CELEBRATING THE FOURTH, 1796 Carlisle, July 6 Monday last being the Anniversary of American Liberty and Independence, was celebrated with the usual Festivity, by the Inhabitants of the Borough--The Volunteer corp of Light Infantry in military order proceeded to Mr. Holmes' Spring, where they together with a number of Citizens dined in great harmony.
François Andre Michaux, botanist and silviculturist, a traveller in America, and author of a work on the forest trees of North America, first came to America in 1787 with his father, Andre, who established two nurseries in the young United States and proposed an exploration of the Missouri River and the American West in 1793, ten years before the expedition of Lewis and Clark.
On November 25, 1858 the Newville weekly newspaper, The Valley Star, published the first installment of a history and description of the village. It was entitled "Newville as it Was, and as it Is," and its author was identified simply as "A Citizen of Newville." The first essay, on early history, was received with so much interest and applause that the entire printing of the issue was quickly sold out, and the printer had to reprint it the citizens of Newville would "insist" that the author publish the sketches in book form.
Frederick Watts, a well-known lawyer, judge of the Cumberland County Courts, and Unites States Commissioner of Agriculture, had this to say about his mentor and friend Andrew Carothers:
The life of Charles Francis Himes, professor of physics at Dickinson College from 1865 to 1896, was one of many and varied pursuits. He was a scientist, an educator, and a historian; and with each of these roles his interest and achievements in photography were integrated. In the late twentieth century photography is taken granted. Anyone nowadays can buy a camera and take a picture, regardless of knowledge or skill; development and printing are done commercially; and photographs are used in every discipline.
The Shippensburg Historical Society-A Fifty Year Retrospective, 1945-1995. Various authors. Published by the Society: The News-Chronicle Company, Shippensburg, Pa., 1996.
In the early morning hours of March 24, 1845, the Cumberland County court house and Carlisle town hall burned down. The next morning the Carlisle Herald & Expositor printed an "extra," which was distributed in large numbers "through the county and to a distance." DESTRUCTIVE FIRE! County Court-House & Town Hall burned down!
We report here that evidence for the 1779 Carlisle Deluge still exists. In the Summer, 1996 issue of Cumberland County History, Whitfield J. Bell described what he called the Carlisle Deluge. Bell used primary sources, mainly a letter from David Rittenhouse to Benjamin Franklin, to describe how, on the night of August 19, 1779, a thunderstorm with copious rain opened a gash on the south side of North (Blue) Mountain east of Flat Rock and northwest of the present Bloserville. Rocks and trees were carried down the mountain.
The foregoing article by Angela Shears is primarily a personal impression of the Valley Times-Star of Newville, Pennsylvania, a weekly newspaper that began publication in 1858 and continues to this day. The author has written about its content, its editor, and its readers, especially in the past 30 years.
Small "hometown newspapers" mean different things to different people. On vacation recently, I bought a copy of the local weekly newspaper-published in a quaint beach town for the past 142 years-and the store owner jokingly said, "You gonna go fish? That is the only thing people do with that paper! "