cabinetmakers of Philadelphia.
Having arrived in Philadelphia from Germany in July 1752, Martin Herman settled on a tract of land in Silver Spring Township on April 15, 1771. He named his tract “St.
Newspaper editors encouraged residents of towns and villages in the county to send them items of interest for publication. The editor of the Carlisle Weekly Herald included a letter from a resident of Hickorytown in its December 20, 1883 issue.
Daughter of a Carlisle tavernkeeper, wife of an English iron worker, Aunt to a well-known actress, and benefactress to the poor, Susana McMurray Higgs was born, lived much of her life and died on the same property in Carlisle.
The humming of the saws at the mill could be heard as you approached the general store. Sheaffer & Williamson Dealers in General Merchandise reads the sign above the windows on the second floor of the general store. As in many villages, the general store also served as the Post Office, and the Huntsdale Post Office sign hung from the porch roof. Six men are standing on the porch staring at the photographer on the other side of the road. Wooden posts stand at the edge of the dirt road ready for customers to tie up their horses. The scene resembles other small villages in the county, but this is the village of Huntsdale on Pine Road in Penn Township, Cumberland County.
Doing research into the history of a place can be a confusing exercise because county and township boundaries changed over the decades as well as the names of towns and villages.
Indentured servants were men and women who agreed to work for a master without pay for a specified number of years, usually in return for having their passages to America paid. This 1775 advertisement in Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania Gazette announced that the ship Hawke had just arrived from London and was lying off the Market Street wharf with a shipment of “a few likely healthy servants” of many different trades “whose times are to be disposed of.”
Carlisle Herald, September 1, 1870. “MAGNIFICENT BIRTHDAY DEMONSTRATION—Splendid Pyrotechnic Display.—Mr. James W. Bosler, a citizen of this place, residing in the suburbs of the borough, gave a grand birthday party, pyrotechnic display, etc., in honor of his little son Charlie’s fifth birthday.
To-Night! To-Night!
“The Ford Brothers, exterminators of Jesse James, the noted outlaw chief and his band of desperadoes, are with the Ramblers’ Comedy company. The manager says that nothing will be done to offend the most fastidious.”
Born in France during the reign of King Louis Philippe, Peter Karlskind arrived in America in 1863, fought with the Irish Brigade during the Civil War and died in Cumberland County on or about New Year’s Day 1900.