Dickinson College - Microcosm Yearbook (Carlisle, PA)

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1 1 1 A H1 la ti I 1

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4 ll li C 01. b of a wheel, Dickinson is like the hu moving more sedately than the hectic world on the rim. As we leave, we follow the rt a new huh, fashioned spokes far, and sta after the one we knew. Pages

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anus..- Cnixnuzs Nlsmrr, D.D. 1784-1804 HERMAN M. JOHNSON, D.D. 1860-1868 .. A V - James A. MCCAULEY, D.D. 1872-1888 CIILLEGE lIISTOBY N APRIL, 1784, seven months after September 9, 1783, when the General Assembly of Pennsylvania enacted a charter for Dickinson College, academic work first began. Since the charter was granted three days after the signing of the final treaty with Great Britain ending the Revolution- ary War, but four months before ratification by the United States, Dickinson College may be called, by its proud alumni, the last of the Colonial Colleges or the first college to be founded in the United States. On June 9, 1785, after much persuasion from Benjamin Rush, Dickinson's first president, Dr. Charles Nisbet, arrived at Philadelphia from Scotland. Rush, who was mainly responsible for getting Dr. Nisbet to come to the infant college, induced him to come by describing condi- tions in Carlisle with a high degree of optimism. Actually, when Nisbet arrived Carlisle was marshy, and its streets were filled with open and bloody rioting. Principal Nisbet resigned in October of that same year because of dissension and failing health. However, in May of the following year he was reelected. Ar this time he had a faculty of three men: James Ross, Robert Johnston, and Robert Davidson. There was great trouble with financing the college, and much of the time the faculty was not paid in full. The institution was running into debt and there was not sufiicient room, for the college building consisted of only one room, 20 x 20 feet, in which several classes were held at the same time. The government of the college had fallen into the hands of a few of the local trustees whose interference in its affairs did much harm. They had differences of opinion and special meetings with Principal Nisbet over such trivial matters as the fine for lateness at class, and the manner of conducting the public examination of those students who are candidates for degrees. Many times the trustees took action privately by general agreement without the knowl- edge of Dr. Nisbet. They ordered and changed the length of college courses and failed miserably in their attempts at reorganization. It was not until Dr. Nisbet's death that the trustees realized that he was a truly great man and that the king was dead, there was no heir apparent. , The start of the Civil War saw the inauguration of the first president to come from the faculty, Herman Merrills Page 10