Entries drawn from the college history encyclopedia
Benjamin Rush was born to John and Susanna Harvey Rush on December 24, 1745. The family, which included seven children, lived on a plantation in Byberry, near Philadelphia. When Benjamin was five his father died, leaving his mother to care for the large family. At age eight the young boy was...
Birth: April 14, 1834; Washington,Warren County, New Jersey
Death: April 1, 1918 (age 83); Trenton, New Jersey
Military Service: USA, 1861-67
Unit: 5th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry, 2nd Division of III Corps, Volunteer Army, 3rd Corps Quartermaster
Alma Mater:...
Samuel Simon Schmucker was born in Hagerstown, Maryland on February 28, 1799, the son of a Lutheran minister John George Schmucker, an immigrant from Germany, and Catherine Gross. His father transferred to York, Pennsylvania in 1809 and Samuel completed his early schooling there at the York...
Levi Scott was born on October 11, 1802 in Newcastle County, Delaware near Odessa. Little is known of his early life and education except that he was converted to the Methodist faith on October 16, 1822 at Fieldboro, Delaware and began to study in the church. He was appointed officially as a...
Abraham Herr Smith was born in Manor Township near Millersville, Pennsylvania on March 7, 1815 the son of Jacob Smith, a millwright, and Elizabeth Herr. His parents died when he was eight years old and he and his sister spent the remainder of their childhood with their paternal grandmother. He...
Boyd Lee Spahr was born on April 18, 1880, in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. There he grew up in the first block of South Market Street; his father was a local merchant. Young Spahr attended Dickinson College's preparatory school in nearby Carlisle, and then matriculated in the College proper with...
(Simon) Walter Stauffer was born in Walkersville, Maryland on August 1888 the son of John Hanson and Ellen Nelson Stauffer. He attended area public schools, then Conway Hall Preparatory School in 1906 and 1907, and entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He became a member of...
Glenn E. Todd was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on January 12, 1890 to Robert R. and Phoebe Routzahn Todd. A life-long resident of Carlisle, he attended Carlisle High School, graduating in 1908, and then enrolled at the local Dickinson College. Todd graduated from Dickinson in 1912, but not...
Jacob Tome was born August 13, 1810 in Hanover, York County, Pennsylvania. After the early death of his father, Tome was forced to quit his education and make his own way in the world. He worked at various jobs throughout the country, even teaching for a short while in a country school, despite...
Ruby Vale was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on October 19, 1874 the son of of Joseph and Sarah Eyster Vale. His father had been a Civil War cavalry officer. Vale attended the Dickinson Preparatory School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and entered the College proper with the class of 1896 in 1892. He...
Frederick Watts was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on May 9, 1801. His father was David Watts, a prominent lawyer and member of the first class to graduate from the local Dickinson College. Frederick himself entered Dickinson with the class of 1819 but did not graduate due to the temporary...
James Wilson was born in Scotland, near St. Andrews on September 14, 1742. Between November 1757 and June 1765 he studied at St. Andrews, Glasgow, and Edinburgh before he emigrated to Philadelphia. He was engaged as a Latin tutor at the College of Philadelphia for a time before he decided to...
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...
Birth: July 5, 1844; Berwick, Pennsylvania
Death: July 30, 1914 (age 70);
Military Service: USA, 1861-64
Unit: 4th Illinois Cavalry, 84th Pennsylvania Volunteers
Alma Mater: Dickinson College, B.A. (Class of 1868); Dickinson College, M.A. (Class of 1871)
Jesse...
John Young was born on September 4, 1763 in York County, Pennsylvania. Little is known of his early life prior to his enrollment in Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. As a member of the Class of 1788, Young studied under President Charles Nisbet and took fastidious notes. Because of...
