Trustee

Rolland Adams was born on December 27, 1904 in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania to Lemuel B. and Carrie Adams. He attended Dickinson College as a member of the class of 1927, during which time he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Adams then completed an extension course in finance from the Pennsylvania State University before entering a life-long career in publishing. He worked in various capacities, eventually serving as president of several publishing companies in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He was the owner and chief executive officer of the Bethlehem Globe Publishing Company until his retirement in 1970.

Adams was one of many alumni who renewed their commitment to the College during the 1950s Ten Year Development Program. During this time, the administration made new contacts and renewed previous connections with potential supporters of the College in an effort to increase its endowment. Adams was elected a trustee of Dickinson College in 1961. Two years later, the college opened Adams Hall, named for him and his first wife, Pauline S. Hornbach, whose generous donation made the new building possible. In 1966, Dickinson awarded Adams an honorary doctor of laws degree in recognition of his achievements and service. During his years as a trustee of the college, Adams served on the Executive Committee and on the Committee on Finance and Investments, and chaired the Committee on Nominations and Membership for three years. Rolland Leroy Adams died on September 1, 1979.

Samuel Agnew was born August 10, 1777 in Millerstown, near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the son of James and Mary Ramsey Agnew. He studied first under the Rev. Matthew Dobbin near his home and then entered Dickinson College in Carlisle. He graduated with the class of 1798 and began studies in medicine with the prominent Franklin County doctor John McClelland of Greencastle. He then went on to Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania receiving his medical degree in 1800.

Agnew returned to Gettysburg to open a practice but moved to Harrisburg in 1807. His long career as a respected practitioner in that city gave him the opportunity to publish in the scientific literature of the day and maintain his contacts with Philadelphia. He served as a surgeon in the War of 1812 between 1812 and 1814 and returned to Harrisburg when his service was over.

Agnew remained an active Presbyterian all his life; he served as Elder of the First Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg for fifteen years, worked for temperance, and was elected a member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. He also was elected to the board of trustees of Dickinson College, serving from 1827 to 1832.

Birth: December 13, 1830; Berks County, Pennsylvania

Death: September 28, 1880 (age 49); Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania

Military Service: USA, 1862-65

Unit:  132nd Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, 34th Pennsylvania Militia, 202nd Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry

Alma Mater: Dickinson College, B.A. (Class of 1852 non-graduate)

Charles Albright was the son of Solomon and Mary Miller Albright. He was a student for a time at the select school at Seyfert's Mills near his home in 1845 and then enrolled at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania with the class of 1852 in September 1848. While at the College, he was a particularly active member of the Union Philosophical Society, chairing the committee, for example, that petitioned the board of trustees to expand the society's library in West College. He withdrew from his undergraduate course in 1851 to undertake the study of law with Robert L. Johnson in Edenburg, Pennsylvania.

Merle Allen was born on May 28, 1888 in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania to Josiah Thomas and Ellen Houser Allen. He studied business in the Philadelphia School of Commerce. In 1907 Allen began work with a newspaper, but he soon switched to the mercantile business. From 1913 to 1920 Allen worked as a broker in industrial hardware.

Allen started a hardware store with his partner A. Max Cochrane, specializing in domestic and industrial hardware, sporting goods, and plumbing and heating supplies. Cochrane and Allen Hardware was located on South Hanover Street. By 1938, Allen was able to purchase Cochrane’s share in the store, and in 1948 the business was incorporated.

In addition to his business interests, Allen was also a strong supporter of local schools, libraries, and charities. He was elected to the Dickinson College Board of Trustees in 1948. During his time as a trustee, Allen strongly encouraged the building campaigns of the College and was a devoted supporter of the college library. Allen also donated $75,000 to endow the William W. Edel Chair in the Humanities. His service to the college ended when Merle White Allen died on December 24, 1961.

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 Methodist Conference Seminary in Cazenovia, New York, where his sister also taught; they both remained in Cazenovia until 1836. Allen became principal of an Augusta, Maine high school soon thereafter but only six months of his administration had passed when he was offered the chair of the departments of chemistry and natural history at Dickinson.

