Category: Uncategorized Page 6 of 7

 The Process

This project is my first experience with archival research and I didn’t know where to begin. Luckily, Jim Gerencser and Malinda Triller Doran at the Dickinson College Archives had selected a document from our class year to examine. I received the anniversary address of the Belles Lettres Society in 1862. It was delivered by Martin Christian Herman, who coincidentally was one of the class members that I looked at in depth during my first research journal entry.

Belles Lettres Anniversary Address

This was the first time I have handled a historical document. The pamphlet was in good condition. From this document, one can learn about the writing style of the time period and what life at Dickinson was like. The document hints at a rivalry between the Belles Lettres and the Union Philosophical Society, the two literary societies at Dickinson.

The purpose of the item is to showcase the Belles Lettres literary society, their accomplishments, and their intellectualism. It also intends to discuss the progress of America. It addresses members of the grammar school who are preparing to enter Dickinson College and it gives them advice. It also promotes the Belles Lettres literary society to incoming students. The final paragraph is a farewell to the members of the class of 1862.

The anniversary address was very interesting. However, there was much more research to be done so I went back to the archives to start my own research.

Dickinson College Catalog 

I began my archival search by searching for the Dickinson College catalog for 1862. The catalog is a very helpful tool because it details the curriculum of the time period, lists all the students by class year, and outlines the cost of tuition.The photo gallery below contains some important excerpts from the Dickinson College Catalog.

From the catalog, I could tell which members of the class of 1862 were at the college for their senior year compared to their junior year.   The section on curriculum was particularly interesting. It outlined what topics the students studied, including religion, Latin, Greek, natural sciences, English, and German. The most shocking thing about the college catalog was the tuition. Fees and tuition for the entire year was $151, which would make any current college student very jealous. Overall, the college catalog does a great job of providing background on student life in 1862.

Images

The next item I found in the Dickinson College archives was a carte de visite of Martin Christian Herman. I found this item thanks to the help of Frank Vitale, a member of Dickinson College archives staff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frank Vitale Also helped me find images of two other members of the class of 1862, Benjamin Lamberton and Joseph Mallalieu. The two images are included below. My discovery of these images is all thanks to the staff at the Dickinson College Archives. Always make sure to reach out to the people who work in the archives because they know the archive better than anybody else and they will probably be able to find something that would otherwise be overlooked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                          Card Catalog

The next place I decided to look in the Dickinson College archives was the main card catalog. I started by looking up a few people from my class that particularly interested me. I started by searching for Benjamin Lamberton. Unfortunately, I did not find anything on  him. I then searched for Clay McCauley. I was able to find two letters from his father, Isaac McCauley. They were addressed to Eli Slifer, the state treasurer at the time. The letters were written in script and were relatively hard to read. It briefly mentioned Clay McCauley but it was not the lead that I hoped it would be. It was a little disappointing considering how excited I was to find something on Clay McCauley. I definitely plan on going back to the archives and reading the letter again, in case I missed something amidst the 19th century handwriting.

One thing I did find of interest in the Isaac McCauley letter was the spelling of the name McCauley. As I discussed in my last research journal entry, there is a lot of confusion surrounding the spelling of Clay McCauley’s last name. In Isaac McCauley’s handwritten letter, he spells it as McCauley. This suggests that McCauley was the proper spelling of the name.

The next person I searched for in the card catalog was Martin Christian Herman. I found five compositions he wrote during his time at Dickinson. From these compositions and his anniversary address for the Belles Lettres society, it is clear that Herman was a skilled and prolific writer.

 

The compositions were in various conditions. One of the compositions had big stains on it so it was very hard to read. The compositions that I was able to  read seemed to match the style of Herman’s writing for the anniversary address of the Belles Lettres society. The compositions demonstrate the expectations of students during the 1860s.

Overall, the card catalog in the Dickinson College archives is a very useful tool. It contains documents that are not yet listed on the Dickinson College Encyclopedia. No research trip to the archives would be complete without a visit to the card catalog.          

