The first question that a frightened world asked about Three Mile Island on 28 March 1979 was how long the place could be expected to stay on the map. As fear subsided enough to suggest that it might be there for a long time, the question shifted to the more curious, "How did the place get its unusual name?" That question is not simply answered; six years of curiosity and research have yielded more conjectures than proofs.
When considering those things of cultural significance in our heritage, one rarely, if ever, thinks of tombstones. Yet pre-1850 stones and their art offer valuable insight into how our ancestors viewed death and life after death, and also reflect changes in the perception of death and rebirth.
Ten rural religious societies of Presbyterians evolved in the Cumberland Valley of Pennsylvania prior to 1745. This account of the chain of self-starting societies in the seventy-mile Valley is drawn principally from the Minutes of the Presbytery of Donegal, which exercised rigid control over ecclesiastical activity, including such matters as scheduling each Sabbath of sermons until such time as a resident preacher was in place.
On April 12, 1973, ten residents of Upper Allen Township gathered in the municipal building in response to a call by the Commissioners for people interested in planning for the nation's bicentennial celebration. Several weeks later, on May 7, these same residents, along with two new recruits, formed the Upper Allen Heritage Committee, having as its stated purpose the preservation of the "natural and historical heritage of Upper Allen Township."
In recent years, researchers seeking to interpret history have increasingly recognized the value of photographic collections. Such images provide us with important information often available nowhere else. Visually accurate, they often have the power to evoke a time long since lost.
In order to understand the early years of the German Lutheran and Reformed churches in Cumberland County, we need to know something about the beginnings of these two churches in colonial Pennsylvania and also about the pattern of the county's early settlement.
Grantham in Upper Allen Township is best known as the home of Messiah College. Both the village and the college are very much a product of the creative energy of Samuel Roger Smith, a farm boy become educator and industrialist.
George McFeely was a true "officer and gentleman." As lieutenant colonel of the 22nd Regiment of Infantry and as colonel of the 25th Regiment, he acted as second in command of the force which invaded Canada. Then, after the war was over, McFeely was designated as a "gentleman" of Carlisle by the censors and the assessors of the septennial assessment of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.
A 1768 Cumberland County incident created political dissension in the Pennsylvania Assembly, promoted bickering between provincial authorities over legal procedures, nearly caused an Indian war, and left frontier residents in shock. A backcountry settler, Frederick Stump, and his accomplice, John lroncutter, murdered ten Indians in cold blood.
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.