Bill and Nancy Smith Family
Travels and Holidays

250th Anniversary Celebration of Cumberland County, PA (and Dickinson College)

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After the Spring Semester ended, we took a five day trip to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to view some ancestral sites that we had each studied a lot, to see if there were more information there to be found, but, mostly, just to walk the ground they walked on... we were not to be disappointed!

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The day we arrived in Carlisle, Cumberland County was celebrating its 250th anniversary as a county, with a hugh parade... which was completed by the time we got there... they were tearing down the bleachers along the main street, Hanover Avenue, and still had some streets blocked off. Pretty exciting, huh?

It didn't take too long to figure out what was going on - we went back and took a picture:

Nancy holding up the piller on the old courthouse steps under a banner...

 

Here is the permanent arch that now stands at Hanover and High Street:

The old courthouse with pillers and banner is in the back. The new county courthouse is across the street on the left. Note this is High Street to the left and right. A little over a big block up High Street to the right, is the Butler sign. The Jim Thorpe sign, below, is just a few feet to the right in the above picture, just beyond the Civil War memorial statue.

Just behind the left side of the arch is a sign with information on the celebration:

Cumberland County was formed from Lancaster County in 1750, 250 years ago!

We visited Lancaster County on this trip as well, of course. Check the menu.

 

Two famous folks from Carlisle merited a little of our attention. I mentioned the Jim Thorpe memorial. He grew up at the Carlisle Indian School and is appropriately honored on the town square, where Nancy checked it out, while we talked to some nice folks from New Jersey (not in the picture):

 

Molly Pitcher was the nickname of a real Revolutionary War heroine who took up the position of her husband at the cannon, when he was hit - and carried on through the successful American victory at Monmouth, if I have the story right.

Her grave and this statue are in the graveyard a few blocks from the earlier pictures. Across the street are some typical historic Carlisle buildings. The entire downtown are is a Historic District and very nicely maintained and presented. We highly recommend a visit, if you are in the area.

Finally, the huge parade (284 bands, floats, and other units) that we just missed on Saturday morning, was followed on Sunday by the Dickinson College commencement exercises, just another block up High Street, past the Butler sign about a block. It was all blocked off and seemed even more than a normal college ceremony. It may have been because the awarded (I saw in the paper the next day) an honorary degree to actor Antonio Banderas, accompanied by his wife, Melanie Griffith. Very popular folks!

Page created 17 May 2000, last updated 18 May 2000.
Direct questions and comments to Bill or Nancy.