Northeast Travel Series: Exploring the Cumberland Valley

THE HISTORY: Army Sgt. 1st Class Randall Shughart was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, on Aug. 13. 1958, moving with his family to the Newville area and later graduating from Big Spring High School. He is one of two of the first snipers in history to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

A farm boy from North Newton Township, Shughart gave his life in defense of a downed helicopter crew during the Battle of Mogadishu, Somalia, on Oct. 3, 1993. The U.S. Army Ranger was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroism during battle in Somalia in 1993, actions later featured in the book and movie, “Black Hawk Down.”

According to pbs.org, during the battle, Shughart and his team leader volunteered to be inserted on the ground to protect wounded soldiers, and after his third request they received permission. Once they reached the crew members, Shughart and his team leader continued to offer protective fire until he depleted his ammunition and was fatally wounded. Shughart's actions saved the life of pilot Mike Durant.

HOW THEY DIED: Shughart was fatally wounded during battle in Mogadishu, Somalia.

GRAVESITE: Westminister Memorial Gardens, 1159 Newville Road, Carlisle

THE HISTORY: Amelia S. Givin Beall was born Oct. 31, 1845.

According to the Gardner Digital Library, Amelia’s father and his brother, Samuel, were the founders of a paper mill in Mt. Holly Springs, and the Givin family lived nearby until 1865 when their home burned to the ground.

Amelia was the last surviving member of the prominent Givin family of south-central Pennsylvania. She was a philanthropic worker and provided the funds to build the Amelia S. Givin Public Library in Mt. Holly Springs, the first public library in Cumberland County. She also endowed a perpetual trust for the library.

The Amelia S. Givin Library was built during the public library movement of the late 1800s and has been in continuous operation for over a century. In her will, Amelia also bequeathed large sums of money to the Second Presbyterian Church and the Carlisle Hospital.

HOW THEY DIED: Died Oct. 5, 1915, in her home.

GRAVESITE: Buried in Ashland Cemetery, Carlisle, Cumberland County.

THE HISTORY: Staff Sgt. Bruno Verano, a Pennsylvania native, served at Carlisle Barracks during the days of the Medical Field Services School.

According to the book "Carlisle Indian Industrial School: Indigenous Histories, Memories, and Reclamations," two of Verano's infant sons died during his time at Carlisle Barracks and they were buried in the Carlisle Indian School Cemetery. When he died a few years later in 1945, he was buried in row F, near his two sons.

At this time, arrangements had been made for military personnel to be buried in Ashland Cemetery, but Verano chose to be buried close to his sons. The Veranos have the distinction of being the only family with two generations interred in the Carlisle Indian School Cemetery.

HOW THEY DIED: Staff Sgt. Bruno Verano died in 1945, cause of death is unknown.

GRAVESITE: Indian School Cemetery at Carlisle Barracks.

HISTORY: Gov. Joseph Ritner was born March 25, 1780, in Alsace Township, now Reading, Berks County.

Ritner, a member of the Anti-Masonic Party, was the eighth governor of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania from 1835 to 1839. Controversy surrounding his 1838 electoral defeat led to the Buckshot War. Upon his retirement from politics, Ritner lived in Mount Rock, south of Newville, Cumberland County. 

According to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Ritner was elected to the General Assembly in 1820, serving five terms. On June 23, 1829, the Anti-Masonic Party in Harrisburg selected Ritner as their candidate for governor and would again in 1832. Ritner lost both elections to George Wolf, but defeated him in a third try, taking advantage of a divided Democratic Party.

As governor, Ritner spoke out against slavery and defeated General Assembly attempts to repeal the new free public school law. Education was especially important to Ritner, and under his administration, common schools in Pennsylvania grew from 762 to 5,000.

The Ritner Highway between Carlisle and Shippensburg along Route 11 in Cumberland County was named after the former governor and dedicated on July 27, 1938.

HOW THEY DIED: He died at age 89 on Oct. 16, 1869, in Mount Rock.

GRAVESITE: Mount Rock Methodist Churchyard, 598 Mount Rock Road, Newville.

According to the book “Carlisle Indian Industrial School: Indigenous Histories, Memories and Reclamations,” Barr retired from military service in 1946 and had served 18 years at Carlisle Barracks in various positions from cook to first sergeant. Barr assisted in the relocation of the cemetery to the current site due to construction on the post.

In 1983, Barr requested special permission to be buried at the Indian Cemetery before his death in May 1983, and it was approved in July 1983 by the Department of the Army Mortuary Affairs. This burial is the last at the cemetery which now holds 228 burial sites.

HOW THEY DIED: Barr died on Aug. 23, 1984.

GRAVESITE: Indian Cemetery on the Carlisle Barracks.

Investigators believed the three girls were suffocated by Elmo Noakes (father of Dewilla and Cordelia, and stepfather of Norma). The following day Elmo continued his killing spree by killing his niece Winifred Pierce and then himself with a .22 rifle. Their bodies were found at a station on the Hollidaysburg Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad in Blair County about the same time the bodies of the three girls were spotted in the woods in Cumberland County.

HOW THEY DIED: A preliminary autopsy on Nov. 24, 1934, revealed no apparent cause of death. Later it was determined the girls died from either strangulation or suffocation and that the murder weapon may have been a soft cloth, a pillow or a blanket. Investigators believe they were suffocated by Elmo Noakes and their bodies placed in the woods along Centerville Road. Another theory says the girls died from inhaling exhaust fumes in the car.

A publication of the Noakes family history states that Winifred Pierce died at the age of 18 and that “Elmo J. Noakes and his children died in an auto accident.”

GRAVESITE: Westminster Cemetery, 1159 Newville Road, Carlisle.

According to archives.dickinson.edu, Bosler attended Dickinson College as a member of the class of 1854 but did not finish his degree. Bosler moved west and taught school in Columbiana County, Ohio, where he also built his first store. After moving to Iowa, the businessman eventually started a real estate company and a bank before building his fortune in the cattle market.

Bosler returned to Carlisle in 1866 and married Helen Beltzhoover of Boiling Springs. They had four children and were continuous supporters of Dickinson College.

According to archives.dickinson.edu, Bosler pledged $10,000 to the college and after his death in 1883, Helen Bosler donated nearly seven times that amount to build a new hall to house a library, insisting that only the finest, most durable materials be used in the construction.

The James W. Bosler Memorial Hall was completed in 1886, and housed the college’s library until 1967. Today, Bosler Hall is home to the modern language departments. The Bosler Memorial Library in Carlisle is named after James W. Bosler’s brother, J. Herman Bosler.

HOW THEY DIED: Bosler died on Dec. 17, 1883.

GRAVESITE: Buried in Ashland Cemetery, Carlisle, Cumberland County.

After only one winter at the school, she died. “Take the Tail’s time at the boarding school made her more vulnerable to disease for many reasons, including depression brought on by homesickness,” Carlisle Indian School biographer Barbara Landis said in her essay “Putting Lucy Pretty Eagle to Rest.” “Lucy’s health declined in part because of radical changes forced on her.”

Lucy Pretty Eagle was the daughter of Pretty Eagle and from the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. At the age of 10, she arrived at the Carlisle Indian School on Nov. 14, 1883. Lucy was one of 190 Native American children to be buried in the Carlisle Indian School cemetery.

Rumors circulated that the building that was her dormitory is haunted by her spirit. According to a Sentinel article by Joseph Cress in 2014, Landis is quick to point out that researchers proved the Coren Apartment building was never used as a girls’ dormitory but rather as a quarters for teachers. Many of the ghost stories related to Lucy hinge on her being a resident of that building during the Indian School years.

Pretty Eagle is one of the Rosebud Sioux, a South Dakota tribe that made a push to have the remains of 10 tribe members returned to their native land to be reburied after appropriate native prayers and services. In May, the U.S. Army promised to pay to move and re-bury the remains of at least 10 Native American children who died more than a century ago at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

HOW THEY DIED: Lucy Pretty Eagle died May 9, 1884, and her cause of death is unknown.

GRAVESITE: Carlisle Indian School Cemetery.

According to post-gazette.com, Brackenridge would later become the legislative father of Allegheny County. He founded the Pittsburgh Academy, now the University of Pittsburgh, and the Pittsburgh Gazette newspaper, still operating today as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Brackenridge then went on to write novels about the Revolutionary War and even served as a chaplain in Gen. George Washington’s army in New Jersey, before becoming a lawyer.