 Collections Search

I turned my archival search to the Dickinson College special collections. The archives have extensive collections which are organized in binders of finding aids. I searched for who I believed to be the notable members of the class of 1862 in these binders. I did not find any of the people I searched. I immediately felt very frustrated. I decided to turn to the Dickinson College Archives website. They list all of their special collections, and you can search for specific collections. You can narrow down your search by time period. I narrowed my search to the time period of 1860-1879, and I sifted through the results until I came across the John Black, Jr. collection.

I was elated to find an entire collection on someone from the class of 1862. The John Black, Jr. collection contained many images, an artifact, various letters, a manuscript of family history, and a certificate of pharmacy.

I did not expect to find an entire collection on John Black, Jr. because he was not one of the members of the class of 1862 who I perceived to be the most interesting. The first leads you get in your research are not going to be your last. It is important to not close too many doors in regard to the subject of your research.

 

John Black, Jr. was a student at Dickinson College until 1860, when he was “honorably dismissed” from the college. He worked at a drug store until entering the Union Army. Black’s discharge letter is contained in the archives. Black spent most of his remaining years as a pharmacist. Black had two sons, who both died young. He also had a daughter and a step daughter.  He was active in his community up until his death in 1915.

 

 

My favorite document in the John Black, Jr. collection was the letter that Sigma Chi Fraternity regarding the death of John Black, Jr. which I transcribed.

 

 

 

 

The letter is addressed to Alice Black, the daughter of John Black. It is from John Gillespie. It expresses his deep condolences for John Black’s death. I thought the letter was particularly interesting because it says that Black was the fourth man to become affiliated with Sigma Chi at Dickinson College. Even though this letter was written long after John Black’s time at Dickinson, it sheds light on John Black, Jr.’s life as a student at Dickinson and on the importance of greek organizations during that time period. It also suggests that John Black, Jr. was involved in Sigma Chi even after he left Dickinson College.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I must admit,  John Black Jr. did not stand out to me during my initial research on the class of 1862. I would have never expected to find such an extensive collection on him. I was pleasantly surprised at this result. Sometimes research presents leads in unexpected places.

Reflection

I found this research assignment to be much harder than the first assignment. This was not    research I could complete on my own schedule. The archives are only open at certain times during the week. My advice for anyone doing research in the archives is to manage your time. Make sure you know the hours that the archives is open and make sure that you make time for yourself to do research. Heading to the archives before class will be worth it.

Another piece of advice I have for anyone completing this assignment is try not to be discouraged. I hit many dead ends during my research. For instance, I spent a great deal of time looking at meeting minutes from different clubs and reading documents in Dickinson college president,  Herman M. Johnson’s collection in the hopes of finding something relevant to my project. None of this ended up being fruitful  but it is important to never give up.

Citations and Thanks 

I would like to give special thanks to Jim Gerencser, Malinda Triller Doran, and Frank Vitale for helping me during my research at the archives.

Citation for transcribed material:

Gillespie, John, Carlisle to Black, Alice, 23 May 1841. , John Black, Jr. Papers, Archives and Special Collections, Carlisle, PA.

 

While researching members of the class of 1848 I stumbled across an interesting item related to Dr. Henry Martyn Harman.  On the Dickinson College Archives website (“archives website”) I found a letter written by Dr. Harman to his father, Andrew Harman under the search results for Henry Harman.  This letter gave an eye opening glimpse into college life in the 19^th century.  In the same file as Dr. Harman’s letter, I found a letter written by Richard N. Edwards to Gilbert Malcolm at Dickinson.  This letter explained the reason that Mr. Edwards possessed and sent Dr. Harman’s letter to Dickinson.

My original item was an obituary of Mrs. Anna M. Thomas, wife of Reverend Thomas Snowden Thomas (class of 1848).  The obituary, found in the January 29, 1885 issue of The Christian Advocate was interesting in that I learned about her life.  Mrs. Thomas was a devoted Methodist who actively tried to work throughout the week in order to rest on the Sabbath.  With her husband, she taught her children Christian values even on her death bed.

