Author: George Gilbert

Although I have already done newspaper research for a previous research journal, I made a series of silly mistakes that could have been rather easily avoided.  Furthermore, it seems like newspaper articles could prove to be rather useful to learn more about the Dickinson College class of 1860 because they are primary documents and can explain how the public felt about the members of the class and what their accomplishments were.  With this in mind, I decided to delve into newspaper databases once again to learn more.

As described in my previous newspaper-related research journal, I originally had to learn how to use newspaper databases before I could begin learning new information about the class of 1860.  None were particularly challenging, but it did take a little time to get the hang of it.  This time around, this roadblock was no longer an issue because I already had experience working with newspaper databases.

I went to PA Civil War Newspaper Collection first because I had success using this database beforehand and found it easy to use.  On this database, I found an article about an escape from Libby Prison in February of 1864.  Clarence G Jackson, a Union officer from the class of 1860, was a prisoner at Libby Prison and participated in this bold escape.  The article details the arduous and long process that the prisoners undertook to dig their escape tunnel.  It also describes the process in which they scattered after getting out of the prison to avoid detection, and it points out that sympathetic black people helped the escapees by giving them food and information.

The article was in The Alleghanian, a Republican newspaper from Ebensberg, Pennsylvania.  As a Republican and Northern newspaper, they may have romanticized the escape somewhat by using words like “daring” and by portraying the escapees as heroic.  The article goes as far as to say the escape was more like a “romance of the middle ages” than an actual event.  The article likely would have been written in a much different tone had it been about Confederates escaping from a Northern prison.

I had previously found a book, Libby Prison Breakout: The Daring Escape from the Notorious Civil War Prison, about this exact event and the prison itself for my annotated bibliography, so it was great to find a newspaper article about it as well to learn more and help get more information on the brave escape from one of the South’s worst prisons.  It will also be interesting to compare the short newspaper article to Joseph Wheelan’s book to put each source into context.

More than just online databases, I looked for different avenues to find 19th century newspapers.  I went to both the Dickinson Archives and Special Collections, and the Cumberland Country Historical Society to find articles about the class’ commencement, which was held on July 12th, 1860.

At Dickinson Archives and Special Collections, I worked with Malinda Triller-Doran, the Special Collections Librarian, to find a truly remarkable article from the New-York Daily Tribune, published July 24th, 1860.  The article starts at the bottom of one column and rolls over to the top of the other one, so it requires two pictures: part one and part two. The article, “Pro-Slaveryism at Dickinson College,” is about a Dickinson alumni, George A Coffey’s, speech given at commencement that year.  Coffey’s speech started off by saying that freedom is a right and that “without it civilization must die.”  However, the speech took a turn when he says that Americans do not fulfill their principles of liberty and equality because of the four million slaves in the United States at that time.  This stance made people in the crowd, including multiple clergymen, very unhappy.  They hissed at Coffey while he was giving his speech, and eventually, several Methodist Ministers, a Presbyterian pastor, and some of their followers simply walked out because they were so angry.

While I found this to be interesting, the college’s response disappointed me as a Dickinson student.  The article reported that no one from the college congratulated Coffey on his speech, and that the Board of Trustees held a meeting in response to it.  The meeting was private, but it was thought that the Trustees decided that they needed to be more careful about selecting their speakers and that they would never again invite an “anti-slaveryite” to speak at commencement.  Furthermore, the article states most of the faculty and trustees have always been either pro-slavery or “conservative” on the matter.  It does make some sense that the college would not have strong anti-slavery views as it is near the border of Maryland and had many students from Maryland and Virginia, but the article was still very surprising to me, and it is key to understanding Dickinson’s stance on slavery mere months before the Civil War began.

With that being said, it is worth noting that the New-York Daily Tribune was affiliated with the Whig and later Republican parties.  Its founder and editor, Horace Greeley, was so politically inclined that he actually ran for president in 1872.  Before the Civil War, Greeley was very against slavery, so it is possible that Greeley and The Tribune exaggerated or spun the story to make Dickinson College look bad for reacting negatively to Coffey’s speech in order to further their own cause.

After seeing this illuminating article, I went to the Cumberland County Historical Society to look at microfilm from local Carlisle newspapers to see how they reported on commencement.  Specifically, I was interested to see what, if anything, they said about Coffey’s speech and the college’s reaction to it.  When I arrived, Robert Schwartz, their Archives & Library Research Specialist, pulled microfilm from The Carlisle Herald and showed me how to use a microfilm reader.  Though I had always heard bad things about microfilm and that it was painfully slow to use, I found what I was looking for in a few minutes and found it to be pretty easy.  However, I think this is likely because I knew the date of the graduation already.

