Newton Township first appeared in Cumberland county tax records in 1773 although it was organized by 1767.[1] In 1929, Newton divided into North Newton and South Newton Townships.[2] The early settlers in the area were Scots-Irish but German families began to move in toward the end of the 18th century.[3] By the time the township had formed, most of the land had been taken up and the area had a settled population.[4]
The township of Middlesex lies along the northerly half of the west side of the Stony (“Stoney”) Ridge, a geological trap dike (older than the North or South mountains) which formed the original boundary between the west and east divisions of Pennsborough Township (established in 1735) as early a
Isabella Oliver, (July 16, 1771—June 7, 1843), once known as the “poetess of the Conodoguinet,” or more colorfully as that creek’s “muse,” was the second--and the first female--published Cumberland County poet in 1805 with Poems on Various Subjects, following the unknown writer of The Unequal Conflict in 1792.
Interview of George F. Ginter of Ginter's Mill in Newville, Pennsylvania by Susan Meehan on January 7, 2015. The interview focuses on Ginter's early life, the Ginter Mill including the milling process, and Newville.
The Carlisle Borough Charter claims that the First Lutheran Church began about 1765 when the German immigrants of Reformed and Lutheran church background worshiped together in a union church on South Hanover Street near South Street.1 In 1807, the church divided and the Lutherans built
Daughter of a Carlisle tavernkeeper, wife of an English iron worker, Aunt to a well-known actress, and benefactress to the poor, Susana McMurray Higgs was born, lived much of her life and died on the same property in Carlisle.
Forty-seven-year-old Irishman, Richard Dougherty, arrived in Carlisle in 1800 with his family.[1] He placed an advertisement in Kline’s Carlisle Gazette announcing his plan to open an English school.[2] He would run that school successfully for more than 20 years.
Although Cormick McManus, a tailor, was one of a number of Irish Catholics who immigrated to America, settled in Carlisle, and was naturalized in the early decades of the nineteenth century, he was memorable enough to be written about in the reminiscences of several Carlisle natives. The tailor shop of Cormick McManus on West High Street, wrote James Miller McKim, was:
Frank Elmer Masland Jr. was a prominent industrialist, conservationist, explorer, philanthropist and pillar of the Carlisle community throughout the twentieth century. Born to Frank Elmer Masland and Mary Esther Gossler on December 8, 1895, he was the grandson of Charles Henry Masland, founder of the Carlisle carpet company C. H. Masland & Sons.
George F. Ginter of Ginter's Mill in Newville, Pennsylvania showing how to tie and untie the Miller's Knot at the Ginter Feed Mill in Newville, Pennsylvania on January 5, 2015.