Dickinson College - Microcosm Yearbook (Carlisle, PA)

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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

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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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J H I S T O R Y . of the College the president of the Board of Trustees and giving the faculty complete authority over problems of A discipline. In September, 1834, the College opened. Dickinf V son had been rescued from certain extinction and by wise 4 changes in its government was assured of a healthier existence than it had known. ' A faculty unequalled in the history of the College and probably unexcelled in any college of the day was assembled. John Price Durbin, thirtyfthree year olll Kentuckian, success' sively a cabinetfmaker, itinerant preacher, honor graduate at Cincinnati College, professor of languages at Augusta College, chaplain of the United States Senate, and editor of The Christian Advocate, was president. Young Merritt SOUTH COLLEGE ABOUT Caldwell, whose promising life was cut short by death, boy' 1870 ish Robert Emory, a beautiful soul, destined to succeed to the presidencyg twentyftwo year old john McClintock, soon to make a high reputation as an author of classical grammars and long to be remembered by the Negroes of Carlisle-if without sufficient cause-as their champion in an anti' slavery riot of 1847g and Wilham Henry Allen, inspiring teacher of the sciences, fated to become iirst president of Girard College, composed the faculty of the invigorated institution. They were great men, a peerless group, towering mightily in the minds of those who came under their influence. Their students in later years mentioned their names with a respect akin to awe and they lacked words to express the true moral and intellectual grandeur of their old professors. ' Durbin's elevenfyear regime saw an enlargement of the material resources of the College. The abandoned Theological School of the German Reformed Church in Carlisle was bought by the Trustees and after its destruction by iire was rebuilt as South College. The interior construction of West College was completed. East College was erected in 183 7. W Upon Durbin's resignation in 1845 the Trustees selected as his successor Robert Emory, a member of the faculty since the reorganization of the College. Sickness weakened the man and death cut short in 1848 what might have proved a brilliant administration. The next president, Jesse Truesdell Peck, who had received his educaf tional experience in secondary schools, was not fitted for the work before him and his adminis' tration, in consequence, was perplexed with stu' dent disorders. Charles Collins, succeeding after four years, enforced his authority over the stu' dents, acquiring among them the reputation of a disciplinarian and winning, if not their affection, surely their respect. A foolish scholarship sale plan, by which it was proposed to increase the endowment of the College, had been adopted by the Trustees shortly before Collins' coming. It was left to the new president to struggle with this illfconsidered scheme which, launched at a time when the College was prospering, had as i its immediate result the decreasing of income from tuition fees. Collins might have remained at his post to pilot the College through this storm ,N 1929 had not the demands of a large family caused him LovER's LANE, ALONG THE EASTERN WALI. OF THB CAMPUS, ERASED Eighteen 1-v??- V -