Entries drawn from the college history timeline
Dickinson students caused some mischief the night before "Hallo eve" by taking furniture from the college and placing it around campus. Horatio C. King, Class of 1858, related the incident the next day in his journal: "A number of the students collected intent upon doing some mischief. In the...
At 12:00am, a group of students consisting of James Douglas Wade (Class of 1855), James Hervey Barton (Class of 1855), William H. Newell (Class of 1858, non-graduate), and Horatio Collins King (Class of 1858) "went out serenading," singing and playing between them two flutes and a melodeon. The...
With a day's holiday, Horatio C. King (Class of 1858), Lewis Griffith (Class of 1855), and John Tucker went "gunning" for birds.
A number of students, among them Edward B. Newman (Class of 1858), Francis Asbury Awl (Class of 1858, non-graduate), Thomas C. Hughey (Class of 1859, non-graduate), and Horatio Collins King (Class of 1858), formed a vocal group. "We practiced some this afternoon and our voices accorded very...
Students enjoyed a morning of playing the then-new game of American football. "Not football but hand-ball," Horatio C. King (Class of 1858) commented in his journal. "Quite an exciting game. Hurts a fellows hand considerable."
After waking up early and attending a market in town, some students spent a Saturday at a creek in town, near the cave. Horatio C. King (Class of 1858) wrote that he and other students "laughed, talked, played, romped, eat [ate] and fished during the day."
A group of students and faculty including Jacob F. Stoek (Class of 1858, non-graduate), James E.D. Jester (Class of 1856), William Henry Effinger (Class of 1857), Professor William Carlile Wilson (tenure 1854-65), Tutor Benjamin Arbogast (tenure 1854-56), and Horatio Collins King (Class of 1858...
The Spalding & Rogers Circus was in town. There was an apparent altercation involving some soldiers, according to attendee Horatio Collins King (Class of 1858).
Some students, including Francis Asbury Awl (Class of 1858, non-graduate), Thomas C. Hughey (Class of 1859, non-graduate), Edward B. Newman (class of 1858, non-graduate), and Horatio Collins King (Class of 1858), went to Harrisburg to attend the state fair. Awl, Hughey, Newman, and King stayed...
Students Horatio Collins King (Class of 1858) and William H. Harkness (Class of 1858, non-graduate) hired a horse and buggy to take a trip to Mechanicsburg. King reported that the trip covered a distance of 10 miles and took one hour and ten minutes.
Student Horatio Collins King (Class of 1858) began taking painting lessons on "ivory tint" on Mondays and Tuesdays from 2:00 to 3:30pm. The lessons cost King "$3.00 for three pictures," according to his journal.
Student Horatio Collins King (Class of 1858) related a Saturday night spent with friends: "Had a dance in No 47 - West College, Baldwin's [Rignal Woodward Baldwin, Class of 1856] old room. Danced about 1 1/2 hours. Good fun for— variety. At 7 1/2 [7:30pm], took a game of whist and several of...
Nine men of Dickinson, along with ten of their female friends from around town, took a four-horse omnibus and a two-horse carriage to Sterretts Gap, about eight miles from the college, for a picnic. Horatio Collins King (Class of 1858) reported on the day's events: "Company assembled at 9 o'...
Phi Kappa Sigma, at the time a secret society two years in age unknown to Dickinson faculty, initiated Horatio Collins King (Class of 1858) as the seventeenth member of the Epsilon Chapter. King described the initiation ritual in his journal: "At 9 P.M. Messrs Hulsey [Jennings Marion Clark...
Students and faculty collected money to buy fireworks, which they later set off. Additionally, some students held a political meeting on the college steps, with several students giving political speeches. Fireworks were also set off by the town of Carlisle.
The Cumberland County Agricultural Fair opened in the morning. Student Horatio Collins King (Class of 1858) described the fair in his journal: "Very good exhibition. A fine show of home manufactures, and such like. Vegetables were necessarily very scarce. Agricultural implements, fancy...
At 11:oopm, a group of students put together a band and went about Carlisle playing on "tin-pans, bones, horns, flutes, &c. &c." Student and involved party Horatio Collins King (Class of 1858) described playing outside some townspeople's houses, then continued, "Were chased from there—...
At the end of the Fall 1856 session, students from the Junior and Senior classes gathered to bury Asa Mahan's Intellectual Philosophy, a book which students found an "abominable bore." The copy belonged to Prof. Herman Merrills Johnson (tenure 1850-1868) before students stole it from...
The Dramatic Association met and decided to rehearse and perform Romeo and Juliet so as to improve skills in oration.
At 3:30pm, a party of thirty students traveled to Harrisburg to hear Henry Ward Beecher deliver a lecture titled "Christian Commonwealth." The students traveled in a caravan of two omnibuses, a carriage, and a buggy.
After finding out about the existence of secret fraternity Phi Kappa Sigma, the Faculty invited members of the organization to sign a paper promising to disband it, which all members did. The fraternity held a final meeting at 9:00pm and formally disbanded before some of the newly initiated...
Students held a debate on the question "Is civil liberty more indebted to physical suffering than to mental culture?" between the Belles Lettres Society and the Union Philosophical Society. The Belles Lettres Society won the debate.
A number of students hired a team of horses and drove out to Papertown, a town which would later be renamed Mt. Holly Springs. The students mostly "loafed around," paid a visit to the paper mill there, and ate supper in the town. Horatio Collins King (Class of 1858) described his trip with his...
The libraries of the Belles Lettres and Union Philosophical Literary Societies received several fine new chairs due to the efforts of President George Edward Reed. The halls were excellently furnished, as well as spacious and pleasing.
A group of students gathered in order to revive the College Minstrels, a dramatic club which disbanded several years earlier. The group held elections and began to plan their first show, which would be held in early 1906.