Born on September 23, 1880, C. Scott Althouse was the only child of Nathan S. and Miranda Althouse. In 1900, he graduated from the Philadelphia Textile Institute. Returning home to Reading, Pennsylvania, Althouse joined his father in the business of dyeing textiles. He soon made his presence known through his inventions. Among his earliest innovations were a belt dressing compound that made leather machine belts last longer, a shrink-proofing process for wool, and a rotary pocket and paddle dyeing machine which vastly expanded the dyeing capacity for hosiery.

In 1905, Althouse became co-owner of the Neversink Dyeing Company, named for the industrial street on which it was located in Reading. From 1911 to 1915, his company expanded as Althouse concentrated on the development of Cupro-ammonium Rayon, or “Bemberg”. Difficulties in perfecting the process for “Bemberg” and a First World War blockade of Germany which created a severe shortage of dyestuffs prompted Althouse to concentrate on developing new sources of dyes. He founded the Althouse Chemical Company, Inc. in 1915, and the company soon became his primary interest. When his other business interests failed during the Great Depression, Althouse moved ACC, Inc. towards the marketing of specialty dye products that included fade-resistant dyes for viscose rayon and dyes for DuPont’s nylon.

Born on October 24, 1875 in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania to David K. and Elizabeth (Fohl) Appenzellar, Paul Peyton Appenzellar went to preparatory school in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania as well as Dickinson preparatory school in Carlisle. He entered the College in 1891 and in 1895 received his A.B. in the Latin-Scientific Section. During his college years Paul Appenzellar was the vice president of his sophomore class, a member of Beta Theta Pi Fraternity, the Whist Club, the Blaine Republican Club, and the Press Club. He was also manager of the Baseball Team.

Following graduation, he went on to teach at the Dickinson Preparatory School for two years. By 1905, he had become a member of a firm specializing in investment banking and soon thereafter became Director of the New York Railways Company. He married Edna Howell of New York City on March 2, 1909. Appenzellar created the firm of Swartwont and Appenzellar and became a member of the N.Y. Stock Exchange. He served on the boards of various New York-based companies, including the Dictaphone Corporation, which he helped found.

Soon after his exchange firm was purchased by the company of Merrill, Lynch, Pierre, Fenner & Beane, Appenzellar retired on money made from his investments and involvements with various organizations, including the National Republican Club.

Lemuel Towers Appold was born in Baltimore, Maryland on January 27, 1862 to leather merchant Samuel Appold and his wife Susan. Following schooling at the Stewart Hall in Baltimore, he matriculated at Dickinson College and graduated with the class of 1882. During his time at the College, he was a member of Beta Theta Pi and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. Following graduation, he studied law at the University of Maryland and was admitted to the Maryland bar in 1885.

He served successfully as vice president of the Colonial Trust Company Bank in Baltimore between 1900 and 1935, and then as vice president and director of Provident Savings Bank. With the money earned from these positions, he supported the arts in Baltimore and gave generously to area museums.

In 1917 Appold became a member of the Board of Trustees and remained so until his death. In 1923, he was named president of the revived Dickinson Alumni Association and saw to it that the new incarnation would be more successful and active than in the past. He remained in this post for six years, founding and funding the Dickinson Alumnus magazine and the General Alumni Association.

James Armstrong was the eldest son of General John Armstrong and was born on August 29, 1748. He studied at the Philadelphia Academy before attending the College of New Jersey, now Princeton. For four or five years, James Armstrong studied medicine under Dr. John Morgan in Philadelphia. Armstrong received his doctor of medicine degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1769.

Some sources indicate that, after a brief stay in Winchester, Virginia, Armstrong served as a surgeon during the American Revolution. However, by 1784, he traveled to London where he studied under Dr. Sydenham until 1786. Returning to Carlisle, Armstrong married May Stevenson in 1789, then moved to the Kishacoquillas Valley. From there, he was elected to Congress in 1792 from the 3rd District of Pennsylvania. He served one term in the House of Representatives from 1793 to 1795.