He eventually was appointed to a lifetime seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

HOW THEY DIED: Brackenridge died on June 25, 1816, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

GRAVESITE: Old Graveyard, South Bedford and East South streets in Carlisle. He had moved to Carlisle shortly after his Supreme Court appointment.

According to findagrave.com, Zinn offered his services to the Union efforts and was quickly promoted. He was promoted to commander of his company on June 28, 1861. By 1862, he was promoted to colonel and commander of a regiment, a regiment he led in the Battle of Antietam, Md., where his unit lost 178 men, and the Battle of Fredericksburg, Va.

HOW THEY DIED: During a futile assault on Confederate positions at Marye’s Heights in the Battle of Fredericksburg, Zinn was attempting to rally his men in the assault when he was shot down and killed.

GRAVESITE: Mt. Zion Cemetery, Boiling Springs Road and York Road, Monroe Township

Thomson died Sept. 29, 1744, age 33. It is believed that her gravesite is the oldest marked grave west of the Susquehanna River. She was buried under a red sandstone slab bearing an engraving of the family coat of arms that includes a helmet, gauntlet, a deer’s head and a hunting knife.

Since 1734, the Meeting House Springs Cemetery has been the final resting place of some of the earliest families to settle the county. “It’s the beginning of our history,” Richard Tritt, a member of First Presbyterian Church on the Square in Carlisle, told The Sentinel in a story published in 2015. “They were the first wave of settlers.”

HOW THEY DIED: There is no known cause for Thomson’s death.

GRAVESITE: Meeting House Springs Cemetery, North Middleton Township

According to explorepahistory.com, Drawbaugh was a purported inventor of the telephone for which he sought a patent in 1880. He claimed to have invented the telephone by using a teacup as a transmitter as early as 1867, but he had been too poor to patent it then. His claims were contested by Bell Telephone Co., which won a Supreme Court decision in 1888.

Drawbaugh also invented many appliances, such as pneumatic tools, hydraulic rams, folding lunch boxes and coin separators, and it was said he invented a wireless phone that could be used 4 miles away. An historical marker sits at Eberly’s Mill in New Cumberland documenting Drawbaugh’s contributions.

HOW THEY DIED: Drawbaugh died of a heart attack on Nov. 3, 1911, in his laboratory while working on a wireless burglar alarm.

GRAVESITE: Saint Johns Cemetery, 4605 E. Trindle Road, Mechanicsburg.

According to findagrave.com, Parker purchased 1,350 acres of land in Virginia (now West Virginia) after the war for $50. He never settled on the land before his death and a large portion of the land was taken from his daughter Mary by John Stokley. In 1810, a successful counter-suit put the land back in possession of the Parkers. On Dec. 11, 1810, a new town was laid out and called Parkersburg in honor of Alexander Parker. Parkersburg is now the third largest city in West Virginia, and a city Parker never set foot in.

HOW THEY DIED: Parker died in Carlisle in March 1, 1791, after a short illness.

GRAVESITE: Meetinghouse Springs Cemetery in North Middleton Township

Gibson was born on Nov. 8, 1780, at what is now Gibson’s Mill, in the Shearman’s Valley of Perry County. Gibson entered Dickinson Grammar School in Carlisle in 1795, and joined the college proper with the class of 1798.

Before he graduated, however, he left to study law under Judge Thomas Duncan in Carlisle and was admitted to the Bar of Cumberland County on March 8, 1803.

On June 27, 1816, Gibson became associate justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Ten years later, the court was expanded to five justices, and in 1827, Gibson was chosen as chief justice of Pennsylvania.

President Andrew Jackson had signaled his intent to name him to the U.S. Supreme Court, but politics intervened and another was named.

Gibson also served as a member of the board of trustees of Dickinson College between 1816 and 1829.

HOW THEY DIED: Gibson died on May 3, 1853, in Philadelphia.

THE GRAVESITE: Old Carlisle Cemetery, South Bedford and East South streets in Carlisle

He was left at the Holly Inn to be cared for. His condition deteriorated steadily and he died several days later.”

The soldier was unidentified and there is no information regarding his identity. He was buried in the borough cemetery. To this day families of buried unknown soldiers come to search for clues on whether this brave soldier is a loved one.

HOW THEY DIED: The soldier died at the Holly Inn a few days after a skirmish between Confederate and Union troops ensued in front of the Inn.

GRAVESITE: Mount Holly Springs Cemetery, McLand Drive, Mount Holly Springs

According to the Dickinson College Archives online, Watts was influential in the redevelopment of the Cumberland County Railroad, becoming its president in 1841. He served as a member of the Dickinson College Board of Trustees from 1828 to 1833 and from 1841 to 1844; he was appointed president judge of Pennsylvania’s Ninth Judicial District Court in 1849; and he organized the Carlisle Gas & Water Co. in 1854.

In 1851, he became a founder and the first president of the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society. He assisted in legislation to establish and subsequently became the first head of Board of Trustees of a “Farmers’ High School,” to provide a collegiate but realistic education for sons of farmers to learn their family trade.

The agricultural college eventually developed into the Pennsylvania State College. In 1871, President Grant appointed him United States Commissioner of Agriculture.

HOW THEY DIED: According to the Dickinson College Archives online, Watts retired from federal service in June 1877 and returned to Carlisle, where he died at the age of 88.

GRAVESITE: Old Graveyard, South Bedford and East South streets in Carlisle

Armstrong was instrumental in capturing Kittanning and developed a great friendship with Col. George Washington during the Battle of Fort Duquesne. Armstrong served many years in the military and was instrumental in helping to push the French from Pennsylvania.

In March 1776, according to the journals of Congress, he became a brigadier general. Within a short period of time the Pennsylvania government realized Armstrong was the one officer of the state who was capable of leading, directing and controlling the militia of the state, and he was promoted to major general.

Armstrong was a strong supporter of Washington, leading troops alongside him, and he advocated his run for presidency. Armstrong later held such positions as Carlisle school board member, and he became one of the first members of the Board of Trustees for Dickinson College.

HOW THEY DIED: Armstrong died in Carlisle, on March 9, 1795. In 1800 when Pennsylvania created a new county at Kittanning, it was named Armstrong County in his honor.

GRAVESITE: Old Graveyard, South Bedford and East South streets in Carlisle

The Weakleys were pioneers in the early days of western Cumberland County, eventually building three mills in the area. Records in Harrisburg show that the Weakleys patented thousands of acres of land. According Frances Weakley’s “The Weakley Family in America,” this strip of land extended from Mount Holly Springs to the Old Stone Tavern, about seven miles long and three miles wide.

James Weakley built the three mills in a mill complex at Barnitz, where he first built a fulling mill and later added a grist mill and saw mill. The mills stayed in the Weakley family for several generations and the mills were known by the Weakley name.

In 1864, the group of mills took on the name of the next family to own them — the Barnitz family, who operated the mill until 1957 when it closed. The mill is still standing and is known as the Barnitz Mill.

HOW THEY DIED: Weakley died in 1772 at the approximate age of 68, several years after his wife. His estate was divided among his three eldest sons, including Samuel Weakley who owned the land where the Weakley Tavern was built on Walnut Bottom Road. James and Jane Weakley are buried side by side at the Meeting House Springs gravesite.

GRAVESITE: Meeting House Springs Cemetery, Meeting House Road, North Middleton Township

Molly Ludwig was born Oct. 13, 1754, near Trenton, New Jersey. According to www.findagrave.com, she was sent to Carlisle at a young age to become a servant in the home of Col. William Irvine. She married William Hays in 1769, and her husband eventually enlisted in the 4th Pennsylvania Artillery in 1775. Molly joined her husband for the winters of 1777 and 1778 at his encampment at Valley Forge.

During the Revolutionary War’s battle of Monmouth, Molly carried pitchers of water to the soldiers and to help cool the artillery guns, thereby earning her nickname “Molly Pitcher.” After her husband collapsed during battle she took over the operation of his canon. When the battle was over, Gen. George Washington gave her a non-commissioned officers rank.

After the war, Molly and her husband returned to the Carlisle area to live. After William died in 1789, she married George McCauley.

HOW THEY DIED: Molly died in Carlisle on Jan. 22, 1832, at the age of 77.

