Born in Chicago on September 18, 1902, Helen Stevens was a long-time and very active member of the Carlisle community, whose life work was associated with finding assistance for individuals needing mental health services.
Interview of Clair Tritt by Linda Benzon for the Elizabeth V. and George F. Gardner Digital Library.
In 2015, the Cumberland County Historical Society purchased Christopher Vanlear’s tavern ledger.1 The entries in his ledger provide a new source of information about the Colonial and Revolutionary War eras in Carlisle, a town of major importance on the Pennsylvania frontier.2
A former resident wrote reminiscences of his school days in Carlisle in the 1820s and of his teacher Henry Wales. He sent them to the editor of the Carlisle Herald for publication.
When the Septennial Census of Carlisle was taken in 1814, it included the names and occupations of all the borough’s taxables. Nineteen of them, including two women, were identified as weavers, and at least half of them were born in Ireland.
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.