“In Old Bellaire”

D. W. Thompson, In Old Bellaire (Carlisle, PA: Hamilton Library Association, 1963).

D. W. Thompson explains Carlisle’s connection to Mary Dillon’s novel In Old Bellaire (1906). While set in the fictional town of Bellaire during the Civil War, Thompson describes how Dillon based her story on people, places, and events in Carlisle. “In Old Bellaire’ will always be the novel about old Carlisle in Civil War days, with allusions to actual local scenes and charters on every page,” as Thompson notes. Dillon’s family lived in Carlisle during the Civil War because her father, Herman Merrills Johnson, was the President of Dickinson College from 1860 to 1868. You can read In Old Bellaire online at the Dickinson College Chronicles Reading Room.

This essay has been posted online with permission from the Cumberland County Historical Society.