Dickinson College - Microcosm Yearbook (Carlisle, PA)

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Qjgtjiflllyfi' H I S T O R Y f i form, organizer, he had been surgeonfgeneral and physicianfgeneral of the hospital of the newly constituted Middle Department of the Continental Army, man of courage, he had signed the Declaration of Independence. He was now to show himself an educator. Sure of the need of a college in the western parts, Rush began to seek con' verts to the cause. To overcome the opposition of the friends of Princeton and of the Philadelphia college, he published and widely circulated a pamphlet urging the idea which he had made his own. His hopeful pen and personality, seemingly irresistible to those less great than he, won followers to the plan. Supporters were enlisted in Philadelphia, in Reading, in Lancaster, in York, in Carlisle, and beyond, among the Presbyterians, the Quakers, the Lutherans, and the Episcopaliansg from the English, the Scotchflrish, and the Germans. Men of prominence in the affairs of state, ministers of the Wo1'd of God, men of wealth, heroes of the Revolution were recruited to the cause of what Rush affectionately called his child and his brat Midsummer of 1783 found the sponsors of a college at Carlisle sufficiently strong to go to the Legislature. With the support of John Dickinson, president of the Supreme Executive Council of the State, the charter was granted on September 9. The new institution was named 'LDickinson in memory of the great and important services of 'Lthe Pennsylvania Farmer to his country and in honor of his very liberal donation to the College of lands and books. Originally conceived as a center of Presbyterian influf ence in Pennsylvania, yet was the new college non-sectarian and supported by reprcf sentatives of the several religious and national groups in the State. Although named for the quiet Quaker Dickinson, yet is the College the result of the labors of the enthusiastic Presbyterian Rush. Organization was effected at once and the College opened in the following year under the direction of james Ross, already at Carlisle as principal of the Grammar , Tl School. The Trustees elected a faculty and chose as first principal of the new school the Reverend Charles Nisbet, S.T.D. Charles Nisbet, Presbyterian clergyman of Montrose, Scot' land, had the name of a massive scholar. Reputedly acquainted with eight or ten languages, he had an unparalleled command of all liberal subjects. His retentive memory made him a veritable walking encyclopedia, the wonder of his associates. His abound' ing wit, not without its sharpness, was recalled in Carlisle three' quarters of a century after his death. His immense learning, his reputation as a theologian, and his intellectual sympathy with the American Revolution recommended him to the attention of Rush, who was building a Presbyterian college on the unlettered frontier DENT NISBET IN of a republican nation. Nisbet accordingly was elected principal of the College in April, 1784, and Rush spent the next year in urging the pastor of Montrose to leave his post for this new one. Convinced by Rush's glowing word pictures of the prospect awaiting him at Carlisle, Nisbet came to America-and to disillusionf ment. Malarial fevers attacked Nisbet and his family during their first summer in Carlisle. He had come to America on Rush's invitation, yet within three months Rush abruptly terminated their growing friendship. No textfbooks were available and so Nisbet laboriously dicf tated his lectures. He had to teach in a 1 THE OLD GRAVE' YARD REPLICA or 'ri-nz OLD COLLBGEH Usro sr THE COLLEGE FROM 1784 'ro 1805 Sixteen f'T T T 'V,lfi'Q P' .iiifl f A , i 1 .14 . 'A .l -' .. 'Y ' 1 1' ., -I , '- .f u Af ff., K ,f f ' P , f x - ' ' ' -Nxl. fy 55 'iff ' Jw ' .- psf' L f ' I if , f V- 2,-,V A up .I Ni.: 5. I, I ,pl M, - . 2: Y ,K ,r . in , y -17, Q wx ' , i Vgwiwlw f L' 4. ri .-----Qi-Ae