In 1796, Armstrong was elected a trustee of Dickinson College, a position once held by his father. He returned to Carlisle in 1801, settling his family on an estate named Richland Lawn. In 1808, Armstrong was named associate judge in Cumberland County, and was also chosen as the president of the Dickinson College Board of Trustees, a position that he held until 1824. Dr. James Armstrong died on May 6, 1828.

Born in Ireland on October 13, 1717 and known as "the first citizen of Carlisle," John Armstrong is probably best known for his victories during the French and Indian Wars. French-inspired attacks by native tribes began to erupt all along Pennsylvania's western frontier in 1754, and Armstrong joined the Pennsylvania Regiment to help combat them. Attaining the rank of colonel, Armstrong led his troops to a great victory at Kittanning near Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh) in September 1756. Armstrong was highly decorated and honored for his years of valiant service, particularly for the battle at Kittanning, in which he had been seriously wounded.

After the wars, Armstrong returned to Carlisle and became a respected civic and religious leader. Armstrong had been a surveyor for John, Richard, and Thomas Penn, the Proprietors of Pennsylvania, and was instrumental in the original mapping of Carlisle in 1750-51; he was later appointed deputy surveyor for the county in 1762. He was elected to the Continental Congress several times, and served with the Continental Army during the Revolution.

Daniel Moore Bates was born in Laurel, Delaware on January 28, 1821 as Daniel Elzey Moore, the son of Methodist minister Jacob Moore. He had lost his mother very early in life and as a young boy traveled with his father on his circuit. When his father died in 1829 he was still only eight and he was taken in by local lawyer Martin Waltham Bates and his wife, Mary Hillyard Bates. They became his well loved family and he adopted their name legally, becoming Daniel Moore Bates. In later life he would care for his ailing father until his death in 1869. The Bates were influential and wealthy, and thanks to their efforts, Daniel was able to enter Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania at the age of fourteen and graduate with the class of 1839.

Martin W. Bates was born in Salisbury, Connecticut on February 24, 1786. Not of a family of means, he attended common schools there and in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. When his family could not afford to send him to college, he continued to educate himself. He taught school for some years, moving about in Maryland and then Delaware. He also studied medicine in Philadelphia before settling in Dover, Delaware, where he first pursued commerce unsuccessfully and then married into one of the most prestigious families in the area. He then studied law in the office of Thomas Clayton. He was admitted to the Dover bar and began a practice in the town in October 1822.

This calling suited him and he prospered very quickly. Bates was elected in 1826 to the state house as a Democrat. He was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress in the elections of 1832, 1834, and 1838. He later was a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1852. He was selected to complete the United Senate term of Whig John Middleton Clayton who had died suddenly in November 1856. He served from January 1857 to March 1859. He was defeated in the following election by Willard Saulsbury and returned to private practice. Between 1838 and 1848 he served on the board of trustees of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania where his adopted son had attended. This adopted son replaced Bates on the board in 1848, serving as a Dickinson trustee until 1865.

Thomas Beaver was born to the Reverend Peter and Elizabeth Gilbert Beaver on November 16, 1814, in Pfout’s Valley (now Perry County), Pennsylvania. His father, a Methodist minister, and his mother were both of German ancestry. Despite leaving school at age thirteen for what was to be a long and successful career in business, Beaver maintained a voracious appetite for knowledge throughout his life.

Beaver's introduction to commerce began when he took a job at a store owned by his father in New Berlin, Pennsylvania. A year later, he left his father's store to work for the Reverend Jasper Bennett in Williamsport. As an employee of Bennett, Beaver often traveled to Philadelphia to make purchases, and he soon made the acquaintance of many prominent merchants in the city. As a result of such connections, in 1837 Beaver was hired by the firm of Bray and Bancroft in Philadelphia. Just three years after being hired at Bray and Bancroft, Beaver became a full partner in the firm, a position he held until 1857, at which point he became a trustee of the Danville Iron and Steel Works. Beaver enjoyed success as a trustee, and in 1859, he and fellow trustee Isaac Waterman purchased the works. He remained a co-owner until 1876, when he sold his holdings and retired. He joined the Dickinson College Board of Trustees in 1885, and served on the board until his death.