I lacked interest in this obituary because Mrs. Thomas was not a member of the class of 1848.  I decided to research a different item from the archives.  That was when I remembered that while researching Dr. Harman, I found a letter that he wrote to his father while at Dickinson in 1846.  This was more interesting because Dr. Harman graduated in 1848, and students still write home (actually maybe today we just call and text home).

I decided to transcribe Dr. Harman’s Letter to his father.  Even though there was already a transcription in the archives, I thought that it would be good practice for me to transcribe this document.  Furthermore, I wanted to compare my transcription with the transcription already in the archives.  The sections that are transcribed in bold are transcriptions where I relied on help from the original transcription.  The sections that are transcribed in italics are transcriptions where I believe that my transcription was correct and the original transcription was incorrect.

I went farther and transcribed the envelope that carried the letter from Dr. Harman to his father.  However, this proved a little more difficult as there appeared to be scribbling that I could not read and scribbling that did not make much sense.

The contents of Dr. Harman’s letter were an interesting glimpse into the affairs of a student in the 19^th century.  Dr. Harman described his academic successes in his freshman year (supposedly the first semester of the 1845-1846 school year).  In his freshman year, he took Algebra and Greek.  The 1845-1846 college catalogue confirmed that freshman took Algebra and Geometry as part of their Mathematics requirement.  The catalogue also confirmed that freshman took Greek and read Xenophon and Homer in that class.

Interestingly, on the catalogue’s roster of freshman, I found no other names from the 1905 Alumni Record’s roster.  That could be because Dr. Harman graduated from Dickinson in three years because he was a freshman in the fall semester of 1845 and a sophomore in the spring semester of 1846.  When I looked at the 1847-1848 catalogue, I found many familiar names on the senior roster including John Andrew Jackson Creswell, William Ing, and John Ogden Winner.

Dr. Harman’s letter was not in great shape.  There were strands of tape criss-crossing the page.  However, both the letter and the envelope were in protective sheets to preserve them.  The letter and envelope were not faded, yet the handwriting was hard to read.  Both contents also were complete.

When looking through the file containing Dr. Harman’s letter in the archives, I also found a letter written by Richard N. Edwards, dated 1946.  Although dated a century after Dr. Harman’s letter and ninety-eight years after Dr. Harman graduated, this letter was relevant to Dr. Harman’s letter.  Mr. Edwards sent this letter with Dr. Harman’s letter to Dickinson in April 1946.  In the letter, Mr. Edwards explained the provenance of Dr. Harman’s letter.  There was no transcription of Mr. Edwards’ letter at the archives.  I took it upon myself to transcribe the letter.

Mr. Edwards’ letter was in much better shape than Dr. Harman’s.  Maybe it was in better shape because it was a century younger than Dr. Harman’s letter.  It was not fragile and it was legible and a little more readable than Dr. Harman’s letter.

Dr. Harman’s letter passed many hands.  Dr. Harman’s father kept the letter in his family.  Then someone in the Harman family gave the letter to a Presbyterian Minister who had a close relationship with the Harmans.  That same minister gave the letter to Mr. Edwards, one of Dr. Harman’s Bible students, with the “thought that [Mr. Edwards] would value it more than he,” and Mr. Edwards claimed that he valued it greatly.

It appeared that Mr. Edwards’ brother, John, also went to Dickinson.  After some time researching on the archives website, I found that Mr. Edwards was a member of the class of 1897.  I also found that a John Edwards graduated in 1897 too, which contradicted the letter that said John “[was] among [Dr. Harman’s] graduates [in 1896]”.  I do not know which source is correct, the archives website or Mr. Edwards’ letter.  I hope that the archives website would have correct information about Dickinson alums; likewise, I hope that Mr. Edwards knows the year that his brother graduated.

I could not assume that John and Richard were twins, so I checked Ancestry.com (“ancestry”).  The most promising record of John and Richard being related showed Richard Edwards’ birth in England (possible and plausible).  It also showed Richard’s birth taking place in 1874, and John’s in 1871.  This did not give me all that much confidence that Richard and John Edwards were brothers; however, it proved to be the only Richard Nicholas Edwards result on ancestry that showed a birth in the 1870s with a brother John.  Based on this result, Richard was John’s younger brother.

