Entries drawn from the college history encyclopedia
Born in 1935, George Allan was educated at Grinnell College, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1957. He went on to earn his master's degree in systematic theology at the Union Theological Seminary and was then awarded a Ph.D. in philosophy at Yale.
Allan joined the Dickinson...
William Henry Allen was born in Readfield, Maine on March 27, 1808 to Jonathan and Thankful Allen. To prepare for college, Allen attended the Maine Wesleyan Seminary before entering Bowdoin College in 1829. Upon graduation four years later, Allen took a job teaching Latin and Greek in the Oneida...
Jeremiah Atwater was born the second child of Jeremiah and Lois (Hurd) Atwater on December 27, 1773 in New Haven, Connecticut. He prepared for college with Eli Bullard and attended Yale University, graduating with highest honors in 1793. He was awarded prestige as a Berkeley Scholar and received...
Samuel Alston Banks was born in Frostproof, Florida on May 16, 1928 to Mary Gatewood and Samuel A. Banks, Sr., a prominent citrus grower and packer. The young Banks attended Lakeland High School and Florida Southern College before going on to study at Duke University. While at Duke, he was a...
Charles Collins was born on April 17, 1813 in North Yarmouth, Maine to Joseph Warren and Hannah Sturdivant Collins. At the age of fourteen he became a member of the Church of Christ and went on to prepare for college at the Maine Wesleyan Seminary. He then entered Wesleyan University and...
Fred Pierce Corson was born to Mary Payne and Jeremiah Corson, a glass manufacturer, on April 11, 1896 in Millville, New Jersey. He graduated from Millville High School in 1913 and enrolled in Dickinson College. While at Dickinson he was a member of Kappa Sigma Fraternity as well as Omicron...
Robert Laurenson Dashiell was born June 25, 1825 in Salisbury, Maryland. He attended Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, graduating in July of 1846 as Salutatorian. Throughout his collegiate years at Dickinson, Dashiell was an active member of the Union Philosophical Society. Following...
Robert Davidson was born in 1750 in Elkton, Maryland. As a young man, he attended the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1771. During his time as a student he married a woman named Abigail, and the couple would enjoy more than thirty years together until her death in 1806. In 1772, at the...
John Price Durbin was born on October 10, 1800 in Bourbon County, Kentucky, the eldest of five sons. Shortly after his father died, he was apprenticed to a cabinet maker at the age of 13; he worked for several years until his religious conversion at age 18. Through tutors and self-education, he...
William Wilcox Edel was born on March 16, 1894 in Baltimore, Maryland. His mother was Annie Wilcox, and his father was John Wesley Edel, a prosperous dairy retailer. Edel attended high school at Baltimore City College and then entered Dickinson College, where he graduated in three years as a Phi...
Robert Emory was born in 1814 to Bishop John Emory and his wife. The elder Emory had served as president of the Dickinson College Board of Trustees from 1833 to 1835, and is the namesake of both Emory University in Georgia and Emory and Henry College in Virginia. The younger Emory attended...
Mervin Grant Filler was born in Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania on October 9, 1873 to Peter and Elizabeth Filler. He attended grade school in Boiling Springs before entering the Dickinson Preparatory School. In 1889, he enrolled in Dickinson College and graduated as valedictorian in 1893. During...
A. Lee Fritschler was born on May 5, 1937 in Schenectady, New York. He graduated in 1959 from Union College with degrees in economics and political science. Following his graduation, he studied at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, receiving an M.P.A. in 1960...
Samuel Dickinson Hillman was born to Samuel and Susan Dickinson Hillman of Blackwood, New Jersey, on January 18, 1825. Not much is known of his life before he entered the Dickinson College Grammar School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1845. A member of the Belles Lettres Literary Society, Hillman...
Charles Francis Himes was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on June 2, 1838 to William D. and Magdalen Lanius Himes. He attended the New Oxford Collegiate and Medical Institute in Adams County, Pennsylvania, before entering Dickinson College in the spring of 1853 as a sophomore. He was a...
Samuel Blanchard How was born on October 14, 1790 in Burlington, New Jersey. He attended the University of Pennsylvania and earned a bachelor's degree in 1810. Following his graduation, How found employment at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania as the principal of the Grammar School and...
Herman Merrills Johnson was born on November 25, 1815 in Butternut Township, New York, near Albany. He attended Casenovia Seminary and then went to Wesleyan University, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and graduated with an A.B. degree in 1839. Following graduation, he became a professor...
Gilbert Malcolm was born in New York City on October 13, 1892 to Scottish immigrants, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Duff Malcolm. Growing up in the city where his father was a well-known contractor, he attended the Horace Mann School. Among his young adventures was his notoriety as a very early motorcycle...
John Mitchell Mason was born on March 19, 1770 in New York City. He attended Columbia University, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1789. In 1792 Mason succeeded his father as pastor of a small ministry in New York. During his tenure with this congregation, he quickly expanded the membership by...
James Andrew McCauley was born on October 7, 1822 in Cecil County, Maryland to Daniel and Elizabeth McCauley. He prepared for college at the Baltimore Classical Institute in Maryland before entering Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania as a freshman in September 1844. He was elected to...
Alexander McClelland was born in Schenectady, New York in 1794; not much else is known about his early life. He studied at Union College, graduating at the age of 15. McClelland then began to study theology under Rev. John Anderson of the Associate Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
John McKnight was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on October 1, 1754. He prepared for college at the Latin Grammar School in Carlisle and went on to study at the College of New Jersey (Princeton). He graduated in 1773 and went on to study theology under Reverend Robert Cooper. He was licensed to...
James Henry Morgan was born on a farm near Concord in southern Delaware on January 21, 1857. He prepared at Rugby Academy and entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in September 1874 as one of a freshman class of sixteen students. He elected to take the Scientific Course, became a...
William Neill was born to William and Jane Snodgrass Neill in McKeesport, Pennsylvania in April 1778 or 1779, though the exact date is unknown. When still an infant, his father was killed by a band of Indians, and soon thereafter his mother died as well. After of her death, William and his five...
Charles Nisbet was born on January 21, 1736 to William and Alison Nisbet; William was a schoolteacher at Long Yester near Haddington, East Lothian County, Scotland. By 1754, Nisbet had completed studies at both the high school of the university in Edinburgh and had entered Divinity Hall to...
