The Franklin County Visitors Bureau celebrates Spring into History Month and invites the public to explore Franklin County.
April is Spring into History Month at the Franklin County 11/30 Visitors Center. Buds are popping and days are sunny and warm. It is a good time to travel one of Franklin County’s many trails. Pick up the Stitches in Time Barn Quilt Trail to discover acre after acres of farmland, beautiful vistas, and amazing examples of the Cumberland Valley bank barn. Meander across Franklin County and step back to early American forts and settlements on the Frontier Franklin County Driving Tour. Explore military history from the pre-Revolutionary period to present day on the Franklin County Military Trail of History Self- Guided Tour.
For the more active explorer, Franklin County communities offer downtown walking tours of the five communities of Chambersburg, Greencastle, Mercersburg, Shippensburg, and Waynesboro. Each community’s downtown is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Other active opportunities include a Biking Tour of French & Indian War Sites in Southwest Franklin County or The South Mountain Road to Freedom Hike on a piece of the Appalachian Trail. Download these walks, hikes, and biking routes here. https://www.explorefranklincountypa.com/home/fcvb-publications/
Historic sites throughout Franklin County offer a variety of programs during April. Explore more at one of these upcoming events:
Conococheague Institute offers free programs every Saturday, 10 AM to 5 PM. Easter Games on April 8, Earth Day conservation on April 22, and Arrowheads and Archery hunting techniques on April 29.
Allison-Antrim Museum welcomes Bonnie Shockey to present “The UGRR and the Anderson Family of Antrim Township” at 7 pm in the German Bank Barn of the museum grounds.
Fort Loudoun is having a Tree Planting Day on April 15, 8 AM to 2 PM.
Franklin County Historical Society presents certified genealogist Pam Anderson presenting “Researching Franklin County House Histories” at the Grove Family Library.
All our free events. View more events in April here.
Allison-Antrim Museum, 365 South Ridge Avenue, Greencastle, Pennsylvania 17225 will hold its monthly speaker meeting on Thursday, April 13, 2023, in the German Bank Barn beginning at 7 p.m. The facility is wheelchair accessible. The speaker for the evening will be Bonnie A. Shockey, president of Allison-Antrim Museum. She will present a PowerPoint program entitled “The UGRR and the Anderson Family of Antrim Township.”
Traditionally, the Mason-Dixon Line, lying just a few miles south of Greencastle, divided the Northern states from the Southern states and for thousands of enslaved people, the Mason-Dixon Line culturally bisected the United States into the land of freedom and the land of slavery. Almost 200 years have passed since families, some known and many still unknown, in this geographical region began harboring runaways. The Underground Railroad, with its high level of secrecy and danger, was an adz which silently chipped away at the institution of slavery one human being at a time.
Attendees to the meeting will learn about the discovery of the Anderson UGRR station (the home of which still exists) in Antrim Township. Rev. Dr. Matthew Anderson, in the photograph, witnessed his father Timothy’s dangerously bold decision.
The program is open to the public. There is no fee to attend, but donations are greatly accepted toward Allison-Antrim Museum’s annual speaker series. For more information, please call 717-597-9010, visit the website at www.greencastlemuseum.org, or follow its Facebook page Greencastlemuseum.
The Rev. Thomas W. Henry (1794 to 1877) was born into slavery in Leonardtown, MD. Henry became a free man in 1821 and in 1835 became a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. When Henry married his first wife, she was enslaved. He saved money and was able to buy her freedom, and that of two of their four children. The other two children were sold before he could raise the money to purchase them. Although they were his children, they were enslaved and required their freedom be bought. Rev. Henry worked as an abolitionist to free the enslaved in MD via the Underground Railroad.
Discovered after the raid on Harper’s Ferry, Rev. Henry’s name was on papers belonging to John Brown. As an itinerant preacher, Rev Henry preached in AME churches in Frederick, Hagerstown, Greencastle, Chambersburg, and beyond. It is known that he helped enslaved adults and children get from Frederick to Hagerstown. Hagerstown, located in a slave state, is six miles south of the Mason-Dixon Line- the traditional demarcation between slavery & freedom. From Hagerstown north, Greencastle was the next closest town located on free soil with an AME congregation. There are no government validated UGRR sites in the town of Greencastle but to travel from Hagerstown to Chambersburg would have been a 24- mile trip, which could not have been easily made in one night.
From 1816 to circa 1873, Greencastle’s Bethel AME church was a log building at 227 South Carlisle St. The “new” AME church, pictured here, was built about 1873 on the same site where the log structure was located. ~ There had to be a stop or stops (run by both black and white families) in Greencastle, but as aiding and abetting escaped enslaved people was illegal, there were very few written accounts throughout the states.
In Antrim Township, Timothy Anderson Sr, a free black man living on Ridge Road, was a conductor on the UGRR. Anderson was a member of the Greencastle Presbyterian Church and hired free black men and formerly enslaved men at his sawmill business. From Hagerstown, the routes fanned out in other directions- one to the east to the Shockey farm in Ringgold, MD, across the Maryland Line to the Christian Shockey farm east of Waynesboro, and then to Hiram Wertz. From Hagerstown westward, the route connected to Mercersburg, which had the largest African American population in the county.
Article is excerpted from the Allison-Antrim March 2023 Newsletter. For more information, please visit: www.greencastlemuseum.org, Facebook, on Twitter @greencastlemuzm, or call 717-597-9010. Allison-Antrim Museum, is open regularly Tuesday to Friday, from noon to 4 p.m. and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
WWI in its day was called the war to end all wars. Today, we see the wishful thinking in the observation. Many Greencastle-Antrim veterans served in World War I, and Allison-Antrim Museum is displaying the artifacts and stories of these veterans through early 2023.
One of the veteran stories focuses on Carter Warren “Moses” Rankin, who upon enlistment in World War I, was appointed the leader of the Greencastle draftees, while on the way to Camp Green, NC. He was a private and served October 18, 1918, to January 11, 1919 in the 16th Training Co, 4th Bat, 4th Brigade. Moses worked for Landis Machine Company in Waynesboro, PA as a custodian and always enjoyed working on cars in his garage. Carter Warren “Moses” Rankin was born September 3, 1896, and died April 26, 1976, the last surviving child of Bettie and Samuel Houston Rankin. He is buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery, Antrim Township, Franklin County, PA
Discover more stories by visiting Allison Antrim Museum, 365 South Ridge Avenue in Greencastle. The Museum is open from Tuesday to Friday, noon to 4 pm & Saturday, 11 am to 1 pm. Learn more at
Allison-Antrim Museum invites the public to enjoy another installment of the Speaker Series on November 10 at 7 PM. John Miller, Executive Director of the Shippensburg Historical Society, will give a presentation on the defense of Pennsylvania during the first two weeks of the Confederate Invasion of Pennsylvania in 1863. The event will be held in the Barn.
Miller will discuss the New York State National Guard joining forces with the Pennsylvania Militia to fortify Harrisburg against a possible attack and stalling the Confederate advance toward Harrisburg. He will also share stories of the men defending the Commonwealth before and after the Battle of Gettysburg.
The event has no admission fee, but donations are welcomed.