THE GRAVESITE: The Old Graveyard, South Bedford and East South streets in Carlisle

The soldiers died while stationed at the Carlisle Barracks, one of the oldest military posts in the nation and today home to the U.S. Army War College. During the Civil War, the barracks served as a supply depot. According to nps.gov, in 1866, the government purchased an area of land in Ashland Cemetery to bury soldiers who died while stationed at the barracks. Ashland was established in 1865, and by 1871 the government transferred remains from the barrack’s post cemetery to this lot.

Most of the remains lay in a mass grave, with a monument standing as a memorial to the soldiers’ sacrifice. Indiantown Gap National Cemetery in Annville oversees the Soldiers’ Lot. Twenty-three individual graves also sit in the lot, 19 of those identified and four unknown.

HOW THE DIED: The soldiers died while stationed at the Carlisle Barracks during the Civil War.

GRAVESITE: Ashland Cemetery, Route 74, Carlisle

Finding out where bodies are buried is just part of her job as a staff member of the Cumberland County Historical Society in Carlisle.

Requests come in most every day from descendants across Pennsylvania, the U.S. and overseas looking for the slightest clue or confirmation to add a branch to the family tree.

“If it leads them to Cumberland County, it leads them to us,” said Miller, a collection specialist tasked mostly with cataloging new acquisitions.

CCHS has a number of resources available to track down a burial location. An often-used first step is the Church and Cemetery Records Series that has information on baptisms, weddings and funerals. Reviewing this information can lead the researcher to such other sources as a will or an inventory of an estate.

Every time CCHS receives a church or cemetery record, a volunteer compiles the names from the document onto a master index kept in a digital format on a CD or in a hard copy version in a row of large ring binders on a shelf in the library reading room.

At last count, this index lists about a million entries arranged alphabetically first by family surname and then by the given name of the subject being researched, Miller said. Each entry has a notation listing the type of record available and the volume and page number where it could be found.

Cemetery records may include a map of the burial ground along with a guide a descendant could use to locate a tombstone with an inscription that could verify the birth date and date of death of a distant relative.

There are researchers who walk through cemeteries to take notes on the inscriptions listed on tombstones, Miller said. Often the notes are compiled into a book about that particular cemetery.

The book is then donated to the CCHS to serve as a genealogical resource for staff and visitors. Profiled cemeteries included the Old Graveyard along South Street in Carlisle and the Meeting House Spring Cemetery in North Middleton Township.

Township locations

Some years CCHS volunteer Bob Davidson compiled a book on Cumberland County cemeteries that list locations by township and include written directions to each burial ground, Miller said.

She added library holdings also include three collections of files organized by family surname. Staff have compiled over the years Genealogy Files that are the result of research requests made by phone, email or in person.

“It’s a good source if someone has already done a search,” Miller said. CCHS charges a fee for staff time spent in conducting research. The Genealogy Files also include any “loose material” pertaining to that family that has been donated over the years such as newspaper clippings.

The two other collections of surname files were donated to the CCHS by local genealogists Merri Lou Schaumann and the late Lenore Flower.

Another local source visitors can use is an ever-expanding collection of family history books, Miller said. She added there is also listing of obituaries organized first by year and then by family surname. Local newspapers are available on microfilm to look up an obituary once research pinpoints a date or time period.

Outside of CCHS, researchers can use such online sources as www.findagrave.com or www.ancestry.com to find information on a gravesite.

On Oct. 3, Oneida chief Sarouady spoke out against the sale of rum to Indians and advocated restraint on westward expansion. He called on the English to have only three trading posts selling cheaper goods. The next day, Oct. 4, Franklin and his fellow diplomats agreed in principle to three trading posts but advised the Indians they needed to talk to the colonial government. That night Franklin saw how the Indians got drunk on rum and concluded the native tendency toward a lack of moderation would work against the tribes. History would prove him right.

Nearly two years later, in mid-June 1776, a challenge was issued to a crowd downtown to show where they stood on independence. Those in favor of separation from England were told to walk to the north side of the Square and those against to move to the south side. History records a great majority picked the north, none went south and only three to four indecisive souls lingered in the center of the crossroads.

Debate over the Constitution sparked no less than five public demonstrations on the streets of Carlisle. In one incident, Anti-Federalists burned effigies of Thomas McKean and James Wilson. McKean was a chief justice while Wilson was a leading supporter of the Constitution.

On Sept. 11, 1794, 200 armed men stormed into Carlisle and put up an even larger pole, this time reading “Liberty and Equality.” This mob then reportedly roamed the streets for several days and nights, as they guarded the pole and kept residents awake by shouting and firing guns at night. There were reports the mob stopped local residents at the point of a bayonet and demanded money to buy whiskey.

As the courthouse burned, people ran in to remove vital records. The documents were left in nearby homes to be collected later. Soon the courthouse roof was on fire and the flames consumed the belfry. The bell tumbled down and, by 4 a.m., nothing remained but smoldering ruins.

The bravery of local residents saved the day along with the timely arrival of a fire engine from the artillery company at Carlisle Barracks. The arsonist was never identified. A month later, county officials awarded a $40,000 contract to build the present-day Old Courthouse on the southwest corner of the Square.

College professor John McClintock had a reputation for being an outspoken critic of slavery. He had earlier advised the court of a new state law banning any county official from having a part in the recovery of fugitive slaves. His stance against slavery made McClintock a target of community anger and he was arrested and later acquitted of charges he incited the riot.

After the Rebels cleared out on June 29-30, Union soldiers moved in on July 1 and grateful residents welcomed them on the Square. They were only there half an hour before the enemy cavalry was spotted at the junction of Trindle Spring and York roads.

The soldiers were greeted with jeers and insults followed soon after by sticks and stones. The order was given to fire a volley into the crowd who scattered in all directions. But when the civilians reached cover and had access to guns, they returned to the Square from all quarters to fire back at the soldiers who were forced to retreat. The garrison commander responded by dispatching a unit of cavalry to arrest and roundup the wayward soldiers. But this gesture was misinterpreted by the civilians as an attempt to send in reinforcements so the firing continued. In the ensuing violence, Hamill was killed, Gilmer killed a sergeant and more than a dozen people were wounded.

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruled in favor of the borough in the action. Demolition of the Market House was completed on or about March 25, 1952. The new courthouse was built on the site

The gunshots from that incident echo to this day in tighter courtroom security and the presence of a metal detector in the courthouse lobby. The irony was Faller had nothing to do with the nonsupport action Lulu had brought against Percy. Court procedure required a local attorney to sit in as an associate counsel when a lawyer from outside the county appears in court.

The faith came over to America where, on Aug. 21, 1752, a nine-hour communion service was held in an outdoor chapel on ground owned by the widow of Joseph Junkin, the first settler of what is now New Kingstown.

Junkin once owned a farm that straddled County Down and County Antrim in Northern Ireland. He left the old country around 1736 and settled for a time in Chester County where he married a Scottish woman named Elizabeth Wallace. The couple moved to 500 acres in newly established Cumberland County.

There they developed a farm near Stoney Ridge in present-day Silver Spring Township where Elizabeth became the caretaker of a chapel that eventually became known as “Widow Jenkins Tent.” Rev. John Cuthbertson led the communion service that drew 250 of the faithful to that first gathering of Scots Covenanters.

The Junkins had a son named Joseph Jr. who fought in the Revolutionary War battle of Brandywine and was later ordained a Covenanter minister, the journal article reads. Among the offspring of Joseph Jr. were 16 ministers and 15 ruling elders of the faith, but perhaps the most famous was Rev. Dr. George Junkins, first president of Lafayette College.

George Junkins had a daughter named Eleanor, who married Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, who became a famous Confederate general.

The brother-in-law of George Ross, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Thompson supplied meat to garrisons manning the line of outposts from Carlisle to Pittsburgh. His regular shipments of cattle and hogs helped to establish frontier trade. He invested in the iron industry and became a judge in Westmoreland County.

Within 18 months of him taking the bench in January 1774, fortunes changed for Thompson and the original 13 colonies. A divide with England erupted into violence in Massachusetts prompting the start of the Revolutionary War.

In mid-June 1775, the Continental Congress appointed George Washington commander-in-chief of ground forces and agreed to raise 10 companies of riflemen to dispatch to Boston. Thompson organized and commanded a battalion from Pennsylvania that provided six of these original units to the Army of the United Colonies, a predecessor to the Continental Army.

On June 25, 1775, Congress issued a commission naming Thompson the first colonel of what would become the U.S. Army. Forces under his command helped in the defense of Boston following the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Later, Thompson led a group of Pennsylvania sharpshooters who drove back the first group of British soldiers landing in New York City. This earned Thompson the rank of brigadier general.

