Image: Dam on Mountain Creek by Jim Bradley

The Elizabeth V. and George F. Gardner Digital Library Logo

An initiative of the Cumberland County Historical Society the Elizabeth V. and George F. Gardner Digital Library seeks to fulfill the Society's mission of collecting, engaging, and sharing the stories of Cumberland County.

Highlighted Stories

E. Jean Bixler

Jean Bixler during interview

Interview of E. Jean Bixler of Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania for the Elizabeth V. and George F. Gardner Digital Library. Bixler discusses growing up in Boiling Springs as well as her family.

Mary Ann Shughart

Mary Ann and Judge Dale Shughart

Interview of Mary Ann Shughart by Carolyn Osborn for the Cumberland County Historical Society. Shughart discusses her life including her experiences during World War II while her husband, Dale F. Shughart, was serving in the military.

 

Highlighted Entries

Miss Margaret MacDonald (1760-1844)

Margaret MacDonald was born on June 22, 1760, one of Duncan and Sarah MacDonald’s four children.1 Her father, described as “the old Scotch highland piper,”2 likely served in one of the British regiments sent to Carlisle during the French and Indian War.

Venus, slave of Thomas Craighead, was Sister of the first published American Negro poet, Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley

Thomas Craighead’s slave Venus: Sister of the first published American Negro poet Phillis Wheatley. T.C. was Thomas Craighead (1789-1865) the son of John Craighead and his wife Jane Lamb.  The “old Thomas Craighead” he refers to in his letter was his grandfather who died in 1807. In 1845, T.C. also contributed a history of incidents relating to his family that was published in I.D. Rupp’s History of Dauphin, Cumberland, Perry Counties…. p. 440-444.