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Susan Beckey and Rebecca (Gill) Lender

Screenshot from the Susan Beckey and Rebecca Lender Interview

Interview of Susan Beckey and Rebecca Lender for the Elizabeth V. and George F. Gardner Digital Library, an initiative of the Cumberland County Historical Society. Beckey and Lender discuss growing up in Silver Spring Township, Pennsylvania and their memories of Cumberland County including the Silver Spring Drive-In, the Silver Spring Speedway, and Cumberland Valley High School.

Dorothea McKenzie (1737-1805)

Scan of recording of James

Dorothea McKenzie, the daughter of a Quaker ironmaster, became a widow at the age of 38, never remarried, and, until her death, ran a genteel boarding house in Carlisle with the help of her slaves. Dorothea’s father, Thomas Maybury, established the Green Lane Forge in the Perkiomen Valley in what is now Montgomery County, Pennsylvania as well as the Hereford Furnace. Her mother, Sophia Rutter, was a descendant of Pennsylvania ironmaster, Thomas Rutter.[1]

John James Trumbull Arnold

Portrait of Miss Margaret Ramsey Woods (1823-1895) ca.1855, by John James Trumbull Arnold.

John James Trumbull Arnold was an itinerant portrait artist who painted the likenesses of people who lived in the York Springs area in the 1840s.  He was born in Latimer Township, York County, the son of Dr. John B. Arnold and his wife, the former Rachel Weakley. The last known dated portrait by Arnold was painted in 1853. The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum lists John James Arnold as a ‘Professor of Penmanship and Portrait and Miniatures Painter’.[1]

Capt. William E. Miller

Photo of Captain William E. Miller shown in uniform.

Captain William E. Miller was one of the few Cumberland County residents who won the Medal of Honor during the Civil War. However, Miller may be the most distinctive honoree for winning his medal by going against his orders. Miller was born to a farming family in West Hill, Cumberland County, one mile west of Plainfield in West Pennsboro Township. As a young man, Miller ran his father’s farm and was establishing a small family of his own, when his life was interrupted by the call to war in 1861.

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