Edward William Biddle was born May 3, 1852 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania to parents Edward M. Biddle and Julia A. Watts. He completed his preparatory studies at Dickinson Grammar School and entered Dickinson College in 1866 with the class of 1870. During his undergraduate career, he was a member of Phi Kappa Sigma (as his three brothers had also been) and Phi Beta Kappa and was active in the Union Philosophical Society. He graduated from Dickinson with his class in the summer of 1870.

Biddle left Dickinson with the intent to pursue civil engineering, but he soon began studying law in the office of his eccentric cousin William M. Penrose. In 1873, he was accepted to the Cumberland County Bar. He practiced law until 1895, then succeeded Judge Wilbur F. Sadler as president judge of the Cumberland County Court of Common Pleas, serving till 1905. In this he was continuing a family tradition; his maternal grandfather - the well-known Judge Frederick Watts - and great-grandfather had been Cumberland County judges.

William Bingham was born on April 8, 1752 to William and Mary Stamper Bingham in Philadelphia. At the age of sixteen he graduated with honors from the University of Pennsylvania, class of 1768.

In 1770, Bingham served as British Consul at St. Pierre, Martinique. His service to the British ended in June 1776, when he agreed to serve the Continental Congress in Martinique. During the American Revolution, he secretly dispensed American propaganda, gathered information, arranged for smuggled shipments of weapons to the army, and recruited privateers to prey on British shipping. The last portion of his mission proved to be personally profitable, as Bingham was entitled to a portion of every British cargo taken. When his mission ended in 1780, he returned to the new United States with a fortune. At the age of 28, Bingham was one of the richest men in the nation.

A member of the Dickinson College Board of Trustees from 1833 until 1835, Thomas Emerson Bond, Sr. was born in Baltimore, Maryland in February 1782. He studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and later earned his M.D. from the University of Maryland. Declining to teach at that institution, he began a private medical practice. He later became the first President of the Board of Visitors of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. Bond’s days as a physician were limited, however, as he obtained his preacher's license shortly thereafter. He was actively involved in the establishment of the Methodist Episcopal church and is best known for his work as a minister and writer.

Bond’s flair for writing led to the publication of many religious works including An Appeal to the Methodists, in 1827; occasionally his articles were also published in the Methodist Quarterly. In support of the church, he edited The Itinerant, a Baltimore newspaper. From 1840 to 1848, and again from 1852 until his death in 1856, Bond held the position of editor of the Christian Advocate and Journal in New York City, a position he shared with his son for a number of years. His son, Thomas Emerson Bond, Jr., gained fame as one of the founders of modern dental pathology, renown for his book A Practical Treatise on Dental Medicine, the first textbook on dental pathology. Thomas Emerson Bond, Sr. died on March 14, 1856 in New York City.

Roscoe Bonisteel was born in Canada on December 23, 1888 to Milton Fremont and Francis Whyte Bonisteel in Sidney Crossing, Ontario. He entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1908 as a member of the class of 1912. Before graduating, Bonisteel transferred to the University of Michigan where he received his law degree in 1912.

On September 12, 1914, he married Lillian Coleman Randoph. After serving as a Captain in the United States Army Air Service during the First World War, Bonisteel moved with his young wife to Ann Arbor, Michigan. There he began his career as a lawyer, serving as city attorney from 1921 to 1928. In addition to his professional commitments, Bonisteel served as a trustee for Wayne State University and as a regent for the University of Michigan. He supported the Historical Society of Michigan, serving as a trustee for a number of years.

