Class of 1841

George David Cummins was born near Smyrna in Kent County, Delaware on December 11, 1822, the son of George and Maria Durburow Cummins. When the younger George was just 4 years old, his father died, leaving him to be raised by his mother and uncles. He received his early education in Newark, Delaware before enrolling in Dickinson College as a member of the class of 1840 at the age of fourteen. While at the College Cummins was an active member of the Union Philosophical Society. However, in the spring of 1840 he suffered from poor health due to an enlarged heart, and was forced to withdraw from the College. After recuperating for a year, Cummins returned to Dickinson and graduated with the class of 1841 as its valedictorian.

Upon graduating, Cummins entered the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church but was ordained in the Episcopal Church as a deacon in 1845 and as a priest in 1847. He served parishes in Baltimore, Maryland, Norfolk, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. His skills as a preacher brought him prominence and advancement in the church. He returned to Baltimore in 1858, moved on to Chicago in 1863, and in November 1866 was consecrated as the assistant bishop of Kentucky at age 44.

John Stayman was born on September 28, 1823 in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. In the matriculation register of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, he listed an Eliza L. Stayman under the title of Parent or Guardian. During his years at Dickinson, Stayman was a member of the Union Philosophical Society. He graduated with the Class of 1841.

In 1845, Stayman was an assistant in the Grammar School, but doubts about his teaching abilities led President John Durbin to remove him from the teaching staff. Stayman then turned to music, giving lessons in Carlisle and Harrisburg for ten years. In 1861, he returned to the College as an adjunct and then full professor of Latin and French. From 1867 to 1869 he was the professor of ancient languages, and was professor of philosophy and English literature from 1869 to 1874.

William Henry Stewart was born on May 8, 1818 to Joseph Fookes and Rachel Linthicum Stewart in Cambridge, Maryland. He attended Dickinson College preparatory grammar school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and went on to enter Dickinson College proper in 1837 with the class of 1841. He graduated four years later with his class, studied law and was admitted to the bar in his hometown of Cambridge in 1843.

In 1844, Stewart moved first to Iowa and then to Texas. He settled in Gonzales, Texas and seems to have adapted well to the new community; just four years after settling in, he was elected as town mayor. After one year as mayor, William Stewart's political career advanced as he was elected to a term in the Texas state legislature in 1849. He was to serve again in this position in 1860, when he voted in favor for the Ordinance of Secession of Texas in February 1861. When the Civil War broke out, Stewart joined the Confederate Army and served with the rank of major in the Quartermaster Corps attached to the Texas units serving with the Army of Northern Virginia. After the war, Stewart returned to Texas and moved from Gonzales to the port of Galveston on the Gulf Coast. Now a prominent Texas figure, he was a representative to the Texas Constitutional Convention of 1875 and was elected Judge of the District Court of the Tenth Judicial District of Texas in 1876. He sat on that bench until his death.