Ralph Pierce was born in Franklin County, New York at the town of Moira on April 11, 1827. He was the son of Methodist preacher Hiram Pierce and his wife, Sarah Pierce. The younger Pierce prepared for college locally and enrolled at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1848. While at the college, he was elected to the Belles Lettres Society. He graduated with his class in the summer of 1852 and immediately took up a teaching position as the head of the Cassville Academy in Blair County, Pennsylvania.

In 1854, Pierce began a short term as principal of Metropolitan Institute in Washington D.C. He then took up duties as a Methodist pastor under the Black River Conference, first in his home town of Moira and then in Torrington, New York. In 1856, the founder of Methodist activities in India, William Butler, invited Pierce to join the effort. Pierce sailed in early 1857 and spent more than six years on the sub-continent, largely in Lucknow and Bareilly in north central India. His early years of service must have been adventurous, since the Great Indian Mutiny of 1857 and 1858 was largely centered in that region.

John Christian Pflaum was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 13, 1903. After graduating from high school in 1921, Pflaum earned both his bachelor’s degree in economics (1925) and his master’s degree in history (1929) from the University of Pennsylvania. Opting to teach instead of following his original intention of practicing law, he began teaching at a West Virginia high school while earning his master’s degree. He was a member of the faculty of Temple University from 1926 until 1933, and then again from 1938 until 1943, instructing at his alma mater during the interim. In the days just prior to the Second World War, Pflaum was traveling and studying in Europe when he was caught in the turmoil of the German invasion of Poland and the subsequent chaos it caused; he would later use these experiences to illustrate the human side of the war to many generations of his students. During the war, Pflaum served as an instructor at the Western Reserve Academy and as supervisor of the Signal Corps trainees at Princeton, Rutgers, Lafayette, and Temple.

William McFunn Penrose, the eldest son of Charles Bingham and Valeria Fullerton Biddle Penrose, was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on March 29, 1825; Richard Alexander Fullerton Penrose was his younger brother. Their father was a well-known lawyer in the town. In 1840, William entered the local Dickinson College with the class of 1844. He won election to the Belles Lettres Society and graduated with his class. He then studied law, was admitted to the Carlisle bar in 1844, and immediately began a practice in Cumberland County.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, the six foot tall Penrose mustered in with what was to become the Sixth Reserves, 35th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers and was elected as a lieutenant-colonel when the unit was organized at Harrisburg in June 1861. The 35th was accepted into federal service on July 27, five days after moving to Camp Tenallytown; it wintered at Camp Pierpoint near Langley, Virginia. Penrose, as temporary commander of the regiment, saw action and was commended after the battle of Dranesville on December 20, 1861 for his coolness in command and the 35th Regiment's pursuit of the enemy. Camp Pierpoint, unfortunately, was a poorly drained establishment that brought widespread sickness, mostly probably malaria, to the regiment, including Penrose. With the regrets of his brigade commander, General Ord, Penrose resigned his commission due to illness early in 1862 and returned to Carlisle.

Birth: March 10, 1832; Sackett's Harbor, New York,

Death:  August 29, 1903 (age 71); Salt Lake City, Utah

Military Service: USA, 1861-96

Unit: 3rd Infantry of the Regular Army,  15th Infantry New Jersey, 1st Brigade of 6th Corps 1st Division, 3rd United States Infantry

Alma Mater: Dickinson College, B.A. (Class of 1849 non-graduate)

Richard Alexander Fullerton Penrose was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the second son of Charles and Valeria Fullerton Biddle Penrose on March 24, 1827; his elder brother was William McFunn Penrose. He was educated at the local Dickinson Grammar School and entered Dickinson College proper in 1842, graduating with the class of 1846. He went on to the medical school at the University of Pennsylvania and received his medical degree in March 1849.

