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The Capitol and the College: The Latrobe Connection

In 1793 President George Washington laid the cornerstone of the United States Capitol. This event initiated the construction of a building which the statesmen and political leaders of the day hoped would be a grand monument to the democratic ideals of the young nation. To the extent that this first national government building in the Capital City achieved its lofty objective was due to the creativity and vision of Benjamin Latrobe. He served as architect of the United States Capitol from 1803 to 1813 and again from 1815 to 1817.

What's in a Name: Hickorytown

The name "Hickorytown" is actually a misnomer on the word "town." What it refers to is a cluster of houses around two former taverns spread seven-tenths of a mile along Trindle Springs Road, three and a half miles east of Carlisle. It was this way in the 1840s, and little has changed over the years.

Lenore Embick Flower

As a genealogist, Lenore Embick Flower was very much aware of her ancestry. It may be proper, therefore, to begin with a mention of her immediate ancestors: John Dunbar and Agnes Waugh Greason Dunbar. A tombstone marks their grave at Carlisle's First Presbyterian Church-Meeting House Springs Cemetery. On the reverse side of the headstone are the names of six of their children who died of diphtheria during the 1850s.

From Carlisle and Fort Couch: The War of Corporal John Cantilion

John Cantilion was a tall, handsome soldier when he stepped into Ordnance Sergeant Lewis Leffman's office at Fort Niagara. The old sergeant was somewhat of a legend in the Niagara area. He had fought with Wellington's Hanovian forces at Waterloo in 1815. Shortly after he joined the British army and shipped to Canada. His next assignment was to have been the disease-plagued islands in the south, so he arranged an early departure to Hancock Barracks, Sackets Harbor, New York, where he enlisted at twenty seven in the United States Army, 30 August 1829.

We, the People Identified: Cumberland County, Pennsylvania and the First United States Census, 1790-1791

Two years ago occurred the 200th anniversary of the taking of the first United States census in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. This investigation into the history of that event and its circumstances is in observance of the county's participation in an event which was a necessary part of the founding of the United States Government.

What's in a Name: Shepherdstown

Shepherdstown is one of a score of small villages that have come and gone along the old Gettysburg Road since the beginning of the 19th century. Like the others, it commenced chiefly as an overnight stop for travelers, then later grew modestly into a trading center for farmers of the vicinity. And like most of the others, the advent of the automobile gradually put an end to its commercial role, relegating it once more to being a sleepy residential hamlet.

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