Kneafsey Wordless Wednesday

To the memory of Michael Kneafsey
Born in Galway, Ireland
Died at(?) Carlisle Barracks
Oct. 3 (?), 1862
Aged 26 years

Read Full Post »

Killed in action at the Battle of Antietam

One hundred and fifty years ago today near Sharpsburg, Maryland, the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac clashed in what would live on to this day as the bloodiest one day battle in United States history.. At the end of the day, the casualties numbered nearly 23,000. Captain James Colwell was among the dead. A Carlisle, Pennsylvania, lawyer, Colwell responded to President Lincoln’s call for volunteers and enlisted at the start of the Civil War. He was named 1st Lieutenant of the 7th Pennsylvania Reserves/36th Pennsylvania Volunteers and promoted to Captain the July before his death. When Colwell fell at the battle of Antietam, he left behind a wife and four children.

Another blog post about Colwell can be found here.

Read Full Post »

Archways

Archways represent the passage from mortal life to eternal life.

Read Full Post »

More unusual names

In the Old Carlisle Graveyard lies Ademna Hamilton, who died when she was 14 months all.  I couldn’t find a meaning or even any other women with the same name.

In Markillie and St. Mary Cemeteries, you can find the grave of Elzina.  Elzina may be a variant of the Arabic name Alzena or of the name Elizabeth, and seems to be most common in the United States for women born in the 19th century.

Permelia is another 19th century name that is no longer seen much anymore.

Read Full Post »

Widow and Child of Antietam

Read Full Post »

Humphreys Wordless Wednesday

Read Full Post »

I am going to meet Jesus

Read Full Post »

He was a soldier of the Revolution

Read Full Post »

Carlisle Indian School

I did not grow up in a sports family, but I knew the name Jim Thorpe because the famous athlete Jim Thorpe came from the Carlisle Indian School. I knew those words before I understood what they signified. When I got a little older, I also heard stories of the cemetery, supposedly haunted by the ghosts of children who died before their time of disease in a place far from home and family. The Carlisle Indian Industrial School was a boarding school for Native American children that operated on property now owned by the Army War College. The school was the first of its kind off of reservation land, and it served as a model for similar schools across the United States. The school was open from 1879 until 1918, and presumably Mr. Standing came to Carlisle for the express purpose of working at the school. At the time, obviously, Standing’s family was proud of his role in the “civilizing” of the Native American population, but that legacy has changed. The schools were explicitly assimilationist in their approach, and the negative impact on some students and the preservation of their traditional cultures has become much more prominent in the study of these institutions.

Read Full Post »

Her story isn’t told

In memory of Margaret Pringle, wife of the Revd Francis Pringle, pastor of the associate church of carlisle. She departed this life 15th Feb. 1820, aged 77 years and 6 months.

When I look for Wordless Wednesday posts, I often just flip through my photos looking for one that has a lot of text, and then I try to decipher it. But I just didn’t feel this one could be posted without commentary. The stone is for Margaret Pringle, but most of the information is about her husband – his title and his occupation. Now I’m sure Mrs. Pringle had work to – she had a house and family to maintain and the duties that were expected of a pastor’s wife, but it certainly says something about the value that was placed upon activities in society that the most important thing to place on her tombstone was the respected occupation of her husband.

Read Full Post »