On August 8, 1874, George Wesley Pedlow was born in Manistee, Michigan. He attended public schools in Upland, Pennsylvania and Dickinson Preparatory School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania before enrolling in the College proper. At Dickinson, he was a member of Sigma Chi and captain of the football team in 1900.

In 1901, Pedlow graduated from Dickinson, and shortly after, he joined the 6th Pennsylvania Volunteers to fight in the Spanish-American War, though the conflict was resolved before his unit arrived in Cuba. After the War, he returned to Pennsylvania, where he served as principal at Dauphin High School for two years. From Dauphin, he went to Staunton Military Academy as an instructor. Five years later he left Staunton and returned to his hometown of Upland to serve as principal at the high school there for two years. In 1910, he left for a teaching position at Chester High School. At Chester High School, Pedlow finally found a more permanent position, serving as a teacher there until 1924, and then as principal from 1924 to 1941.

Throughout his life, Pedlow valued the education that he had received at Dickinson, and as an educator in the Chester School District, he was responsible for directing many students to the College. In 1942, he received an honorary Master of Arts degree from his alma mater.

Jesse Truesdell Peck, the youngest of ten children of Luther Peck, was born on April 4, 1811 on a farm in Middlefield, Otsego County, New York. He was educated at Cazenovia Seminary and became a minister in the Methodist Church. He married Persis Wing on October 13, 1831, and in the following year he joined the Oneida Conference. In 1837, Peck became the head of the Gouverneur Wesleyan Seminary in New York. He moved on to head the Troy Conference Academy in Poultney, Vermont. In 1848, thanks to his fine record and his strong dedication to the Methodism, Peck was chosen to be the tenth president of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, despite having no formal college education himself.

Birth: March 14, 1831; Prince George’s County, Maryland

Death:  July3, 1862 (age 31); Lumpkin, Georgia

Military Service: CSA, 1861-62

Unit: ---

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

Samuel Peach entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania as a junior in 1850 and received his bachelor of arts degree in 1852. Peach was an active member of the Belles Lettres Literary Society as a student. After graduation he moved to Lumpkin, Georgia and set up a law practice after being admitted to the bar there.

When the war erupted, Peach was commissioned as a colonel in the Confederate States Army. He died in Lumpkin on July 3, 1862 and was buried at East Side cemetery in Lumpkin.

John Peach was born in the family home "Ash Grove" near Mitchellville, in Prince George's County, Maryland on April 18, 1835, the son of Samuel and Caroline Hamilton Peach. He prepared at a private school nearby and entered the class of 1854 at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1852. He was the youngest in the class but a fine student and a member of the Belle Lettres Society. He graduated with his class and enrolled at the University of Maryland Medical School, earning his M.D. in 1858.

He returned to Mitchellville and built a large and successful practice that he attended continuously for almost forty years. After his retirement, he turned to farming at his home, "Forest Place," adjoining "Ash Grove."

John Peach had married Bettie Howe Wellford of Culpepper, Virginia on February 27, 1870. The couple had eight children; five sons and three daughters. John Peach died after a lingering illness in early December 1925 and was buried at the Mount Oak Cemetery in Mitchellville. He was ninety years old.

William F. Patton was born in Curwensville, Pennsylvania one of four sons of the wealthy John and Honora J. Patton. He prepared for his undergraduate work at the Dickinson Preparatory School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and entered the College in 1888 with the class of 1892. He was very active in the Belle Lettres Society, serving as its president. He was also the business manager of the Microcosm, secretary of the College Athletic Association, a member of Chi Phi fraternity, gave the Allison public oration on Class Day, and was elected vice-president of the Senior Class. A fine athlete, he captained both football (1890) as a halfback and kicker and baseball (1891 and 1892), playing four years on each team. He also competed in varsity track and field, the Gymnastics team, and was College tennis champion.

After graduating with his class in 1892, he trained as a lawyer and began the practice of law in Curwensville. In 1903, he moved to Kansas City, Missouri and built a successful practice in the law and banking.