Explore Franklin County | PA - Great moments along the way

WAYNESBORO—The Nora Roberts Foundation has made a five-year pledge to support Renfrew Institute through the institute’s “Today’s Horizon Fund.” Renfrew Institute is a non-profit organization that provides cultural and environmental education programs to area school children, and also interprets an 1800s Pennsylvania German farmstead on the site of Renfrew Museum and Park in Waynesboro, Pa.

Mercersburg Showcases Muster Rolls of U.S. Colored Troops from the Civil War

Two U.S. Colored Troops muster rolls from the Civil War will be showcased as part of Mercersburg’s Live & Learn Weekend on November 7. The U.S. Colored Troops were African American soldiers who volunteered to serve in the U.S. armed forces beginning in 1863. Pennsylvania mustered more USCT troops (8,000 men) than any other state, including Massachusetts, a state most strongly identified with the USCT. Among the many names of Pennsylvania volunteers, two Mercersburg men are listed on the documents to be displayed: John Christy of 45th USCT Co. H, and Robert Stoner of the 22 USCT Co. H.

Mount Vernon Cemetery in Chambersburg has been designated as a site in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program, administered by the National Park Service/U.S. Department of the Interior.

A traditional burial ground for African Americans from the Chambersburg community, Mount Vernon Cemetery has been authenticated by the National Park Service and the Network to Freedom staff as a site associated with the history of the Underground Railroad by virtue of the cemetery’s status as the final resting place of Henry Watson (1813-1898). The Cemetery also holds the remains of twenty-six African American veterans of the Civil War.