Class of 1838

Charles Denison was born on January 23, 1838 in Kingston, Pennsylvania to a prominent Luzerne County family. His grandfather was second in command of American forces in the battle of Wyoming Valley, and his uncle, George Denison, served in Congress. Charles Denison was educated locally and then entered Dickinson College with the class of 1838 when it reopened in 1834 under Methodist auspices. He was elected as a member of the Union Philosophical Society and studied law after he graduated.

Denison was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1840 and opened a practice in Wilkes-Barre. He was elected as a Democrat to Congress three times from the 12th District of Pennsylvania, serving from 1863 to 1867 in the 38th, 39th, and 40th Congresses. Denison was also a Pennsylvania delegate to the 1864 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that nominated George McClellan for president and endorsed a negotiated peace with the Confederate States.

Charles Denison died in office at home in Wilkes-Barre on June 27, 1867 and was buried in the Forty Fort Cemetery in Kingston. He was forty-nine years old.

George Purnell Fisher was born in Milford, Delaware on October 13, 1817 to Thomas Fisher (twice high sheriff of Kent County) and his third wife Nancy Owens Fisher. He went to schools in the county, attended St. Mary's College in Baltimore, Maryland briefly in 1835 and then enrolled at Dickinson College with the class of 1838. A Methodist at the Methodist sponsored college, he was a member of the Belles Lettres Society before graduating with his class. Studying afterwards in the law, he joined the Dover law firm of John M. Clayton, a family friend, and combined his studies with tutoring the young Clayton children. He was called to the Delaware bar in April 1841 and began practice in Dover.

John Armstrong Wright was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Archibald and Jane Berks Wright, on October 7, 1820. He prepared for college at Wibraham Academy in Massachusetts and entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania with the class of 1838 in September 1834 when the College reopened under Methodist auspices. A young man of immense size and stature for the time, his career at the College was colorful indeed. He only avoided expulsion for "noise and disrespect" in March 1837 with a direct and formal apology to professor of mathematics Merritt Caldwell, while his membership in Belle Lettres had already seen him fined under society rules for noise and "intoxication." Despite these adventures, the young student also fell under the influence of other professors like John McClintock and John Price Durbin and graduated with an ambition to be a civil engineer and to maintain an abiding connection to the Methodist church.