In 1952, Dickinson College awarded Bonisteel an honorary doctor of laws degree. Seven years later, he was elected to the Board of Trustees. During his years of service to the college, Bonisteel donated funds for a planetarium and observatory, and supported the Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections. Roscoe Osmond Bonisteel died on February 25, 1972.

Abram Bosler was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on September 5, 1884, the son of George Morris Bosler. In 1901, he graduated from the Dickinson Preparatory School, and attended the local Dickinson College as a member of the class of 1905. During his time at the college, Bosler was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and took the science course. He graduated with his class in the early summer of 1905.

After a few months in Wyoming with the family cattle business, he returned to succeed his father as director of the Carlisle Deposit Bank and eventually became its president. He was also involved with the Fidelity and Trust Company of Baltimore. Bosler also served as president of the Carlisle Shoe Company until his retirement in 1929. As a member of perhaps the leading family in Carlisle, he followed extensive civic activities including membership on the board of the Carlisle Hospital and of the Carlisle Country Club. He also served on the Board of Trustees of Dickinson College from 1914 until 1930. He was a Republican and an elected member and president of the city council. He was an active Mason and a member of the St. John's Episcopal Church in Carlisle.

J. Herman Bosler was born in Silver Spring, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania on December 14, 1830. He was one of eight children of Abraham and Eliza Herman Bosler, an already distinguished county family active in farming, milling, and distilling. He attended the Cumberland Academy in New Kingston at seventeen and then went on to Dickinson College, entering in 1850 into the class of 1854 with his younger brother James Williamson Bosler. Neither brother completed their course, however, with John Herman withdrawing in 1851 to join his father's business.

Shadrach Bowman was born on May 2, 1829 in Berwick, Pennsylvania. He attended the Dickinson Seminary in Williamsport, Pennsylvania before entering Dickinson College in 1853. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Union Philosophical Society. Bowman graduated with the class of 1855, and received his master’s degree from the College in 1864.

From 1855 to 1857 Bowman was a member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church; in 1857, he transferred to the Newark Conference. He then served as pastor in several churches in Pennsylvania until he accepted a position at Dickinson College in 1866. As professor of Biblical languages and literature, Bowman gave instruction in Greek and Hebrew. He completed his doctorate in theology from Rutgers College and another in systematic theology from DePauw University in 1870. Bowman left Dickinson in 1871, having failed to institute a new program of Biblical studies at the college.

Bowman returned to preaching, serving congregations in Lock Haven, Bedford, York, and Morristown, New Jersey. From 1877 until 1882, he served on the Board of Trustees of Dickinson College. In 1882, Bowman accepted the position of dean and professor of systematic theology at DePauw University. After seven years there, he served as pastor for three years at Katonah, New York. He returned to teaching at Drew Theological Seminary in 1903.

Hugh Henry Brackenridge was born in a small village in western Scotland near Cambeltown. His family emigrated to Philadelphia around 1753 and settled in York County, Pennsylvania. He made determined efforts to educate himself, with the help of a local pastor, and by 1768 he was able to enter Princeton, where he was a classmate of James Madison. After graduation he studied divinity and headed an academy in Maryland. During the Revolution he wrote patriotic literature and served as a chaplain. He later gave up the ministry, having never been ordained, and took up the law under Samuel Chase in Maryland. In 1781 he journeyed to Pittsburgh to begin a practice. There he became active in community affairs, including the beginnings of the first Pittsburgh newspaper, bookstore, and most importantly, in 1787, the Pittsburgh Academy which was eventually to become the University of Pittsburgh.

In politics, he became involved with the Whiskey Rebellion, in such balanced measure that he stirred the suspicions of the rebels amongst whom he lived as well as the Federal representatives engaged in restoring order to the West. Nevertheless, he was a loyal Republican and Governor McKean appointed him to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1799. Two years later, he left Pittsburgh and settled in Carlisle.