In March 1776, he led 2,000 men during the ill-fated invasion of Canada. Following the Battle of Three Rivers, Thompson surrendered his command on June 9 and the British imprisoned him until Nov. 7, 1780.

At that point, Thompson was exchanged for a German general captured at the Battle of Saratoga. Thompson returned to the “Soldier’s Retreat,” his country estate in North Middleton Township. He died less than a year later on Sept. 3, 1781, at age 45. Thompson was buried in the Old Graveyard between East South Street and Cemetery Avenue in Carlisle.

For years, members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians have placed a wreath at Thompson’s grave. The organization is based on the principles of friendship, unity and Christian charity. Local members raised the money for a new headstone carved from Irish marble.

While much of the early fighting of the Revolutionary War took place in New York and New England, the manufacture and repair of weapons and the production of gunpowder was concentrated in Philadelphia. But that thinking changed during the fall of 1776 after the Continental Army was defeated in New York and the threat to Philadelphia intensified.

In December 1776, Congress authorized the construction of a major logistics base in Carlisle that came to be known as the Public Works at Washingtonburg. By the following spring, the operation was manufacturing cannon of various calibers, cannonballs and horse-drawn vehicles to mount artillery and haul ammunition.

But Washingtonburg had other functions during the Revolutionary War. A group of coopers had a shop to make barrels and casks for the Department of Military Stores to hold powder and for the Commissary Department to hold whiskey and provisions of pork, beef and other supplies preserved with salt. Washingtonburg was also the site of a military hospital, a repair facility for muskets, a recruiting station of regular army regiments and a military court that held trials for deserters, spies and other military-related cases where the sentence upon conviction was often death.

The Army also opened its first school at Washingtonburg where it trained artillerists on the use, repair and maintenance of cannon. This was the first in a long line of education institutions at Carlisle Barracks that included the Army Cavalry School of Practice, the Medical Field Service School, the Army Information School, the School of Government of Occupied Areas, the Adjutant Generals School, the Chaplain School, the Military Police School, the Army Security Agent School and the present-day Army War College.

Following their defeat at Saratoga in October 1777, the British intensified their campaign to draw American forces away from the main army by inciting the Indians on the frontier to attack settlers. This campaign led to a repeat of the same kind of atrocities that terrorized colonists during the French and Indian War and the Pontiac War. Washingtonburg proved vital in supplying the garrisons of militia units called up to defend frontier outposts. Products made at the logistics base also helped to reequip the Continental Army during the difficult winter at Valley Forge in 1777-78.

For six years, the tradesmen at Washingtonburg kept hope alive despite Indian raids on supply lines. By 1780, the Carlisle area had peaked as a provider of military supplies. Economic conditions combined with counterfeiting by the British caused skyrocketing inflation that made it difficult for the Continental Army to obtain even the most basic necessities. By late 1781, the Public Works ceased to be a major supply center and by May 1784, Congress ordered Washingtonburg to close.

Much of the history of this newspaper can be found in the book, “Early Publications of Carlisle,” housed in the library of the Cumberland County Historical Society.

Kline emigrated from Germany and settled in Carlisle. He started up the newspaper in August 1785 and continued to publish the Gazette until 1817. Back then, printers eked out a living by publishing the organ of some group or political party.

After 10 to 12 years, Kline attained so much political influence in Cumberland County that he served as register and recorder from 1795 to 1804. By that time, he was secretary of the standing committee of county Republicans. But his political fortunes changed in 1805 when the party was split into two factions by disagreements over the statewide platform.

Kline supported the Democratic-Republicans drawing the ire of Constitutional-Republicans who started their own newspaper, the Cumberland Register, in response to the political leanings of the Gazette. Using editorials loaded with vitriol, the Constitutional-Republicans made Kline out to be a villain. But Kline survived the turmoil within the party and served again as county register and recorder from 1809 to 1816.

Prior to Kline’s Gazette, local residents had to rely on Benjamin Franklin’s Philadelphia newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, for news. Even then, most early newspapers were four-page weeklies filled with articles clipped from foreign or metropolitan American newspapers, usually placed on the first and second pages. The speeches of state governors and U.S. presidents were reproduced verbatim.

The third page carried ads and what little local news was reported. Most of the time, the coverage consisted of birth and death notices along with local election returns or predictions. Back then, crime reports from across the country generated the most sensation. Events like the opening of a new stage line to Baltimore were done either as a news item or an editorial. For political comment, the editors relied on letters sent in by party enthusiasts using a pen name.

For years, Kline operated a print shop out of the stone building at 152-154 W. High St. In December 2013, that building was found to be eligible for placement on the Cumberland County Register of Historic Places. It has since been listed.

The lead tradesman in the production of the primer was a German immigrant and entrepreneur named Gustav Samuel Peters who first experimented with color printing in Carlisle before perfecting his technique in Harrisburg. His story is documented in the book, “Gustav Samuel Peters & His Publishing House,” located in the archives of the Cumberland County Historical Society.

While the new version was similar to ABC books published by other printers, Peters and his business partner, Johann Moser, made a significant innovation by printing the eight-page illustrated alphabet in color.

“The coloration was simple, just red and yellow, but it is the very first book with color-printed illustrations by America’s first successful color printer,” the book reads. “His color process at this time followed a basic pattern: print in black first; let the ink dry; and in two additional impressions, print yellow and then red.”

Hoch-Deutsches Abc opened with the alphabet in upper and lower case letters followed by word lists that were used to teach spelling. The pictorial alphabet matches words and images with poetic text while the last half of the primer contains a series of readings and religious lessons along with a multiplication table.

Peters was born near Dresden, Germany, on Jan. 15, 1793. After receiving a basic education, he served in the army during the Napoleonic Wars and afterward learned the printing trade in Leipzig. Peters moved to America in 1820 and settled in Baltimore to be near his older brother Christian.

While there, he worked for a foundry that cast the metal type used in printing presses. By January 1822, Peters was advertising his own business in Baltimore producing type and ornaments. By the summer of 1823, he had moved to Carlisle where he formed the partnership with Moser, an Austrian immigrant.

The partners opened a print shop on what is now High Street just east of the St. John’s Episcopal Church on the Square. There, they developed contacts with an already established network of commercial printers throughout south-central Pennsylvania along with the German-language press of the region.

From the start, the partners focused their marketing efforts on the large population of ethnic Germans who were dealing with a cultural shift that made English the preferred language. Moser and Peters knew their best chance of success was to serve as a leading bilingual press in the region.

The 1825 premiere of the ABC book ushered in future success. It became a bestseller. But the first major project tackled by the partners was a German version of the New Testament that consisted of over 500 pages with 12 illustrations.

“The man hours needed would have been tremendous,” the book reads. “Each line had to be set letter by letter and each page composed line by line. Then a stereotype plate needed to be produced by making a mold of the page and then casting the plate. The original types could then be freed up to create the next page by repeating the process.”

Moser and Peters operated their print shop and bookstore in Carlisle until 1827 when the enterprise relocated to Harrisburg. Soon after, the two men parted ways with Moser moving to Allentown to work as a druggist.

“At Carlisle, Peters established one of the first stereotype publishing houses in the United States and produced the first German New Testament to be so printed in America,” the book reads. “At Carlisle, Peters demonstrated his talents as an engraver and illustrator and made his first venture as a publisher of juvenile works. Above and beyond all this, Peters launched his color-printing career at Carlisle and so became ‘the founder of colored printing in America’ as Dr. William Egle [a biographer] described him.”

In fall 2015, Wagner was a leader in the effort to organize events for 2016 to celebrate the 180th anniversary of Carlisle being the first chartered public school district in Pennsylvania.

For much of its early history, the town was on the edge of civilization as the seat of Cumberland County, a once vast territory that stretched to present-day Pittsburgh.

While the Free Public School Act of 1834 was opposed by boroughs in southern and south-eastern Pennsylvania, the idea of a level playing field in education found enough support locally to earn Carlisle such a distinction.

Prior to the act, only the wealthy and elite could afford to provide their children with a quality education. As early as the 1770s, progressive thinkers like Thomas Jefferson began to push for public education funded by taxes.

Many of the Founding Fathers thought of the general public as an unthinking mass that would reap the benefit of an organized school system, Wagner said. “They would be well-educated voters who would then put in place the right people to make decisions for our country.”

