Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania embraced the transportation and protection of fugitive slaves moving northward across the Mason-Dixon Line. Daniel Kaufman (alternately spelled Kauffman), born in Cumberland County in 1818, laid out designs for the town and helped make his presence known. His support for the Underground Railroad strengthened in Boiling Springs, as indicated by the events of October 24, […]
28
Jun
10
Oliver et al. v. Kaufman and Fugitive Slaves
Posted by rothenbb Published in Antebellum (1840-1861), Historic Periodicalsno comment
28
Jun
10
Christiana Riot – September 11, 1851
Posted by sailerd Published in Antebellum (1840-1861), Historic Periodicals, ImagesThe Christiana Riot took place on September 11, 1851 when Maryland slaveowner Edward Gorsuch and several of his relatives attempted to capture fugitive slaves at William Parker’s house in Christiana, Pennsylvania. Gorsuch was killed and several members of his party were wounded in the fight, but Parker and the fugitive slaves escaped to Canada. House […]
28
Jun
10
The Stevens & Smith Historic Site
Posted by rainwatj Published in Antebellum (1840-1861), Images, Places to Visit, Recent NewsThaddeus Stevens, one of the most powerful and controversial congressmen of the nineteenth century is the central figure of a large restoration project conducted by the Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Stevens was an adamant opponent of slavery and helped runaway slaves escape, even going so far as to employ spies to watch […]
28
Jun
10
The Underground Railroad in Columbia, Pennsylvania
Posted by solnitr Published in 19th Century (1840-1880), Images, Places to Visit, Rare BooksNineteenth-century historian Robert Clemens Smedley labeled the town of Columbia, Pennsylvania as the birthplace of the organized structure that we now know as the Underground Railroad. Smedley’s posthumously published account of the Underground Railroad’s presence in Pennsylvania, History of the Underground Railroad in Chester and the Neighboring Counties of Pennsylvania (1883), is available on Dickinson […]
25
Jun
10
Dickinson College President Jesse Peck – “A Practical Joke”
Posted by sailerd Published in Antebellum (1840-1861), Historic PeriodicalsWhen Dickinson College President Jesse Peck arrived in Staunton, Virginia, for a conference in the spring of 1849, local authorities detained him as a result of a prank by Dickinson students. As the Richmond (VA) Examiner reported: “some reprobate student…wrote a letter to the Physician of the Hospital [in Staunton], giving him a description of […]
24
Jun
10
A new political movement born out of New York and Philadelphia spread across the country, emerging in Cumberland County in 1854, shaping its politics for more than two years. Spurred by anti-Catholic and anti-immigration sentiment, the Know Nothing party grew to significant prominence if only for a short period during the mid 1850s. Reverend Otis […]
24
Jun
10
The Soldiers Monument in Carlisle, Pennsylvania was created in a post war effort to honor the Cumberland County soldiers who died as a result of the Civil War. The efforts to build the monument were initiated by the Soldiers Monument Association in early January 1867, which included General Lemuel Todd as Chair, General Robert Miller Henderson as President, and […]
23
Jun
10
The Battle of Fort Henry: February 6, 1862
Posted by rainwatj Published in Civil War (1861-1865), Images, MapsOn February 6, 1862, Union Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant and Union Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote scored the first major victory for the Union Army in the Western Theater in the battle of Fort Henry along the Tennessee River near Stewart County and Henry County, Tennessee and Calloway County, Kentucky. Inundated by recent rain […]
23
Jun
10
William P. Willey’s April 1861 letters
Posted by solnitr Published in Civil War (1861-1865), Letters & DiariesWilliam Patrick Willey, Dickinson College Class of 1862, was determined to graduate even though all odds seemed to be against him. As a junior in college, Willey’s world erupted as his country went to war with itself after the battle of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Ten days later Willey wrote his father, the […]
23
Jun
10
Carlisle Fencibles
Posted by mckelveb Published in Civil War (1861-1865), Letters & Diaries, Rare BooksAfter the outbreak of the Civil War, four volunteer companies originally consisting of fifty to one hundred men were recruited in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on April 19, 1861. On April 21, the officers were chosen with Captain Robert M. Henderson, in charge of Company A of the 36th Regiment, 7th Pennsylvania Reserve Corps. Henderson was assisted […]
