Three published works have dealt with routes through the area of Cumberland County which is west of Carlisle. In 1904 a Shippensburg attorney, John R. Miller, wrote Reminiscences of the Walnut Bottom Road. Five years later a Carlisle surveyor, John D. Hemminger, published Old Roads of Cumberland County.
Considering the time and the place, the first army seen in Cumberland County was of quite respectable size. Made up entirely of British regulars, it comprised two foot regiments, a detachment of artillery, and three independent (or unregimented) companies. With these units at less than full strength, the whole force numbered about twelve thousand.
John Harris, Jr., the founder of Harrisburg, born on the Pennsylvania frontier in 1727, grew up in Paxton Township on the east side of the Susquehanna River in what was then Harris's Ferry. In 1748 he inherited the land from his immigrant father, and from that time until his death in 1791 he contributed to its development from a fragmented frontier settlement to a structured community town.
When Post Masters received letters, they listed the names in the newspapers of those to whom the letters were addressed. If the letters were not picked up by a specified date, they went to the Dead Letter Office.
The Shippensburg borough lives in two Pennsylvania counties, mostly in Cumberland but also in Franklin. In 1730, twelve Scots-Irish families traveled the Virginia Path Indian trail (now U.S.
Shippensburg, the second oldest town west of the Susquehannah river, was named for Edward Shippen, but the founding and naming of the town is much more than these simple facts.