Recent

What's in a Name? New Kingstown

A persuasive case could be made that New Kingstown should properly be named "Junkintown. " Consider, Joseph Junkin was the first settler. His home, before settling in Silver Spring Township near Stoney Ridge was a farm which lay on both sides of a line in Ireland separating County Down and County Antrim. Leaving Ulster about 1736, he settled at first in Chester County where he married a Scot, Elizabeth Wallace. They took up 500 acres of land in Cumberland County.

Resistance to the War in Vietnam: A Central Pennsylvania Perspective

In 1964, just when the American involvement in the Vietnam conflict was about to explode over the American landscape, the city of Harrisburg, located in south central Pennsylvania, was conservative. In the national presidential election held that year five of the fifteen wards, including one black ward, voted for Republican Barry Goldwater, the more conservative candidate.

Vance McCormick's Relationship with Woodrow Wilson: A View Through Their Correspondence

A collection of correspondence and memorabilia belonging to Vance Criswell McCormick rests in the archives of the Historical Society of Dauphin County. A part of the sixth generation of a Cumberland County family, he was born in Silver Spring Township in 1872. His family had settled along the Conodoguinet Creek before 1736. He wintered in Harrisburg and summered first at Rose Garden, Upper Allen Township, and later until his death in 1945 at the home of his wife, "Cedar Cliff," in Lower Allen Township.

The Smeads

Jane Smead was the niece of my great-grandmother, Jane who married John Hays, and the daughter of Alexander Dallas Bache Smead. Far back into my youth I have memories of her fortress-like, solid brick house commanding the south -east corner of West and South Streets in Carlisle. On West Street the yard was extremely deep and guarded by a high wooden fence.

Washington: Revolutionary War Arsenal at Carlisle

As a source of manpower, leadership, and vital supplies, Carlisle and its vicinity played a significant role in the Revolutionary War effort. Nevertheless, and notwithstanding the fact that much of its present population has roots reaching well into the era of America's struggle for independence, the eastern region of Cumberland County has not until recently had its own chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. Instead, interested and eligible residents affiliated with groups centered on Harrisburg, York, Gettysburg or Shippensburg.

What's in a Name? West Fairview

Variously known as Neidigtown, Maytown, Poverty Point, and Fairview, the village at the mouth of the Condoguinet got its final name in 1852 with the establishment there of a post office. There being another Maytown, in Lancaster County plus a Fairview in Erie County, and "Poverty Point" tending to be an auslander's slur, "West" was added in reference to the view from the town of the Susquehanna and the East Shore.

State Commission Lists 48 Historical Markers in Cumberland County

Recently published by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission is a 216-page, new edition of its popular Guide to the State Historical Ma1kers of Pennsylvania. The compiler is George R. Beyer, a Commission historian who manages the marker program. Another state historian, Harold Myers, has written introductions to the twelve sections of the book which correspond with the dozen geographical regions into which the Commonwealth is divided for the marker purposes.

Pages