Mr. Richard Edwards’ letter talked about one Bishop Richardson.  He said that Bishop Richardson was supposed to come to Dickinson for the commencement in 1946.  Based on the archives website, Bishop Ernest Richardson (class of 1896) returned to Dickinson for a thirty-year reunion in 1926, and gave a matriculation sermon in 1927.  If Bishop Richardson was at the 1946 commencement, he did not speak at it, otherwise the archives website would say that he delivered a commencement speech in 1946.

I found this archives project very interesting.  I learned a lot about college life in the middle of the 19^th century.  Beyond that, I also learned how to research in the archives and how to transcribe letters that are multiple decades and centuries old.

Bibliography of Archive Items: 

Todd, R.W. “Mrs. Anna M. Thomas” in January 29, 1885 issue of The Christian Advocate, Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.

Harman, Henry Martyn, to Andrew Harman, Carlisle, 3 January, 1846, Edwards Collection, Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.

Edwards, Richard Nicholas, to Gilbert Malcolm, Baltimore, 24 April, 1946, Edwards Collection, Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.

Greg Parker

Ten Members of the Dickinson Class of 1868

This is a series of eleven black and white/sepia photographs, in the form of cartes de visite. They were created by three “photograph galleries”; C.L. Lochman’s, Mrs. R.A. Smith, and Le Rue Lemer, the first two based in Carlisle, the last in Harrisburg. The date the actual photographs were taken is not listed on their backings, but there are notes and signatures scrawled there—five are dated June 25th, 1868. One is June 19th the same year. Others simply list 1868, or nothing at all.

Based on the personal notes, these were meant to be exchanged between classmates at graduation. They might simply have been taken for the graduates, but friends ended up using them as tradable keepsakes anyway. Their purpose seems commemorative, especially as photographs, while not rare, were still a relatively new technology in 1868.

The items are in stable condition. The photographs are focused and easily distinguishable. They have yellowed slightly with age, but it it entirely possible that the discoloration was there from when they were first developed. The maker’s stamp is clearly legible, as is most of the writing on the backs. If it isn’t, the issue is with the handwriting, not the quality of the ink or paper.

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There were thirteen total graduates in the class of 1868, which matches the number on the composite card. This means three photographs are missing, assuming the receiver kept their own portrait, as well. The three missing members according to the Dickinson Alumni Record are Harry Leader Bowman (lower left next to Goucher and Westy), Jesse Bowman Young (upper right below G.D. Chenoweth) and Philip Matthew Lewis (right of Smead).

When I ran “1868” through the Dickinson Archives and Special Collections website, I found this: 

This carte is evidence that multiple copies of each portrait were made and distributed. It is also helpful in identifying the photos of the missing members.

Number 9 is listed as B. L. Beck, not Philip Matthew Lewis, the only other member besides Bowman and Young unaccounted for according to the Dickinson Alumni Record. Number 10 is undoubtably Bowman, as I found his portrait in the archives.

There is no “Beck” in the Alumni record under graduates or non-graduates. There are no comparable names, either. The closest is a non-grad listed as F. W. Biddle, but his other initials rule him out. While it makes sense for Jesse Bowman Young to be number 5, I could only find a picture that doesn’t bear much of a resemblance to the one on the composite carte de visite.

There are no other photographs available online for Philip Matthew Lewis or B. L. Beck, so I cannot confirm if their particular portrait is correctly or incorrectly identified on the card. I will make a visit to the physical archives on Monday afternoon to see if I can dig up more photographic evidence.

While researching the Chenoweth brothers for another post, I found a list of the class of 1868. Thirteen people were mentioned, but instead of a Philip Matthew Lewis or a B. L. Beck, there was a Thomas Woodward Ahl.

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When I started writing this post, my question was about the recipient of these particular cartes de visite. I found the answer to that quickly enough, as it was written on the back of the composite card.

“Compliments, H. L. Bowman”

Harry Leader Bowman fits; he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi, the fraternity referenced in Henry Jacob Beatty’s carte de visite.

