Jane Smead was the niece of my great-grandmother, Jane who married John Hays, and the daughter of Alexander Dallas Bache Smead. Far back into my youth I have memories of her fortress-like, solid brick house commanding the south -east corner of West and South Streets in Carlisle. On West Street the yard was extremely deep and guarded by a high wooden fence.
The guns fired at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, echoed throughout central Pennsylvania. The citizens of the Cumberland and Susquehanna valleys answered this call with a ready response. Such large numbers of men volunteered that companies were turned away from enlisting in the Army.
F. A. Harris, remembering his Carlisle school teacher Thompson Spottswood, wrote: “I could stand over his grave today and weep tears of friendship. He was one of the kindest men, and for one year disciplined that bad, bad school
James W. Sullivan was born on March 9, 1848, to Timothy and Elizabeth Hagan Sullivan. The family lived at 17-19 North East Street in Carlisle. Sullivan, a good student, finished all but his last year at Carlisle High School.
A 30-foot stone sculpture of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is now open to the public on the Mall in Washington, D.C., to commemorate the sacrifice for freedom that defined Dr. King's life. The monument showing Dr. King emerging from stone is surrounded by walls with inspirational quotations from his speeches and writings.
The following article is adapted from a speech given as part of the commemoration of the role of the Union Fire Company of Carlisle, Pennsylvania in the American Civil War, read before the Union Fire Company on April 21, 2011. Much of the material is derived from research for an upcoming book, "The Union Legacy," that will be published for the 225th anniversary of the company.
A survivor of the infamous Libby Prison, Charles McClure Worthington was a man of many occupations; a telegraph operator on the Cumberland Valley Rail Road, a Civil War surgeon, a druggist, and finally, a Carlisle school teacher. Charles M. Worthington was born in Carlisle on September 22, 1835, the eldest son of Ann and Jefferson Worthington, a painter and County Commissioner. Worthington was educated in the Carlisle schools and read medicine with Dr. Baughman.