Pennsylvania State...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Pennsylvania Counties
|
|
 |
|
|
| |
|
|
Cumberland County, Pennsylvania
Cumberland County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education
County Seat: Carlisle
Year Organized: 1750
Square Miles: 550 |
Court House: 1 Courthouse Square
County Courthouse
Carlisle, PA 17013-3323
|
Etymology - Origin of County Name
named for Cumberland County in England. Carlisle
Demographics:
County QuickFacts:
Census Bureau Quick Facts
History
Created on January 27, 1750 from part
of Lancaster County, and named for Cumberland County in England. Carlisle, the
county seat since 1752, was incorporated as a borough on April 13, 1782. It was
named for the county town of England's Cumberland County. Shippensburg was the
county seat from 1750 to 1752.
First settlement was in a group of sheds at the site of Shippensburg, 1730.
Title was acquired from Indians in 1736, but the area was contested with
Maryland until 1737. Cumberland bore the brunt of Indian attacks from the west
in 1756–1759 and 1763–1764. The sale of wheat to Baltimore was important to the
early economy. The Cumberland Valley Railroad began in the 1830s. Iron works and
paper mills sprang up, although iron production collapsed after 1900. Dickinson
College was chartered in 1783. Carlisle Barracks began as a powder magazine in
1777, became the Army's cavalry school, the Indian School (1879– 1918), and
since 1951 the Army War College. Until the 1960s Carlisle was known for
manufacturing carpets, clothes, publications, and auto tires, and the county has
had a strong lumber industry. After 1900 the population grew on the west shore
of the Susquehanna because of railroad yards and state government. Because of
public sector jobs the county has not been hurt badly by the national trend
toward deindustrialization, although Cumberland no longer is a strong
manufacturing area. Farms cover 44 percent of the county, and it is among the
top ten counties in production of dairy products, corn, wheat, apples, hogs, and
poultry. Famous residents have included James Wilson, Gov. Joseph Ritner,
inventor Daniel Drawbaugh, athlete Jim Thorpe, and Molly Pitcher.
Carlisle produced several Revolutionary leaders, but it was a center of
opposition to the US Constitution. A fugitive slave case, Oliver vs. Kauffman,
in 1847, helped bring about the national Compromise of 1850. The Confederate
army occupied Carlisle in 1863.
Neighboring Counties:
Cities and Towns:
|
- Camp Hill |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
|
- Carlisle
(County Seat) |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
|
- Cooke |
township |
|
|
- Dickinson |
township |
|
|
- East Pennsboro |
township |
|
|
- Hampden |
township |
|
|
- Lemoyne |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
|
- Lower Allen |
township |
|
|
- Lower Frankford |
township |
|
|
- Lower Mifflin |
township |
|
|
- Mechanicsburg |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
|
- Middlesex |
township |
|
|
- Mount Holly Springs |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
|
- New Cumberland |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
|
- Newburg |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
|
- Newville |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
|
- North Middleton |
township |
|
|
- North Newton |
township |
|
|
- Plainfield |
township |
|
|
- Shippensburg |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
|
- Shiremanstown |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
|
- South Middleton |
township |
|
|
- South Newton |
township |
|
|
- Upper Allen |
township |
|
|
- Upper Frankford |
township |
|
|
- Upper Mifflin |
township |
|
|
- West Pennsboro |
township |
|
|
- Wormleysburg |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
County Resources:
Enter County Resources and Information Here
|
|
County Resource Guide
|
|
|
The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic
features of our country!"
But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.
Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally,
act locally." |
|
|
| |
Penn Foster High School
|
|
|
|