Originally, I found a lengthy article about commencement written just one day after the event that spanned four columns.  This article briefly summarized a series of speeches given, the anniversary events of the Belles Lettres Society and the Union Philosophical Society, and gave a list of the graduates, as well as those receiving honorary degrees.  Interestingly, it is repeatedly mentioned that there were many “ladies” at the multiple events surrounding commencement, which surprised me because women were not allowed to attend Dickinson at this time.  I would have to assume that these “ladies” were either family from the students’ hometowns or from Carlisle and looking for a potential husband.

Also, George Baylor’s speech at the Union Philosophical Society anniversary event stuck out to me.  Baylor was a graduating student and would later become a highly successful cavalry officer for the Confederate Army, but the speech he gave was on the importance of poetry and its role in “dispersing the ignorance.”  It just a little odd to me because poetry is not something one would typically associate with a soldier.  It helped to humanize him, and other Civil War soldiers, because it made me realize that all the soldiers in the war were real people with real lives and interests outside of the military.

Most importantly, the article mentioned Coffey’s speech and the  Board of Trustees.  The Herald’s reaction was much different than that of the New-York Daily Tribune.  Rather than praising Coffey and condemning those that walked out during the speech, The Herald suggests that divisive topics like slavery should not be talked about at public places like a commencement where people that disagree are likely to become offended and angry.  These people “have a right to expect” that they can attend a commencement “without the discussion of bitter vested questions.”

The article also mentioned that at a meeting of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Collins’ resignation was discussed, and that the paper hoped to receive a copy of what was said next week.  Reading this, I decided to see if they had an article about it in the issue next Friday.  Sure enough, there was an article about Dr. Collins, who was President, resigning to live in the South and work for another college.  The article has a copy of student resolutions, including that Collins was a “Christian gentleman,” a great president, and that he was a true friend.  It seemed as though the student body deeply respected Collins and were sad to see him go.

There was no indication that at the Trustees’ meeting they discussed Coffey’s speech or that they did not want another anti-slavery speaker at a future commencement.  Though The Carlisle Herald did say that they thought the speech was inappropriate, they did not include that anyone walked out or that the Trustees did not approve.  While both accounts made it seem that the overall reaction to Coffey’s speech was negative, it was interesting to see the difference between how mild the Carlisle newspaper was and how extreme the The New-York Daily Tribune was.

Finally, The Carlisle Herald had another article about commencement in the same issue with the article about Collins’ resignation.  The article praised “Old Dickinson” throughout and thought that the graduation was one of the best in the college’s history.  It goes as far as to say that the college had never been better, and that those that tried to defame it were simply wrong.  Though The Tribune’s article was not about the commencement as a whole or the state of the college, it was interesting to see The Herald praise the college after reading The Tribune write negatively about the faculty and Board of Trustees.

It was great to find more newspaper articles about the class of 1860, and I am very glad that I did it.  I was shocked to find the New-York Daily Tribune’s article, but after finding The Carlisle Herald’s article, I am not sure how true their claims are.  Or maybe they are true but, The Herald simply wanted to make the commencement look better than it was.  I would assume that the true story of the reaction to Coffey’s speech was somewhere in the middle of the two article’s stories.  I am also happy to have used microfilm for the first time and that it was much easier than I expected.

Newspaper Article Citations

“Commencement Exercises at Dickinson College.”  The Carlisle Herald, July 13, 1860.  1:2-5. [Cumberland Country Historical Society]

“Daring Escape of Union Soldiers from Libby Prison.” The Alleghanian, February 25, 1864. 2:2. [PA Civil War Newspapers Collection]

“Pro-Slaveryism at Dickinson College.” New-York Daily-Tribune, July 24, 1860. 7:4/5. [Dickinson Archives and Special Collections]

“Resignation of Dr. Collins.” The Carlisle Herald, July 20, 1860.  2:5/6. [Cumberland Country Historical Society]

Untitled. The Carlisle Herald, July 20, 1860.  2:5. [Cumberland Country Historical Society]

After generally analyzing the Dickinson College class of 1860 as a whole and later finding more information on a select few individuals through reference sources and publicly available records on Ancestry.com, documented in my previous research journal, the next logical step was to find more personal primary source documents in an archive.