Jefferson’s election as president in 1800 brought with it a rise of nationalism and the notion that public education seemed the next logical step as a great unifier of the country, Wagner said.

But the act faced opposition from aristocrats who thought that only well-born people should be entitled to a quality education. Meanwhile, German-speaking communities were worried children enrolled in free public schools may lose touch with their native language and culture.

The act’s supporters included progressive thinkers among the Methodist and Presbyterian faiths who had a mindset for social justice, Wagner said. The movement found a local champion in James Hamilton Jr., a Carlisle native who graduated from Dickinson College in 1812 and was a trustee from 1824 to 1833.

Documents show that Hamilton was active in promoting the Free Public School Act and was a leader among the residents working to set up a local school system from spring 1835 to when the charter was granted in August 1836 and beyond into its formative years.

“Hamilton was the author of the practical plans for carrying the law into effect in the borough of Carlisle,” Wagner said. Specifically, Hamilton helped to establish the first curriculum, select the first textbooks, draft the first grading system and develop the first disciplinary code for the Carlisle district.

Aside from being an organizer and long-time school board member, Hamilton played a key role in the founding of the Hamilton Library Association, which later became the Cumberland County Historical Society.

Carlisle school district became Carlisle Area School District in 1954 when it merged with other systems adjoining the borough. Today, the district consists of the boroughs of Carlisle and Mount Holly Springs and the townships of Dickinson and North Middleton.

The traveler suggested the railroad provide a car with sleeping facilities. This brief encounter inspired the development of the Chambersburg as probably the first sleeper car put into service anywhere in America. In his book about the railroad, Paul Westhaeffer described the innovation.

The Chambersburg had a central aisle that ran the length of the car with partitions that divided the chestnut interior into four compartments. The first compartment contained several pairs of reversible transverse seats. The second and third compartments were sleeping quarters for men and were each fitted with six bunks, three along each side of the car.

The lower bunk was stationary and served as a seat cushion during the day. The middle bunk was hinged to the wall and hung down during the day to form the seat back. The upper bunk was hinged to the wall and swung up during the day for storage at a forty-five angle with the wall. The fourth compartment of the Chambersburg was reserved for women and was separated from the rest by a door with a lock. It only had a set of lower bunks along with a water closet in one corner.

Though there was no extra charge for the sleeper car service, the priority on bunks went to eastbound travelers. Heat came from an iron stove in the middle of the car while light was provided by candles. Two conductors took turns keeping watch over the passengers and enforcing company rules against smoking, tobacco chewing and making noise.

Within two years, the number of stagecoach passengers using the sleeper car service doubled. The Chambersburg was so successful that the railroad converted an ordinary passenger coach into a second sleeper car named the Carlisle. Both cars served as day coaches on the return trip from Philadelphia to Chambersburg.

In the decades that followed, the Pullman Co. tried to protect its monopoly of the American sleeper car industry by suing companies for alleged infringements of its patents. Defendants in those lawsuits often sought out the testimony of Cumberland Valley Railroad officials and employees to prove that sleeper cars were in common use long before Pullman invented his version.

Cumberland Valley Railroad went through a period of expansion and acquisition through the mid- to late 19th century, reaching the Potomac River and Shenandoah Valley by 1889. At its peak, the railroad employed about 1,800 people and served as the principal freight and passenger carrier through the valley until 1919 when it was absorbed by the larger Pennsylvania Railroad.

The inventor had invited Smyser to a demonstration of a forerunner of the modern telephone years before Alexander Graham Bell filed his official patent in 1876.

Drawbaugh started by having the boy sing the hymn, “Don’t you want to be a Christian while you’re young?” into the transmitter of the talking machine. Smyser could hear the lyrics clearly.

The Wizard then had the child count to five in a whisper. Again, the voice came out of the mechanism.

It was 1886 and Smyser was among the witnesses who testified on behalf of the People’s Telephone Co. before the U.S. Circuit Court of the Southern District of New York.

Drawbaugh had sold the firm his rights to the talking machine for $5,000 in cash and an undisclosed amount of company stock. The American Bell Telephone Co. promptly sued, claiming that the People’s Telephone Co. had violated Bell’s patent.

Numerous Cumberland County residents told the court they saw various models of telephones in Drawbaugh’s workshop going back as far as 1864. There was reason to believe the tinkerer had developed an acoustic telephone in 1866 that had a teacup as a transmitter and mustard can as a receiver.

None of this surprised the neighbors. Drawbaugh had a knack for invention going back to childhood. Born on July 14, 1827, he was from a long line of machinists and mechanics.

In his lifetime, Drawbaugh received about 70 patents for such devices as an automatic boiler feeder, a stave jointing machine, a steam injector, an automatic fire alarm, a coin sorter, a folding lunch box, a mowing machine and a paper bag folder. He designed a clock that ran off the Earth’s electrical current and a pneumatic stone drill that workers used in the construction of the Library of Congress.

But Drawbaugh lacked the marketing and business savvy to richly profit from any of his inventions, especially “the talking machine” which he regarded as more of a plaything or novelty. He kept no detailed notes on the development of the telephone. In the end, Drawbaugh lacked convincing proof.

On March 19, 1888, the U.S. Supreme Court decided 4-3 that Bell, not Drawbaugh, was the original inventor of the telephone. That decision removed the last significant challenge to the 1876 patent, clearing the way for Bell to develop a powerful monopoly. But county residents saw it differently. They thought that Drawbaugh was the victim of big business and fast-talking lawyers. There was even speculation that covert agents of Bell had stolen the design schematics from the Wizard’s workshop.

Poverty hounded Drawbaugh to the end of his days. Eventually, he closed his workshop and moved his operation to Camp Hill. On Nov. 13, 1911, Drawbaugh was hosting a group of reporters and local residents at his new workshop. The Wizard was excited to be close to perfecting his latest invention, a wireless burglar alarm. Just then, he suffered a stroke died a short time later.

“They asked me if they could open an account in their joint names for the purpose of depositing cash each week,” Landis said in the 1935 edition of the Magazine of Sigma Chi.

“They proposed to collect [the money] from fellow workers,” Landis said. “Their idea was to start with one to five cents a week and increase the deposit by the same amount every week for the next fifty weeks and then distribute the funds just before Christmas. The account was opened and in the following week the Carlisle Trust Co. announced to the public the opening of its Christmas Savings Club.”

In display ads published in The Sentinel, the bank explained that the club would start the first week of January 1910 and would allow members to gradually build a balance by making weekly deposits of any amount until the week before Christmas. The total amount deposited would then earn 3% interest right before the distribution.

Since the Christmas club idea could not be protected by copyright or patent, it quickly spread throughout the financial world and became an accepted practice among banks.

By 1965, 15 million Americans were Christmas club members with total savings estimated at $1.8 billion, according to Frank A. Mosher Jr., president of Security Savings Systems of New Cumberland. Mosher was a guest speaker on the Pennsylvania Story, a history series produced by WHP-580, a talk radio station in Harrisburg.

By March, the first class of 30 men arrived in town to begin two months of instruction. Nearly all of them were Army or Navy veterans of World War I eager to put their training in the service to use in civilian jobs. Courses taught at Newville include criminal procedure, criminal law, criminal reporting and investigation, traffic control, mob and crowd control, state geography and self-defense.

Legal courses touched on laws governing motor vehicles, fish and game and forestry. In addition, each recruit was assigned a horse and given instructions on cavalry drill, care of the animal and stable hygiene. The hotel’s 10 acres provided ample space for stables, a horse corral and a drill field.

A badge of civic pride among local residents, the academy lasted only three years. On March 1, 1923, the state police closed the academy in Newville shifting it first to Fort Indiantown Gap and then to Hershey, its current location. The hotel building in Newville was eventually demolished to make room for the Hershey Chocolate Co. creamery, which later closed.

There is reason to believe the state police academy at Newville may have been the first of its kind in the nation. Of the 50 states, only 45 had joined the union by February 1920. Of the 45, only Connecticut, Idaho, Michigan, New York, Virginia and West Virginia had official uniformed state police agencies before Pennsylvania. According to online research, none of those states had established an official state police training academy before the one in Newville.

In 1937, Javitch purchased a store in Lewistown, and named it the Giant Food Shopping Center, according to the company history on the Giant Co. website. That store offered customers dry goods and perishables under one roof, a new concept at the time.

