Two years ago occurred the 200th anniversary of the taking of the first United States census in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. This investigation into the history of that event and its circumstances is in observance of the county's participation in an event which was a necessary part of the founding of the United States Government.
Shepherdstown is one of a score of small villages that have come and gone along the old Gettysburg Road since the beginning of the 19th century. Like the others, it commenced chiefly as an overnight stop for travelers, then later grew modestly into a trading center for farmers of the vicinity. And like most of the others, the advent of the automobile gradually put an end to its commercial role, relegating it once more to being a sleepy residential hamlet.
ln 1943 February 17 dawn found a hundred or more students shivering in overcoat and muffler weather as they stood about at the Pennsylvania Railroad Depot in Carlisle. About two score were going to war. Half a century later those who survived could recall only Whit Bell from the faculty, but Ralph Schecter must have been there as well, for the single cheerful element that morning was his Dickinson College band.
Founded in 1751 by Proprietor Thomas Penn, the town of Carlisle was erected to meet the mounting social, political, and economic needs of the ever-increasing number of people settling the rich agricultural hinterlands of Pennsylvania's Cumberland Valley. Once established, Carlisle served as both the official political and judicial seat of the newly-formed county of Cumberland and as one of the major social and economic focal points of backcountry Pennsylvania—acting as a major transit point for many westward-bound travellers.
Reproduced below are a number of the photographs which were displayed at the Cumberland County Historical Society as an exhibit "Hey Ollie, Let's Go Railroading." Over 250 photographs were put on display as a tribute to all the railroaders, both here and gone, who worked in the Cumberland Valley.
When one thinks of the past, crime is not the first thing that jumps to one's mind; it would probably be the last thing, if thought about at all. Today when one thinks of crime, one thinks of muggings, robbery, murder-the same things that took place then. The most common crime then was assault & battery.
Historical discussions of the Penn family's hereditary rule in Pennsylvania and of the authority exerted by its appointees conveniently stress that in 1764 the Proprietary faction tacitly entered into a successful coalition with Dissenting elements (predominantly Scots-Irish Presbyterians) and poorly represented city dwellers and frontiersmen.
Historians, engineers, and buffs of all walks of life can and should cheer the new work of Dr. Paul Gill, professor of history at Shippensburg State University. For a title he has borrowed a phrase from Rudyard Kipling's A Song of the English and for illustrations photographs from the Society 's extensive collection.
Interview of Robert Lee Jacobs.
Interview of Robert Lee Jacobs.