Now, the more pressing issue is that of the man in portrait nine. He has a different name listed in three separate sources. When I visit the archives on Monday, I will try to find more about him, but that search will have to continue in another post.

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Citation of cartes de visite:

 

Cartes de visite of Dickinson Class of 1868 Graduates:

A full description can be found here.

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A Note On Drop Files And J.F. Goucher:

John Franklin Goucher is arguably the most famous member of the graduating class of 1868, so there is a decent amount of material relating to him in the Dickinson Archives. A quick search in the Archives website brings up some of the more notable artifacts, including a fraternity pin and a transcribed speech at a conference on Christianity in the U.S. The actual archives, however, can be daunting; when I first arrived, I was too intimidated to make use of many of its resources and instead asked one of the archivists for any information she could bring on him.

This led me to the drop file on Goucher; a catch-all collection of documents deemed not important enough to warrant their own entries. These include three newspaper obituaries, most with a heavy focus on Goucher’s career as founder and president of the college named for him, several handwritten notes addressed to Mrs. Goucher expressing condolences for his death, and a biography written by a Goucher College student who graduated in 1931.

In hindsight, John Franklin Goucher’s position as head of another college means that there is another institution with an equal or greater claim to many of his personal effects and correspondence, something that undoubtably affects the Dickinson Archives collection on him and his wife, dependent as that collection is on the whims of Goucher’s descendants or others in the chain of custody.

Also, drop files, while sometimes containing overlooked scraps that hold the key to future research– the letters to Mrs. Goucher, for example– are equally as likely to have nothing but passing mentions of a figure, or vague, general information one could more easily gather from an entry in the Dickinson Encyclopedia or an Alumni Record. Therefore I cannot recommend them as a starting point for archival research nor as a viable means of reaching information on a specific topic. More reliable methods are listed below.

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The Chenoweth Brothers

Two other members of the class had unusual careers, according to the Dickinson College Alumni Record: George Durbin Chenoweth, and his brother, Alexander Crawford Chenoweth. Both were engineers. Alexander was at one point employed by a Peruvian general, and George worked for the Northern Pacific Railroad extensively. I started my search for documents on these two with the main card catalog in the Archives–a filing cabinet of sorts, alphabetically organized with the names of people and some of the artifacts concerning them. There are entries for George Davenport Chenoweth, the father of the two, and George Durbin, but none for Alexander. I asked Frank, the archival assistant, for the contents of George’s card.

There is some documentation of George’s time with the Railroad through  various certificates, as well as a pamphlet from his campaign for congressman as a member of the Progressive Party. There is also an entire file dedicated to his correspondence as a member of the Dickinson Board of Trustees, with notes explaining various absences and his resignation due to health issues.

After sifting through these for about 30 minutes, I decided to return to the mystery of Alexander Crawford Chenoweth. He had no entry in the card catalog, and there was no drop file on him, either. I enlisted the help of Frank again, but he could find nothing on Alexander in the collections. He did bring me a book with a list of the graduates of 1868: 

Wherein I discovered that Alexander Crawford was actually Alexander Cook.

This discovery didn’t turn up any new information on Alexander, even when I ran the name change through both a general and collections search. There isn’t any finding aid for documents relating to “Chenoweth”. He doesn’t even appear in the Image Archives, save for his carte de visite. I did find him and his brother in a list of Honorary Degree Recipients– Alexander received an Honorary Doctor of Laws in 1908, and George a Doctor of Science the same year. This list is easily accessible online, though many of the documents I encountered during my research are not.

These photographs of George can only be seen in the physical archives.

In terms of important, “teachable” papers, the most time-efficient source is a quick document search on the Dickinson Archive Website. This will provide any documents the archivists found compelling enough to prioritize through digitization, if they haven’t been somehow overlooked. This is how I found the letter transcribed below.

The main card catalog is useful for locating documents on people that might not be available on the website, but entries are limited. Finding aids can vary in helpfulness and detail. While I was looking for information on Alexander Cook Chenoweth, I tried tracking him down through the records of the Belles Lettres Society, of which he was a member. In a series of white binders located on a shelf in the Archives, there are brief descriptions of documents concerning Dickinson’s various societies through the years, including Greek life. Unfortunately, not every year of records is preserved, so there are gaps in lists of information available.