Two years later, in 1939, Javitch converted his downtown Carlisle market into the first self-service grocery store in the area. Javitch had food markets operating in Shamokin and other central Pennsylvania communities when he opened a second Carlisle store in 1964 at the Carlisle Plaza on York Road, according to the news article.

That second store continued to operate until 1996 when the Giant supermarket on Spring Garden Street opened for customers. Most recently an Office Max, the second location was the first food store in Carlisle to offer both an in-store bakery and deli.

Meanwhile, in 1970, Giant acquired from a Mennonite family the Hagerstown-based market chain Martin’s Food Stores, which still operates under that name. Javitch died in 1974.

In 1981, Giant was sold to Royal Ahold, a worldwide food retailer based in the Netherlands.

During the early years of its operation, Giant had corporate offices in the Moose building in downtown Carlisle, but that space became too cramped. The first purpose-built headquarters building was constructed in 1972 in Middlesex Township. That location operated until 1998 when the offices were transferred to a new four-story building along the Carlisle Pike just outside Carlisle.

Today, Royal Ahold is known as Ahold Delhaize, with a website describing its international holdings. The Giant Co. has 30,000 employees supporting 190 stores across Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. Of those stores, 132 have pharmacies and 105 have fuel stations. There are also over 130 online pick-up and delivery hubs, according to the Ahold Delhaize website.

By midday, vehicles were passing through the toll gate at the rate of one every two minutes. Those first drivers each received a multicolor brochure from the local chamber of commerce proclaiming Carlisle the “gateway to the west.”

It took less than 10 hours for the turnpike to have its first documented case of excessive speed based on the times stamped on the ticket. The Sentinel reported that the motorist drove the 78.5 miles from Bedford to Carlisle in 52 minutes for an average speed of 90 mph, almost double the recommended limit.

There was reason for caution. Up to that point, the turnpike had claimed the lives of 19 workers who constructed the east-west highway over the remains of the old South Penn Railroad. For its 75th anniversary in 2012, the Turnpike Commission posted an online history about the opening of this first section of highway.

The history says the mountain posed a barrier to Andrew Carnegie and William Vanderbilt, who were trying to build a railroad from Harrisburg west to Pittsburgh to compete with a more northerly route provided by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Half the road bed was completed and seven tunnels were partially excavated by the time Vanderbilt went broke in 1885.

Starting in 1910, the idea began to circulate about converting the abandoned railroad line into a road for motor vehicles. This gained traction with the support of trucking firms and the motoring public. In late 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt saw the proposal as an opportunity to employ workers out of a job due to the Great Depression.

The online history says then Pennsylvania Gov. George Howard Earle III signed a bill in 1937 to create the Turnpike Commission. Plans were developed calling for the construction of a 160-mile four-lane highway from Middlesex Township in Cumberland County to Irwin east of Pittsburgh.

Features of the new highway included two 12-foot travel lanes going in each direction with medians, berms, long entrance and exit ramps, banked curves and separated grade crossings.

With the support of the president, the project received $29 million in grants from the Works Progress Administration and $41 million in loans from the Reconstruction Finance Corp. The goal was to have the tolls pay back the money. On Oct. 27, 1938, officials broke ground near Newburg on the first 10-mile leg of the Carlisle-to-Pittsburgh segment.

The faith came over to America where, on Aug. 21, 1752, a nine-hour communion service was held in an outdoor chapel on ground owned by the widow of Joseph Junkin, the first settler of what is now New Kingstown.

Junkin once owned a farm that straddled County Down and County Antrim in Northern Ireland. He left the old country around 1736 and settled for a time in Chester County where he married a Scottish woman named Elizabeth Wallace. The couple moved to 500 acres in newly established Cumberland County.

There they developed a farm near Stoney Ridge in present-day Silver Spring Township where Elizabeth became the caretaker of a chapel that eventually became known as “Widow Jenkins Tent.” Rev. John Cuthbertson led the communion service that drew 250 of the faithful to that first gathering of Scots Covenanters.

The Junkins had a son named Joseph Jr. who fought in the Revolutionary War battle of Brandywine and was later ordained a Covenanter minister, the journal article reads. Among the offspring of Joseph Jr. were 16 ministers and 15 ruling elders of the faith, but perhaps the most famous was Rev. Dr. George Junkins, first president of Lafayette College.

George Junkins had a daughter named Eleanor, who married Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, who became a famous Confederate general.

The brother-in-law of George Ross, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Thompson supplied meat to garrisons manning the line of outposts from Carlisle to Pittsburgh. His regular shipments of cattle and hogs helped to establish frontier trade. He invested in the iron industry and became a judge in Westmoreland County.

Within 18 months of him taking the bench in January 1774, fortunes changed for Thompson and the original 13 colonies. A divide with England erupted into violence in Massachusetts prompting the start of the Revolutionary War.

In mid-June 1775, the Continental Congress appointed George Washington commander-in-chief of ground forces and agreed to raise 10 companies of riflemen to dispatch to Boston. Thompson organized and commanded a battalion from Pennsylvania that provided six of these original units to the Army of the United Colonies, a predecessor to the Continental Army.

On June 25, 1775, Congress issued a commission naming Thompson the first colonel of what would become the U.S. Army. Forces under his command helped in the defense of Boston following the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Later, Thompson led a group of Pennsylvania sharpshooters who drove back the first group of British soldiers landing in New York City. This earned Thompson the rank of brigadier general.

In March 1776, he led 2,000 men during the ill-fated invasion of Canada. Following the Battle of Three Rivers, Thompson surrendered his command on June 9 and the British imprisoned him until Nov. 7, 1780.

At that point, Thompson was exchanged for a German general captured at the Battle of Saratoga. Thompson returned to the “Soldier’s Retreat,” his country estate in North Middleton Township. He died less than a year later on Sept. 3, 1781, at age 45. Thompson was buried in the Old Graveyard between East South Street and Cemetery Avenue in Carlisle.

For years, members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians have placed a wreath at Thompson’s grave. The organization is based on the principles of friendship, unity and Christian charity. Local members raised the money for a new headstone carved from Irish marble.

While much of the early fighting of the Revolutionary War took place in New York and New England, the manufacture and repair of weapons and the production of gunpowder was concentrated in Philadelphia. But that thinking changed during the fall of 1776 after the Continental Army was defeated in New York and the threat to Philadelphia intensified.

In December 1776, Congress authorized the construction of a major logistics base in Carlisle that came to be known as the Public Works at Washingtonburg. By the following spring, the operation was manufacturing cannon of various calibers, cannonballs and horse-drawn vehicles to mount artillery and haul ammunition.

But Washingtonburg had other functions during the Revolutionary War. A group of coopers had a shop to make barrels and casks for the Department of Military Stores to hold powder and for the Commissary Department to hold whiskey and provisions of pork, beef and other supplies preserved with salt. Washingtonburg was also the site of a military hospital, a repair facility for muskets, a recruiting station of regular army regiments and a military court that held trials for deserters, spies and other military-related cases where the sentence upon conviction was often death.

The Army also opened its first school at Washingtonburg where it trained artillerists on the use, repair and maintenance of cannon. This was the first in a long line of education institutions at Carlisle Barracks that included the Army Cavalry School of Practice, the Medical Field Service School, the Army Information School, the School of Government of Occupied Areas, the Adjutant Generals School, the Chaplain School, the Military Police School, the Army Security Agent School and the present-day Army War College.

Following their defeat at Saratoga in October 1777, the British intensified their campaign to draw American forces away from the main army by inciting the Indians on the frontier to attack settlers. This campaign led to a repeat of the same kind of atrocities that terrorized colonists during the French and Indian War and the Pontiac War. Washingtonburg proved vital in supplying the garrisons of militia units called up to defend frontier outposts. Products made at the logistics base also helped to reequip the Continental Army during the difficult winter at Valley Forge in 1777-78.

For six years, the tradesmen at Washingtonburg kept hope alive despite Indian raids on supply lines. By 1780, the Carlisle area had peaked as a provider of military supplies. Economic conditions combined with counterfeiting by the British caused skyrocketing inflation that made it difficult for the Continental Army to obtain even the most basic necessities. By late 1781, the Public Works ceased to be a major supply center and by May 1784, Congress ordered Washingtonburg to close.

Much of the history of this newspaper can be found in the book, “Early Publications of Carlisle,” housed in the library of the Cumberland County Historical Society.