My first step was to use Dickinson online sources.  I searched for 5-10 members of the class in the Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections, the Waidner-Spahr Library, and an Archives Jumpstart search engine.  Through the Archives and Special Collections, I found that  Rufus Edmonds Shapley received an honorary degree at the commencement ceremony for the class of 1900, a whole 40 years after he graduated.  I also found an obituary of David B Brunner in an issue of the Dickinsonian, the school’s newspaper, in 1902.  Using the library’s website was somewhat helpful, as I found a published diary by John Henry Grabill recounting his experiences in the Confederate Army, as well as George Baylor’s recounting of his time in the Confederate Army, and a published book by Shapley, Solid for Mulhooly: a Political Satire.  Using the Archives search engine, I found another published book, The Indians of Berk County, this time written by David B Brunner.

The usefulness of these online sources varied.  I was initially very excited by Shapley’s honorary degree, but the actual document wasn’t online.  The four published books, particularly the Confederate diaries, will likely be quite useful later into the project, but I was not looking for former students’ books yet at this stage.  After searching for documents through Dickinson’s searches, I branched out to other sources.

My search for documents through other online sources was somewhat unsuccessful.  I searched the website of the Howard County, Maryland Historical Society because a member of the class, Charles F Thomas, was from Ilchester, a town in the county.   I already know of a journal of his from the years 1859-1861.  The journal is an incredible source to learn about a young man reaching adulthood at the same time the country is splitting in two.  Unfortunately, there is nothing on the site about him, but I sent an email to the historical society to see if they had any information on him, letters, another diary, anything.

I conducted a similar search for Clarence Gearhart Jackson on two separate historical societies’ websites — Berwick, his hometown, and Colombia County, in which Berwick is located.  Colombia County has some searchable databases on their site, and there were results of death notices for Jackson, but it simply said they had them, there were no pictures or transcriptions.  Berwick’s site has an entire page dedicated to Jackson’s mansion but no documents.  I emailed Colombia County Historical Society and the Jackson Mansion Curator, Jim Stout.

At the time of writing this, Friday afternoon, I haven’t heard back from Howard County or Colombia County, but I did receive an email from Johannah Naus, the Jackson Mansion Coordinator, in response to my inquiry.  We have scheduled a time for phone call, and she suggested I visit Jackson’s visit and gravestone.  I am truly excited to to see what kinds of documents and other information she may have on Jackson, and I hope to hear from the Howard and Colombia county historical societies soon.

Shapley’s Honorary Degree, credit to the Dickinson Archive

After these online searches, it was time to head to the Dickinson archives.  First, I wanted to find proof of Shapley’s honorary degree and the physical copy of the Dickinsonian issue with Brunner’s obituary in it.  The degree was in the 1900 Dickinson College Catalog, and the obituary was in a hard cover book with years of Dickinsonians in it.  I also transcribed the obituary.  Both of these were interesting, and it proves their importance.  Shapley received an honorary degree forty years after graduating for his work as a political satirist, and it is impressive that Brunner was seen as important enough to include an obituary for him in the college paper forty two years after his time at Dickinson.

The Class of 1860, credit to the Dickinson Archive

Seating Chart for Composite Photo, credit to the Dickinson Archive

Frank, a student intern, gave me a photo of Shapley, as well as a composite of all the 1860 graduates.  The Shapley photo is available online, but I was intrigued by the composite photo.  Not only is it a physical copy of photos of all the graduates, but there is also a seating chart of sorts, so I can now match a name to a face for them all.  Furthermore, it is unclear whether this photo was required by the college or if the graduates simply wanted to commemorate the occasion and went to a photographer on their own.

Jackson’s Trustee Oath, credit to the Dickinson Archive

I knew from previous research that Clarence Gearhart Jackson was a member of the Dickinson College Board of Trustees, so I wanted to see if there was any record of this in Dickinson’s archive.  I checked inside the finding aid labeled “Trustees 1783-1879” and sure enough, I found his oath that must have been required for all trustees to take.  Although I figured that there would be some record of his joining, I was excited to find his oath because I did not know that that was even required.  It also was very odd because the oath states that the trustee, Jackson, must uphold the United States and Pennsylvania constitutions, but there is no mention of the college charter or really even anything about the college or what the position of a trustee requires.  A transcription of the oath that I wrote can be found here.

