Class of 1795

William Creighton was born in western Virginia on October 29, 1778. He entered Dickinson College with the class of 1795 and studied under Charles Nisbet. (The College Archives holds two notebooks in his hand from Nisbet's lectures in moral philosophy and logic and metaphysics) He was elected to the Union Philosophical Society in 1792. He graduated with his class on September 30, 1795.

Following this, he studied law in Virginia and then moved west to Chillicothe, Ohio in 1799. On March 3, 1803, at age twenty-five, he became the first Secretary of State of the new state and served until 1808. Known as a conservative Republican, he was appointed to a congressional vacancy in 1813 and elected to the following Congress. After a time in private law, he was again elected in 1824 as a supporter of Adams. He served in Congress until his final retirement in 1833 and his concentration on his legal practice.

He had married Elizabeth Meade in September, 1805 and they had six daughters and three sons. William Creighton died on October 1, 1851 in Chillicothe.

David McConaughy was born on September 29, 1775 in Menallen, Pennsylvania, six miles from Gettysburg in what was then York County. He was tutored locally and attended the Rev. Alexander Dobbin's classical School in Gettysburg. He attended Dickinson College in nearby Carlisle. He was elected to the Union Philosophical Society and graduated in September 1795 with the honor of being assigned the Latin Salutary. He continued his studies in theology under Rev. Nathan Grier and on October 5, 1797, the New Castle presbytery licensed him to preach.

After a time as a traveling preacher, he became the head of the congregation at Upper Marsh Creek in October 1800. When in 1813 the new Adams County seat was inaugurated in nearby Gettysburg, the church moved into town. In the ensuing two decades, McConaughy became an active figure in Gettysburg, founding a grammar school in 1807, which the county took over in 1812, as well as founding and serving as first president of the first Temperance Society in Adams County. His reputation as a teacher led Washington College to offer him the post of president in March 1830. Although he did not accept initially due to family difficulties, he accepted the trustees' second offer in December 1831. Installed in May 1832, he served Washington College through difficult times for more than sixteen years until his retirement at age 74 in 1849.

Roger Brooke Taney was born March 17, 1777 on the Taney Plantation along the Patuxent River, in Maryland's Calvert County. The Taney family had come to the colony as indentured servants in the mid-seventeenth century but, after serving out their term of servitude, they later established themselves as prosperous tobacco farmers in the rich agrarian economy of southern Maryland. Taney grew up as a Maryland Roman Catholic with rural gentry privilege, was educated privately and then entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1792.

While at Dickinson, Taney came under the tutelage of Dr. Charles Nisbet, arguably one of the greatest educators of his day. If the correspondence between Nisbet and Taney’s father throughout 1792-1795 are any indication, the Principal became almost a surrogate father to the young and talented student. Taney was a leading member of the Belles Lettres Society and graduated as valedictorian of the twenty-four students in the class of 1795. This honor he always valued since the students themselves at the time were responsible for such selection.