Kline emigrated from Germany and settled in Carlisle. He started up the newspaper in August 1785 and continued to publish the Gazette until 1817. Back then, printers eked out a living by publishing the organ of some group or political party.

After 10 to 12 years, Kline attained so much political influence in Cumberland County that he served as register and recorder from 1795 to 1804. By that time, he was secretary of the standing committee of county Republicans. But his political fortunes changed in 1805 when the party was split into two factions by disagreements over the statewide platform.

Kline supported the Democratic-Republicans drawing the ire of Constitutional-Republicans who started their own newspaper, the Cumberland Register, in response to the political leanings of the Gazette. Using editorials loaded with vitriol, the Constitutional-Republicans made Kline out to be a villain. But Kline survived the turmoil within the party and served again as county register and recorder from 1809 to 1816.

Prior to Kline’s Gazette, local residents had to rely on Benjamin Franklin’s Philadelphia newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, for news. Even then, most early newspapers were four-page weeklies filled with articles clipped from foreign or metropolitan American newspapers, usually placed on the first and second pages. The speeches of state governors and U.S. presidents were reproduced verbatim.

The third page carried ads and what little local news was reported. Most of the time, the coverage consisted of birth and death notices along with local election returns or predictions. Back then, crime reports from across the country generated the most sensation. Events like the opening of a new stage line to Baltimore were done either as a news item or an editorial. For political comment, the editors relied on letters sent in by party enthusiasts using a pen name.

For years, Kline operated a print shop out of the stone building at 152-154 W. High St. In December 2013, that building was found to be eligible for placement on the Cumberland County Register of Historic Places. It has since been listed.

The lead tradesman in the production of the primer was a German immigrant and entrepreneur named Gustav Samuel Peters who first experimented with color printing in Carlisle before perfecting his technique in Harrisburg. His story is documented in the book, “Gustav Samuel Peters & His Publishing House,” located in the archives of the Cumberland County Historical Society.

While the new version was similar to ABC books published by other printers, Peters and his business partner, Johann Moser, made a significant innovation by printing the eight-page illustrated alphabet in color.

“The coloration was simple, just red and yellow, but it is the very first book with color-printed illustrations by America’s first successful color printer,” the book reads. “His color process at this time followed a basic pattern: print in black first; let the ink dry; and in two additional impressions, print yellow and then red.”

Hoch-Deutsches Abc opened with the alphabet in upper and lower case letters followed by word lists that were used to teach spelling. The pictorial alphabet matches words and images with poetic text while the last half of the primer contains a series of readings and religious lessons along with a multiplication table.

Peters was born near Dresden, Germany, on Jan. 15, 1793. After receiving a basic education, he served in the army during the Napoleonic Wars and afterward learned the printing trade in Leipzig. Peters moved to America in 1820 and settled in Baltimore to be near his older brother Christian.

While there, he worked for a foundry that cast the metal type used in printing presses. By January 1822, Peters was advertising his own business in Baltimore producing type and ornaments. By the summer of 1823, he had moved to Carlisle where he formed the partnership with Moser, an Austrian immigrant.

The partners opened a print shop on what is now High Street just east of the St. John’s Episcopal Church on the Square. There, they developed contacts with an already established network of commercial printers throughout south-central Pennsylvania along with the German-language press of the region.

From the start, the partners focused their marketing efforts on the large population of ethnic Germans who were dealing with a cultural shift that made English the preferred language. Moser and Peters knew their best chance of success was to serve as a leading bilingual press in the region.

The 1825 premiere of the ABC book ushered in future success. It became a bestseller. But the first major project tackled by the partners was a German version of the New Testament that consisted of over 500 pages with 12 illustrations.

“The man hours needed would have been tremendous,” the book reads. “Each line had to be set letter by letter and each page composed line by line. Then a stereotype plate needed to be produced by making a mold of the page and then casting the plate. The original types could then be freed up to create the next page by repeating the process.”

Moser and Peters operated their print shop and bookstore in Carlisle until 1827 when the enterprise relocated to Harrisburg. Soon after, the two men parted ways with Moser moving to Allentown to work as a druggist.

“At Carlisle, Peters established one of the first stereotype publishing houses in the United States and produced the first German New Testament to be so printed in America,” the book reads. “At Carlisle, Peters demonstrated his talents as an engraver and illustrator and made his first venture as a publisher of juvenile works. Above and beyond all this, Peters launched his color-printing career at Carlisle and so became ‘the founder of colored printing in America’ as Dr. William Egle [a biographer] described him.”

In fall 2015, Wagner was a leader in the effort to organize events for 2016 to celebrate the 180th anniversary of Carlisle being the first chartered public school district in Pennsylvania.

For much of its early history, the town was on the edge of civilization as the seat of Cumberland County, a once vast territory that stretched to present-day Pittsburgh.

While the Free Public School Act of 1834 was opposed by boroughs in southern and south-eastern Pennsylvania, the idea of a level playing field in education found enough support locally to earn Carlisle such a distinction.

Prior to the act, only the wealthy and elite could afford to provide their children with a quality education. As early as the 1770s, progressive thinkers like Thomas Jefferson began to push for public education funded by taxes.

Many of the Founding Fathers thought of the general public as an unthinking mass that would reap the benefit of an organized school system, Wagner said. “They would be well-educated voters who would then put in place the right people to make decisions for our country.”

Jefferson’s election as president in 1800 brought with it a rise of nationalism and the notion that public education seemed the next logical step as a great unifier of the country, Wagner said.

But the act faced opposition from aristocrats who thought that only well-born people should be entitled to a quality education. Meanwhile, German-speaking communities were worried children enrolled in free public schools may lose touch with their native language and culture.

The act’s supporters included progressive thinkers among the Methodist and Presbyterian faiths who had a mindset for social justice, Wagner said. The movement found a local champion in James Hamilton Jr., a Carlisle native who graduated from Dickinson College in 1812 and was a trustee from 1824 to 1833.

Documents show that Hamilton was active in promoting the Free Public School Act and was a leader among the residents working to set up a local school system from spring 1835 to when the charter was granted in August 1836 and beyond into its formative years.

“Hamilton was the author of the practical plans for carrying the law into effect in the borough of Carlisle,” Wagner said. Specifically, Hamilton helped to establish the first curriculum, select the first textbooks, draft the first grading system and develop the first disciplinary code for the Carlisle district.

Aside from being an organizer and long-time school board member, Hamilton played a key role in the founding of the Hamilton Library Association, which later became the Cumberland County Historical Society.

Carlisle school district became Carlisle Area School District in 1954 when it merged with other systems adjoining the borough. Today, the district consists of the boroughs of Carlisle and Mount Holly Springs and the townships of Dickinson and North Middleton.

The traveler suggested the railroad provide a car with sleeping facilities. This brief encounter inspired the development of the Chambersburg as probably the first sleeper car put into service anywhere in America. In his book about the railroad, Paul Westhaeffer described the innovation.

The Chambersburg had a central aisle that ran the length of the car with partitions that divided the chestnut interior into four compartments. The first compartment contained several pairs of reversible transverse seats. The second and third compartments were sleeping quarters for men and were each fitted with six bunks, three along each side of the car.

The lower bunk was stationary and served as a seat cushion during the day. The middle bunk was hinged to the wall and hung down during the day to form the seat back. The upper bunk was hinged to the wall and swung up during the day for storage at a forty-five angle with the wall. The fourth compartment of the Chambersburg was reserved for women and was separated from the rest by a door with a lock. It only had a set of lower bunks along with a water closet in one corner.

Though there was no extra charge for the sleeper car service, the priority on bunks went to eastbound travelers. Heat came from an iron stove in the middle of the car while light was provided by candles. Two conductors took turns keeping watch over the passengers and enforcing company rules against smoking, tobacco chewing and making noise.

Within two years, the number of stagecoach passengers using the sleeper car service doubled. The Chambersburg was so successful that the railroad converted an ordinary passenger coach into a second sleeper car named the Carlisle. Both cars served as day coaches on the return trip from Philadelphia to Chambersburg.

In the decades that followed, the Pullman Co. tried to protect its monopoly of the American sleeper car industry by suing companies for alleged infringements of its patents. Defendants in those lawsuits often sought out the testimony of Cumberland Valley Railroad officials and employees to prove that sleeper cars were in common use long before Pullman invented his version.