Letter to Seymour, credit to the Dickinson Archive

The final document that I found was a letter to a member of the class 1860, H. Gordon Seymour, and a member of the class of 1861, John W Harris, for trying to force two other student to drink.  Truthfully I found this by chance.  I checked a Student Affairs/Registrar finding aid just to see if there was anything in it about the class of 1860, and it led me to the letter.  It was the last thing I was expecting to find, and when I read it I was pretty surprised.  In today’s world, many college students party and drink, but not many people think of college students drinking in the mid-18th century.  The letter calls the act a “high offense,” and their conduct seems to be reviewed by the entire faculty of the college, so it seems like this offense was taken very seriously.

While it’s great that some sources were available online, they are not all there, and the sources on the internet are not nearly as helpful as physical finding aids in the archive.  Going online gave me a basic idea of what I might be able to find, but the finding aids has exactly what the archive has and exactly how to see it.  Actually going to Dickinson’s archive was absolutely critical and much more enjoyable than I originally expected.  Before this class, I had envisioned research to be painfully boring, but I have been pleasantly surprised to find that while frustrating at times, research is not nearly as bad as I had expected.  Of course, my experience at the archive was made much easier by Jim Garencser, the college archivist, Malinda Triller Doran, the special collections librarian, and Frank.  Doran and Frank in particular helped me to find all the documents I needed in the archive, and they even helped me transcribe Jackson’s Board of Trustees oath.

Transcribed Documents’ Citations –

“David B. Brunner, ’60.”  Dickinsonian, 2 December 1902.

Jackson, Clarence G.  Dickinson College Board of Trustees Oath of Clarence G Jackson,                       27 June 1876.  1.2.10, Trustees 1783 – 1879, Archives and Special Collections,                               Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.

When I first received the 1905 Alumni Record for the Dickinson College class of 1860, I was a bit overwhelmed.  To begin to start to understand more about this class and the individuals in it, I decided to make a data table to compile all the important information on each student. To start my data table, I simply counted all the graduates and non-graduates and added them up.  Following this, I briefly skimmed a few entries of the 1905 Alumni Record to see what kind of information it would have on each student.  It seemed that each entry could be categorized in fairly basic categories like home state, job field, campus life, etc.

Originally, I was frustrated that the Alumni Record did not have complete data for many of the students for each of my categories, so I would add and take away categories.  Eventually I decided on my columns and just put “unknown” if there was no information on a student.

Filling out the data sheet  was easy but time-consuming.  The most difficult and longest part was getting started and deciding exactly what data I wanted to record.  I’ve never done something like this before, so the initial process was somewhat difficult, but once I established a rhythm, it became much easier.  I decided to convert the data chart into a bulleted list because it made the data even easier to read and highlighted the most important information.  The data chart is good for seeing specific information for each individual student, but the bulleted list is designed to learn about the whole class and see what the class as a whole was involved in.

Once the bulleted list was finished, I chose a few individuals to research more in depth.  I decided on a few of the students that had the most information and seemed most interesting.  As with most research, the best way to start was with reference sources.  Considering that they are all former Dickinson students, I checked the Dickinson encyclopedia first.  I used the Dickinson encyclopedia to get more information of course, but also as a test.  If a student was not in the Dickinson encyclopedia, I decided to choose another one because it seems logical that if anyone would have information on Dickinson students, it would be Dickinson.  This eliminated a few options, and I ended up choosing to study David B Brunner, John Henry Grabill, and Clarence Gearhart Jackson more in depth.

David B. Brunner, credit to Wikipedia.org

All these students were in the Dickinson encyclopedia, and there was a descent amount of background on them.  Brunner taught, was a congressman, and wrote Indians of Berks County.  Grabill was born in Virginia, fought for the Confederacy, had ten children, and was a school superintendent.  Jackson fought for the Union in the Civil War, was Vice President of Jackson and Woodin Manufacturing, and owned a mansion.

After learning this, I decided to check other sources, including American National Biography Online and Wikipedia, to find more.  American National Biography Online yielded no results, as none of the students were quite famous enough.  Wikipedia was a little more useful but only had an entry on David B Brunner, which is mostly because he was a congressman from 1889-1893.  Brunner’s entry was quite short, but it did mention that he was a Pennsylvania German poet, which was exciting to learn because this information was not in the Alumni Directory or Dickinson encyclopedia.

From here, I went to Google Books to see if more information on Brunner’s poems was available and to find more about the other students.  Through Google Books, I found a reference source, A Pennsylvania German Anthology, which contained an entry on Brunner and examples of his poems, which were entirely written in German, and a mentioning of “Goethe Von Berks” as some sort of alias or pen name.  His poems and alter-ego were greatly intriguing so I continued to look for more information on them.  I found virtually the same short biography on Brunner in Publications, Volume 26 by the Pennsylvania-German Society, but importantly, this source confirmed that Brunner used the pen name, Goethe Von Berks, when writing his German poetry.