On September 25, 1860 in Newman, Georgia, James Hope Caldwell was born to the educator and minister, Dr. John H. Caldwell, and his wife, Elizabeth Hodnett Caldwell. His father was a founder of Andrew College in Cuthbert, Georgia. Caldwell attended the Wilmington Conference Academy before entering Dickinson in 1876. He became a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and ended his senior year as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He received a B.A. degree from Dickinson in 1880 and a M.A. degree in 1883.

After leaving Dickinson, Caldwell enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he received his law degree in 1884. That same year, he was admitted to the bar and moved to New York City to practice law. He eventually became a senior partner at Caldwell & Raymond, a firm specializing in municipal and state bond issues. While at Caldwell & Raymond, he served as bond counsel for the cities of Buffalo, Syracuse, Miami Beach, Nashville, and Chattanooga. He also represented several leading motion picture companies when President Taft's Attorney-General George W. Wickersham sued for a dissolution of the motion-picture trust.

Andrew Carnegie was born November 25, 1835 in Dunfermline, Scotland. In 1848, his family moved to Allegheny City, Pennsylvania to live with relatives in a small Scottish community. Andrew began working at a bobbin factory but by 1850 had managed to secure a job as a messenger for the telegraph company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. From here he would launch a career that made him a man of legendary wealth. During the American Civil War, Carnegie was employed in the railroad industry. Immediately following the war, he traveled to Great Britain to study the railroads there. Upon his return, Carnegie combined his knowledge of the British railroad system with the American steel industry to create a modern industrial empire, catapulting the United States into world leadership in steel production. In doing so, he became one of the wealthiest men in the world.

Andrew Carothers was born in 1778 to John and Mary Carothers of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. He attended the McHose schoolhouse until he was about 14 years old. As a younger son, Andrew would not inherit the family’s large farm; to provide for his future, the family apprenticed him to a cabinet maker.

But these plans changed dramatically in January 1798, when the entire family became terribly ill. A servant named Sarah Clark later confessed to putting arsenic in the family’s bread and butter. She claimed to be a rival of a Carothers’ daughter for the love of local man. Finding no way of poisoning only the girl, Clark resorted to poisoning the entire family. Sarah Clark was hung for her crimes, but not before both of Carothers’ parents died of arsenic poisoning. Andrew Carothers survived, but suffered from a form of nerve paralysis that left his limbs and hands crippled.

No longer able to pursue cabinet making as a livelihood, Carothers attended Dickinson College as a member of the Class of 1800. From 1802 to 1805, Carothers studied law under David Watts in Carlisle. In December 1805, Carothers was admitted to the Bar of Cumberland County and established a law firm in Carlisle. He also served on the board of the Carlisle Bank, and was eventually elected to the Town Council. Carothers married Catherine Louden in 1812. After her death in 1820, he married Isabella Creigh Alexander.

Robert Cathcart was born in 1759 to Alexander and Mary Cathcart near Colerain, Londonderry, Northern Ireland. He studied science and theology at the University of Glasgow and graduated in 1780. Cathcart immigrated to the United States, arriving in Philadelphia in 1790. For the next three years, he served the Presbytery of Philadelphia. In 1791, Cathcart was sent to York County to preach at the churches of Yorktowne and Shrewsburg, now Round Hill. He was officially transferred to the Presbytery of Carlisle on April 9, 1793, and was again installed as paster at York and Shrewsburg in October of that year. Cathcart lived in York, riding out every other Sunday to preach at Shrewsburg. During his many years of service to both congregations, he only missed one Sunday sermon.

In 1794 Cathcart was appointed a trustee of Dickinson College. He served until the Methodist transition in 1833, and never missed a commencement during those thirty-nine years. When “New College” burned in 1803, Cathcart traveled to Philadelphia to solicit donations for the rebuilding of the college. In addition to his dedication to Dickinson, Cathcart helped to found the York County Academy, now York College, serving on the York Board of Trustees for fifty years. He also served as commissioner to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Synod for thirty years; for twenty of those he was the clerk of the Assembly. Robert Cathcart died on October 19, 1849.