Cumberland Valley Railroad went through a period of expansion and acquisition through the mid- to late 19th century, reaching the Potomac River and Shenandoah Valley by 1889. At its peak, the railroad employed about 1,800 people and served as the principal freight and passenger carrier through the valley until 1919 when it was absorbed by the larger Pennsylvania Railroad.

The inventor had invited Smyser to a demonstration of a forerunner of the modern telephone years before Alexander Graham Bell filed his official patent in 1876.

Drawbaugh started by having the boy sing the hymn, “Don’t you want to be a Christian while you’re young?” into the transmitter of the talking machine. Smyser could hear the lyrics clearly.

The Wizard then had the child count to five in a whisper. Again, the voice came out of the mechanism.

It was 1886 and Smyser was among the witnesses who testified on behalf of the People’s Telephone Co. before the U.S. Circuit Court of the Southern District of New York.

Drawbaugh had sold the firm his rights to the talking machine for $5,000 in cash and an undisclosed amount of company stock. The American Bell Telephone Co. promptly sued, claiming that the People’s Telephone Co. had violated Bell’s patent.

Numerous Cumberland County residents told the court they saw various models of telephones in Drawbaugh’s workshop going back as far as 1864. There was reason to believe the tinkerer had developed an acoustic telephone in 1866 that had a teacup as a transmitter and mustard can as a receiver.

None of this surprised the neighbors. Drawbaugh had a knack for invention going back to childhood. Born on July 14, 1827, he was from a long line of machinists and mechanics.

In his lifetime, Drawbaugh received about 70 patents for such devices as an automatic boiler feeder, a stave jointing machine, a steam injector, an automatic fire alarm, a coin sorter, a folding lunch box, a mowing machine and a paper bag folder. He designed a clock that ran off the Earth’s electrical current and a pneumatic stone drill that workers used in the construction of the Library of Congress.

But Drawbaugh lacked the marketing and business savvy to richly profit from any of his inventions, especially “the talking machine” which he regarded as more of a plaything or novelty. He kept no detailed notes on the development of the telephone. In the end, Drawbaugh lacked convincing proof.

On March 19, 1888, the U.S. Supreme Court decided 4-3 that Bell, not Drawbaugh, was the original inventor of the telephone. That decision removed the last significant challenge to the 1876 patent, clearing the way for Bell to develop a powerful monopoly. But county residents saw it differently. They thought that Drawbaugh was the victim of big business and fast-talking lawyers. There was even speculation that covert agents of Bell had stolen the design schematics from the Wizard’s workshop.

Poverty hounded Drawbaugh to the end of his days. Eventually, he closed his workshop and moved his operation to Camp Hill. On Nov. 13, 1911, Drawbaugh was hosting a group of reporters and local residents at his new workshop. The Wizard was excited to be close to perfecting his latest invention, a wireless burglar alarm. Just then, he suffered a stroke died a short time later.

“They asked me if they could open an account in their joint names for the purpose of depositing cash each week,” Landis said in the 1935 edition of the Magazine of Sigma Chi.

“They proposed to collect [the money] from fellow workers,” Landis said. “Their idea was to start with one to five cents a week and increase the deposit by the same amount every week for the next fifty weeks and then distribute the funds just before Christmas. The account was opened and in the following week the Carlisle Trust Co. announced to the public the opening of its Christmas Savings Club.”

In display ads published in The Sentinel, the bank explained that the club would start the first week of January 1910 and would allow members to gradually build a balance by making weekly deposits of any amount until the week before Christmas. The total amount deposited would then earn 3% interest right before the distribution.

Since the Christmas club idea could not be protected by copyright or patent, it quickly spread throughout the financial world and became an accepted practice among banks.

By 1965, 15 million Americans were Christmas club members with total savings estimated at $1.8 billion, according to Frank A. Mosher Jr., president of Security Savings Systems of New Cumberland. Mosher was a guest speaker on the Pennsylvania Story, a history series produced by WHP-580, a talk radio station in Harrisburg.

By March, the first class of 30 men arrived in town to begin two months of instruction. Nearly all of them were Army or Navy veterans of World War I eager to put their training in the service to use in civilian jobs. Courses taught at Newville include criminal procedure, criminal law, criminal reporting and investigation, traffic control, mob and crowd control, state geography and self-defense.

Legal courses touched on laws governing motor vehicles, fish and game and forestry. In addition, each recruit was assigned a horse and given instructions on cavalry drill, care of the animal and stable hygiene. The hotel’s 10 acres provided ample space for stables, a horse corral and a drill field.

A badge of civic pride among local residents, the academy lasted only three years. On March 1, 1923, the state police closed the academy in Newville shifting it first to Fort Indiantown Gap and then to Hershey, its current location. The hotel building in Newville was eventually demolished to make room for the Hershey Chocolate Co. creamery, which later closed.

There is reason to believe the state police academy at Newville may have been the first of its kind in the nation. Of the 50 states, only 45 had joined the union by February 1920. Of the 45, only Connecticut, Idaho, Michigan, New York, Virginia and West Virginia had official uniformed state police agencies before Pennsylvania. According to online research, none of those states had established an official state police training academy before the one in Newville.

In 1937, Javitch purchased a store in Lewistown, and named it the Giant Food Shopping Center, according to the company history on the Giant Co. website. That store offered customers dry goods and perishables under one roof, a new concept at the time.

Two years later, in 1939, Javitch converted his downtown Carlisle market into the first self-service grocery store in the area. Javitch had food markets operating in Shamokin and other central Pennsylvania communities when he opened a second Carlisle store in 1964 at the Carlisle Plaza on York Road, according to the news article.

That second store continued to operate until 1996 when the Giant supermarket on Spring Garden Street opened for customers. Most recently an Office Max, the second location was the first food store in Carlisle to offer both an in-store bakery and deli.

Meanwhile, in 1970, Giant acquired from a Mennonite family the Hagerstown-based market chain Martin’s Food Stores, which still operates under that name. Javitch died in 1974.

In 1981, Giant was sold to Royal Ahold, a worldwide food retailer based in the Netherlands.

During the early years of its operation, Giant had corporate offices in the Moose building in downtown Carlisle, but that space became too cramped. The first purpose-built headquarters building was constructed in 1972 in Middlesex Township. That location operated until 1998 when the offices were transferred to a new four-story building along the Carlisle Pike just outside Carlisle.

Today, Royal Ahold is known as Ahold Delhaize, with a website describing its international holdings. The Giant Co. has 30,000 employees supporting 190 stores across Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. Of those stores, 132 have pharmacies and 105 have fuel stations. There are also over 130 online pick-up and delivery hubs, according to the Ahold Delhaize website.

By midday, vehicles were passing through the toll gate at the rate of one every two minutes. Those first drivers each received a multicolor brochure from the local chamber of commerce proclaiming Carlisle the “gateway to the west.”

It took less than 10 hours for the turnpike to have its first documented case of excessive speed based on the times stamped on the ticket. The Sentinel reported that the motorist drove the 78.5 miles from Bedford to Carlisle in 52 minutes for an average speed of 90 mph, almost double the recommended limit.

There was reason for caution. Up to that point, the turnpike had claimed the lives of 19 workers who constructed the east-west highway over the remains of the old South Penn Railroad. For its 75th anniversary in 2012, the Turnpike Commission posted an online history about the opening of this first section of highway.

The history says the mountain posed a barrier to Andrew Carnegie and William Vanderbilt, who were trying to build a railroad from Harrisburg west to Pittsburgh to compete with a more northerly route provided by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Half the road bed was completed and seven tunnels were partially excavated by the time Vanderbilt went broke in 1885.

Starting in 1910, the idea began to circulate about converting the abandoned railroad line into a road for motor vehicles. This gained traction with the support of trucking firms and the motoring public. In late 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt saw the proposal as an opportunity to employ workers out of a job due to the Great Depression.

The online history says then Pennsylvania Gov. George Howard Earle III signed a bill in 1937 to create the Turnpike Commission. Plans were developed calling for the construction of a 160-mile four-lane highway from Middlesex Township in Cumberland County to Irwin east of Pittsburgh.

Features of the new highway included two 12-foot travel lanes going in each direction with medians, berms, long entrance and exit ramps, banked curves and separated grade crossings.

With the support of the president, the project received $29 million in grants from the Works Progress Administration and $41 million in loans from the Reconstruction Finance Corp. The goal was to have the tolls pay back the money. On Oct. 27, 1938, officials broke ground near Newburg on the first 10-mile leg of the Carlisle-to-Pittsburgh segment.