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H I S T O R Y Heritage HE Scotchflrish settled Cumberland County. The proprietors of the Colony, heirs of the great Penn, deliberately directed the flood of immigrants streaming through Philadelphia in the middle of the Eighteenth Century into separate sections of their empire, the sturdy Germans from the fertile ,Palatinate into York County, the hardy Scotchflrish from strifefridden Ulster into Cumberland County. These new settlers brought with them a love of their own iiresides less compelling only than their love of liberty and hatred of oppression. The Scotchflrish beyond the Susquehanna were soon politically independent of the older settlements. As Lancaster had been split from Chesf ter County in 1729, so was Cumberland County created out of a part of Lancaster in 1750. Their religion was a real factor in the lives of these immigrants and, although modified by the frontier, their stern Presbyterianism long remained a bulwark. Their meeting houses shortly dotted the County. Carlisle grew. The wilderness trading post of a French trapper surrendered to a frontier town of English colonists. A fort was erected. Franklin, laying the foundaf tion of his interfcolonial reputation, came to Carlisle in 17 53 as a commissioner of the Colony to negotiate a treaty with the Westeria Indians. During the French and Indian War troops rendezvoused at Fort Lowther in Carlisle. These same Scotchflrish settlers in 1773 founded a grammar school at Carlisle. Sponf -. I sored by such substantial citizens as john Arm' -V 5 'iii , I . strong, hero of Kittanning and county judge, iii ' fini 7 William Irvine and Samuel McCoskry, Carlisle 'C - 'fi' -vi' a- MQ physicians, James Vwfilson, brilliant lawyer, John A ppxz I . , gg., . 1 Montgomery, lawyer and justice, and Williani ' 'fi ':--'1'i: 'i -' 1: Blair, man of God, the school prospered. In nl , 1781 the trustees sought to enlarge its scope to flop ,js - that of an academy. This purpose was made in Ei' ii1g,fl 'i known to Dr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia. Rush contraposed the suggestion of a college at Carlisle. Benjamin Rush was more than the most outstanding physician of his day. Humanitarian, CUMBERLAND COUNTY COURTHOUSF he wrote on temperance, slaveiy, and penal ref 4' DESTROYED BY FIRE IN 1845 Fifteen 'f'v1--fr.. U, .fe 'ig 'H I.. ... ,. Tiff K' I , . . '73 ,ar - J 2'-1 55 ,gffwf 'f,.f.'. . Q. in- -f 1 ., ,I . .H .ea ...Y tx . ., . , 4 1 ,.., Miha i - ,f K ,.V. ., L. , ., f,pr w e ' v-T-S- . .-., Trish- r E'-3 IJ ,yt- -F, E in! N I fir7g,'q:,i viAA'?' - In su H- .Lg -3 r 4. Q 4:1 .1 fy L is .,. ,-V 'IN if j w... 1.-. .ly ,,,,..K , .iw L j u 3,-N-if p -7- ,fl T 2.-l 1 Y yr 'nf -,I - A V 3 ,:. P, 4 .- not - -.-I I , , ,., . ,-ei.v. V L , W .., nr, i- ' '21 - ' f . 1 K i a'.-'K .. 7 lrfi 'ef lj Xl 'xx ..r 5 f . 1 ' .,-V -- . j ,egg .. V V ,,.f 77 .1 my A a ss, fi, . . .. f-A-I sd ' l1 sTT't so- it .Q .f, Y- ,. p, ., .1 f ff- , ' 1, '-.:' .1 .' W r- 'J - . - 1 ,A U 1 ' '- sr-. - ' I ,....,,,-he . 'gr M K .A , Y ,- 1 V- n 4 r

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QZGQECQ-L H I S T O R Y shabby little building, far too small for the needs of a college. He had accepted the principalship 1 of a college and found that he was to instruct boys with inadequate preparation. Nisbet wrote bitterly of his new home and of the College, yet he labored on for nineteen years-in faith with Dickinson. The frontier community in which he found himself held no appeal to a man who had moved in the cultured society of Edinburgh. The tolerf ance of religions and religious beliefs of the fronf tier, accentuated by the rationalism of the age, , called forth dire lamentarions from the orthodox TAVERN ON HIGH STREET IN THE Presbyterian theologian. The effervescent democf racy of the New World nauseated this English Tory of the Old. He failed to understand the movement into which he was thrown- the frontier-and he passed his life in America an almost tragic figure-so much respected, so little loved. - Shortly before Nisbet's death in 1804 a college house-West College-was erected, immediately destroyed by fire, and at once rebuilt on plans drawn by the United States Government Architect. Robert Davidson, who had held for nineteen years under Nisbet the chair of history and bellesflettres, succeeded the testy Scotsman and served ive years as acting principal. Aavain and solemn pedagogue, he was no administrator and the College declined miserably during his term. Jeremiah Atwater, coming from the presidency of Middlebury College in 1809, increased the enrolment but in the face of intolerable conditions was forced to resign with his entire faculty in 1815. After a vain attempt to inject life into it under the sick John McKnight, the College closed its doors in 1816. Dickinson opened in 1822 but during the subsequent administra- tions of john Mitchell Mason, of William Neill, and of Samuel Blanchard How, no improvement was shown. The oliicious meddling of the Trustees in matters of clisf cipline continued. The income of the College, even when supplemented by State grants, proved insufficient. The faculty was split by jealousy and faction. Lax moral standards in the town militated against student wellfbeing. Dickinson closed for the second time in 1832. The story of the first half century of Dickinson is the story of a hard iight lost. Yet over material obstacles the College had triumphed, gloriously. As its doors closed in 1832 Dickinson could point to a score of active leaders trained within its walls. John Bannister Gibson and Charles Huston were chief justice and justice respectively of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and William Wilkins was one of Pennsylvania's United States senators. Roger Brooke Taney was AttorneyfGeneral of the United States and James Buchanan was United States Minister to Russia. Robert G. Wilsoxi was president of the Ohio University, David McConaughy, of Washington College, and Matthew Brown, of Jefferson College. James Smith was giving his life and fortune to the battle against smallfpox. As its doors closed in 1832 Dickinson could also point to other scores of men soon to rise to the highest service to state, church, and fellowfmen. The tree had borne good fruit. Unexpectedly, however, the College opened. Learning of Dickinson's condition, the Baltimore and Philadelphia Conferences of the Methodist Church had made over' tures to the Trustees. An agreement had been reached and on June 6, 1833, the College, while not surrendering the nonfsectarian aspects of its charter, was formally transferred to the friendly auspices of the Methodist Church. With the experience of the iirst fifty years of the Dickinson story before them, the new sponsors at once secured amendments to the charter of the College, making the principal TIME or PRESIDENT Nisssr Seventeen