John Henry Grabill, credits to Dickinson Encyclopedia

Searching John Henry Grabill on Google Books yielded some information but nothing new.  He is in the Semi-Centennial Register of the Members of the Phi Kappa Sigma Fraternity, a reference source about the Phi Kappa Sigma Fraternity which he was a part of.  In search of more information  about his service in the Confederate Army, I  went to The American Civil War Research Database.  Grabill has an entry in it that gives a bulleted list that mentions his enlistment, marriage, and that he was a prisoner of war.  The database was a great reference source because it gave me basic information about Grabill’s life, and it made me want to learn more about his status as a prisoner.

Jackson’s Mansion, credit to Berwick Borough

Finally, I searched for Clarence Gearhart Jackson, and I found some very interesting results.  In the Reports of the Heads of Departments to the Governor of Pennsylvania 1876, he is listed as an aide-de-camp to Governor Hartranft, but this is not a reference source because it is merely his name in a list, so it is not what I was looking for.  Intrigued by his mansion and in search of a reference source, I searched “Clarence G Jackson Mansion” on Google which led me to find a history of Berwick Borough, his home and the site of his mansion.   It is a reference source because it provides a brief overview of Berwick designed to give simply a starting point for further research.  This overview has an entry about him and more specifically his mansion, which was actually used as Berwick’s City Hall for almost 100 years after the death of Jackson’s wife, Elizabeth.  The mansion still stands today, though it’s no longer used as city hall.

Next, I decided to search for Clarence Gearhart Jackson on Ancestry.com to see if he appears in the census or other records.  I was very lucky to find him posted in someone’s family tree, meaning that someone else already collected a series of documents and connected it with Jackson.  This saved me a lot of time, and I only spent about an hour to go through the documents and report on my findings.  This collection included three censuses, a veteran burial card, and pictures of his headstone.

Jackson’s Family in the 1870 Census, credit to Ancestry.com

I chose to include the 1870 census, as opposed to the 1850 or 1860 census, because it is the only one to have both of his kids, Jane and Henrietta Jackson.  It also includes Elizabeth Jackson, his wife.  Interestingly, none of this family’s real names are recorded.  Clarence is CG, Elizabeth is Lizzy, Jane is Jenny, and Henrietta is Ettie.  Jane appears to be named after Clarence’s sister, who’s also named Jane but goes by Jenny.  Interestingly, Clarence’s sister dies the same exact month that his daughter is born.

Jackson’s Veteran Burial Card, credit to Ancestry.com

Jackson died in 1880.  Records of this can be found in a census mortality record, a New Jersey and Pennsylvania church and town record, and a Pennsylvania Veteran Memorial card.  I chose to include the veteran card because Jackson served in the Civil War and because it has more information than the other sources.

Jackson’s Headstone, credit to findagrave.com

A picture of Jackson’s headstone, described as a “very large monument” on the veteran card, can be found on a link from findagrave.com on Ancestry.  Judging by this headstone and knowledge of his role as Vice President of Jackson and Woodin Manufacturing Company, Jackson was quite a wealthy man.

Because finding Clarence Jackson’s information on ancestry.com was so easy, I decided to take another hour to see if I could find census records or anything else on John Henry Grabill.  Again, I was lucky to find him to be a part of a family tree, but this one was not nearly as complete as Jackson’s.  It only had a record of Grabill being a Confederate prisoner of war.

Grabill in Prisoner of War Records, credit to Ancestry.com

This was a very exciting find because it confirmed the information from the American Civil War Database.  Also, going into the search for Grabill I only had expectations to find census records, so this was quite the surprise.

Grabill in the U.S. School Catalog, credit to Ancestry.com

Another interesting find was an entry on him in a U.S. School Catalog.  He is in the catalog along with several other members of the Dickinson class of 1860, and they are all grouped together for their membership in the Phi Kappa Sigma Fraternity.  The catalog entry is very similar to the 1905 Alumni Record.

Grabill in 1920 Census, credit to Ancestry.com

Finally, Grabill is in multiple censuses taken throughout his long lifetime.  Here he is in the 1920 census, taken just two years before his death.  He lives in an eleven member household, including his wife, six kids, a son-in-law, a servant, and the servant’s son.

To summarize, this research journal took many hours to complete and was frustrating at times, but overall it was fun to go from a data chart about a class of 48 students down to finding real records and primary source documents through ancestry.com on two students.