Carlisle was abuzz when the little old lady hit town. But Carlisle was not that much of a back water place in 1828 to get so excited about the arrival of one frail, fifty-nine year old woman. Who was this woman who caused some of the town's leading citizens to either embrace her with enthusiasm or run and hide?
The Carothers or Carruthers families (Carruthers in Scotland, Carothers in America) were among the first settlers in Cumberland County; in 1750 when the county was formed, there were seven established Carothers households in West and East Pennsborough Townships
On April 6, 1789, some seventy-two inhabitants of the Borough of Carlisle met to organize a fire company. The figure is to be deduced from the fact that seventy persons signed the articles of agreement at the organizing session.
If one were challenged to name some famous regiments of the British Army, doubtless one would think first of the colorful Guards Regiments, so often photographed at Buckingham Palace, or of the romantically named and accoutered Black Watch with its kilts and pipers.
New Cumberland has an ancient and vivid history. It has developed from an Indian settlement into the trading post of a French-Indian half-breed and later into the dream of a wealthy iron maker.
The appearance of a facsimile edition of Robert L. Brunhouse's Miniatures of Mechanicsburg is a welcome addition to the shelf of local history.
This paper developed from the research done before, during, and after the Cumberland County Historic Resource Survey completed its study of Carlisle architecture.
Samuel William Kuhnert (1890-1978) took some of the first aerial photographs of central Pennsylvania, many of them in Cumberland County.
The early years of the twentieth century were marked by a tremendous shift in population from the farm and small community to the city. Extreme hardships befell many families trying to obtain work and establish new roots. Social work was in its infancy and was provided primarily by charitable institutions and private foundations.
Tiny Carlisle, with perhaps half a hundred males of fighting age, contributed no fewer than eight colonels or generals to the War of the Revolution. None of these, from Armstrong to Watts, made quite the contribution to victory that Ephraim Blaine did.