The Kansas Migration
From 1857 until the 1880s, residents of Cumberland County migrated en masse to the plains of central Kansas.
Shippensburg News
New Year’s Eve Tradition: “Firing off the Old Year.”
The Carlisle Weekly Herald reported in its January 5, 1859 edition that “On New Year’s Eve, the custom of “firing off the old year” was indulged in to the usual extent that everything that would make noise, from a Chinese firecracker to an old musket, was in requisition, and a continual
Newville’s Big Spring Hotel -1860
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
St. Patrick’s Day in Carlisle and Cumberland County
On Saturday evening, February 27, 1836, a number of Irishmen and their descendants living in Carlisle and the surrounding area met at the Mansion House on West High Street to plan a St. Patrick’s Day celebration to honor the birth of the patron saint of Ireland.