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Crimes and Punishments in Provincial Cumberland County

It is impossible to compile an accurate list of crimes committed and punishments given during the provincial period because of incomplete records. There are instances where the record contains no more than the entry, "The King" v. the name of the defendant. In quite a number of cases it is not recorded whether the indictment was returned as a true bill or marked ignoramus. Some entries contain the name of the defendant, the fact that the indictment was returned a true bill, but make no mention of the disposition of the case. Many defendants were released on recognizance to appear at a later session, but a number of those released do not appear again in the records.

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.

Sermon on the Tenth Anniversary of His Pastorate, 1873

Note: Dr. Herrold delivered the Annual Address at the dinner of the Cumberland County Historical Society on October 17, 2000. The address was principally the Reverend Mr. Ault's sermon of 1873, which contained an historical account of the Reformed Church in Pennsylvania and the Cumberland Valley. It is reprinted here from the original manuscript in possession of St. Paul's United Church of Christ, Mechanicsburg.

The Pine Grove Prisoner of War Camp

In May of 1943, as American and British forces were wrapping up their operations in North Africa and preparing for an invasion of Sicily, United States military personnel in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, were making their own unique contribution to the Allied war effort. Deep in the heart of the Michaux State Forest, an abandoned Civilian Conservation Corps camp was being renovated for an entirely new purpose: to detain and interrogate German prisoners.

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