Mount Holly Springs was a popular summer resort at the base of the South Mountain. Situated on the Carlisle and Hanover Turnpike, six miles south of Carlisle, it presented a romantic view of the surrounding countryside and captured the cool mountain breezes during the summer.
When Sarah Filey was growing up in rural Cumberland County in the 1830s and 1840s, she could not have imagined that ten years of her life would be spent more than 5,000 miles away in Constantinople, Turkey.
American Volunteer, May 2, 1861. “DESTRUCTIVE FIRE. Glass’ Hotel in Ashes—Narrow Escape of the Inmates—Heavy Loss, etc.
The Big Spring Hotel was situated near the Newville Depot on the Cumberland Valley Rail Road. It was enlarged and improved by its owners, the Ahl brothers, in 1860. By May 1860, a three-story brick addition to the back of the hotel was almost finished.1
"'Black Jack’ was a famous cook,” wrote Jeremiah Zeamer, editor of the American Volunteer newspaper. “He had a great reputation as a cook and caterer. Whenever in that part of the county there was a wedding, a dance, or a party of any kind for which a feast was to be prepared, ‘Black Jack’ was sent for to superintend the cooking and set the table, and so well did he do this that he was always in high favor with people who had appetites.”