Class of 1854

    Entries drawn from the college history encyclopedia

Benjamin Arbogast was born on November 13, 1825 in Pocahontas, Virginia the youngest of the nine children of farmers Benjamin and Francis Ann Mullins Arbogast. He had early schooling locally but then worked his family's land and served as a local constable. For whatever reason, he determined...

College Relationship: Alumnus/Alumna, Faculty
Year: Class of 1854
James Williamson Bosler (1833-1883)

James Bosler was born on April 4, 1833 to Abraham and Eliza Herman Bosler in Silver Spring, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. He attended the Cumberland Academy at New Kingston, Pennsylvania before entering the nearby Dickinson College as a member of the class of 1854 along with his older brother...

College Relationship: Alumnus/Alumna
Year: Class of 1854
John Herman Bosler

J. Herman Bosler was born in Silver Spring, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania on December 14, 1830. He was one of eight children of Abraham and Eliza Herman Bosler, an already distinguished county family active in farming, milling, and distilling. He attended the Cumberland Academy in New Kingston...

College Relationship: Alumnus/Alumna, Trustee
Year: Class of 1854

William James Bowdle was born the son of Amos Bowdle and his wife in Church Creek, Maryland on October 8, 1834. He entered the Dickinson Grammar School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in September 1849 and then joined the undergraduate class of 1854 a year later. His classmates remember "Billy" as the...

College Relationship: Alumnus/Alumna
Year: Class of 1854

Nehemiah Fountain was born in Denton, in Caroline County, Maryland in December 1834, one of the five children and the only son of Nehemiah and Lydia Fountain. His father was a shoemaker and a prominent citizen of the small town. The son was educated locally and entered Dickinson College in...

College Relationship: Alumnus/Alumna
Year: Class of 1854

Birth: July 13, 1834; Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pennsylvania

Death: March 24, 1864 (age 30); Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pennsylvania

Military Service: USA, 1861-63

Unit: U.S. Volunteers

Alma Mater: Dickinson College, B.A. (Class of 1854 non-graduate); University...

College Relationship: Alumnus/Alumna
Year: Class of 1854

George Tankard Garrison was born the son of James R. Garrison and Susan P. Tankard Garrison in Accomac County on Virginia's "eastern shore" on January 14, 1835. He enrolled at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania with the class of 1854. A popular student, he was a member of the notorious...

College Relationship: Alumnus/Alumna
Year: Class of 1854

Otis Gibson was born in Moira, New York in 1825. In September 1850, he entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania with the class of 1854. A big man, while at the College he was elected to the Belles Lettres Society and fell under the influence of Professor Erastus Wentworth, a devout...

College Relationship: Alumnus/Alumna, Honorary Degree
Year: Class of 1854
Ferdinand James Samuel Gorgas (1835-1914)

Ferdinand Gorgas was born in Winchester, Virginia to John DeLancy and Mary Ann Gorgas on July 27, 1835. He prepared for his undergraduate years at the Dickinson College Grammar School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and then entered the college proper with the class of 1854 in the autumn of 1850....

College Relationship: Alumnus/Alumna
Year: Class of 1854
John Fletcher Hurst, c.1885

John Fletcher Hurst was born near Salem, Maryland on August 17, 1834, the only son and second child of Elijah and Ann Catherine Colston Hurst. His father was a relatively prosperous slave holding farmer and local magistrate who was active in the Methodist Church. His mother died at thirty-four...

College Relationship: Alumnus/Alumna, Faculty, Honorary Degree, Trustee
Year: Class of 1854

John Peach was born in the family home "Ash Grove" near Mitchellville, in Prince George's County, Maryland on April 18, 1835, the son of Samuel and Caroline Hamilton Peach. He prepared at a private school nearby and entered the class of 1854 at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1852...

College Relationship: Alumnus/Alumna
Year: Class of 1854
James Fowler Rusling (1834-1918)

Birth:  April 14, 1834; Washington,Warren County, New Jersey

Death:  April 1, 1918 (age 83); Trenton, New Jersey

Military Service: USA, 1861-67

Unit: 5th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry, 2nd Division of III Corps, Volunteer Army, 3rd Corps Quartermaster

Alma Mater:...

College Relationship: Alumnus/Alumna, Honorary Degree, Trustee
Year: Class of 1854

Joseph B. Stayman was born on July 18, 1832 in Hampden Township, Pennsylvania to Christian and Eliza Stayman. His father served for thirty-one years as a trustee of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The younger Stayman attended the preparatory school there and then entered the college...

College Relationship: Alumnus/Alumna
Year: Class of 1854

David Harrison Walton was born on October 21, 1830 in Shenandoah County, Virginia, near the town of Woodstock. He entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and graduated with his class in the early summer of 1854. He was a superior student and a member of the Union Philosophical...

College Relationship: Alumnus/Alumna
Year: Class of 1854
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