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Americans Shall Rule America! The Know-Nothing Party in Cumberland County

In 1854 Americans took a detour from the road to civil war. It was the year of the Kansas-Nebraska act, which allowed slavery to spread into the formerly free Kansas territory. This act, the warfare between pro- and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas that followed, and the rise of the free soil Republican party, so inflamed hostile feelings between North and South that the firing on Fort Sumter took place less than seven years later.

Historical Miscellanies

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.

A Traveller in the County, 1802

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.

Newville as It Is (1858)

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. 

Charles Francis Himes (1838-1918): Portrait of a Photographer

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.

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