Finding aids can be found online. This search tool on the Dickinson Archives Website, under “Guides to Resources” is a way to locate them. 

The search “grades” brings up the finding aid for Student Affairs/Registrar papers, 1783-1914, or RG 5/1, where one can find documents on grades, deportment, and multiple other categories of student life at the college.

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Document Identification

Lewistown PA

July 15th 1863

                   Prof Marshal W.S.G

                             Dear Sir

                                        Your last was duly read. I write from Lewistown as myself & family have been boarding here at Paleasy hotel for some three weeks. We were driven out of Carlisle by the rebels. We left on Thursday night at 9:00, the last train that left the place before the rebels entered. We gathered up our trunks only, left everything else; & when I returned I found all perfectly safe just as we left it, for which we are thankful. The rebels entered Carlisle in strong force, twelve thousand, on Saturday evening. They put their tent near the door of Dr. Johnson & the campus filled with men & tents. Officers sent in to Mrs. Johnson for their supper, she sent it to them. Next morning they sent for breakfast, but she declined. They then used the outer cookingstove & as her servants had run off, she made their servants cook for her. They placed a strict guard around their men, to prevent deserters & keep them from plundering. But early on Sat. morning, they detailed Officers and men to plunder & they were thieving all day on Sat, Ham, groceries & dry goods, shoes, etc. While Mr. Hollert was dying on one side end of his house they were robbing him and the others. Rob Moore had a few army shoes hid, some rebel sympathizers told them of the fact & they searched the house, then took him prisoner & forced a confession from him where the shoes were and took them. They had no respect to private property if it suited them. They received information on Monday morning, that the army of the Potomac had made an attack near Gettysburg. They left speedily. Then some four thousand militia from Harrisburg marched into Carlisle , on Tuesday morning of 6 Ocl in the evening just as they attacked their armies in the public square, the rebel army having planted their cannon in the road near Mr. Calvers, commenced shelling the town. This was then flying artillery after throwing a few shells they sent up a flag of truce to General Smith, to surrender the town, he refused; Judge Graham tried to get them to surrender, they commenced the battle & shelled the town until three Ocl in the morning when they left. They burned the Barracks and Gasshouse. One shell struck Dr. Henson’s house in front but did very little injury. One exploded in Dr. Johnson’s reading room doing very little damage, he was standing just outside in the hall. The family then went to the cellar & spent the night, where most of the town took refuge. It was an awful night.

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This is a letter written by George Davenport Chenoweth, the father of Alexander Cook and George Durbin Chenoweth of the Dickinson Class of 1868, in 1863, the year before the two began their study at the college. It was addressed to a Professor Marshall, presumably a member of the Dickinson faculty.

The document seems primarily intended to inform its recipient of the goings-on in Carlisle at the time.

The letter is fragile, written on delicate paper that is clearly aged, and needs to be protected with a plastic covering. However, the writing is clearly legible, and the entire letter is intact. It is original, or at least highly unlikely to be a copy.

One can glean a lot of information from this item; it is most effective in conveying the events that conspired during the Confederate invasion of Carlisle, from the reaction of the town’s inhabitants, to the behavior and number of soldiers. It also provides an account of the effect the Civil War had on the Dickinson campus itself; men were camped here, and the commencement of 1863 was pushed forward so as to avoid their battle. There is also a brief mention of the battle at Gettysburg.

The letter raises questions of who exactly the sender and recipient were– it appears as though both had very close ties to the college. It would also be worth looking for photographs taken of Carlisle around this time, in order to see the aftermath of the mortars and gunfire, and if there was any significant destruction. Further accounts of the rebel occupation would be interesting as well, in terms of understanding more about the interactions between an army and the citizens of a small Pennsylvania town. There is talk of sympathizers, so the relationship might be more complicated than simple enmity.

Other items of interest would be letters from the Class of 1863 concerning how their graduation was effected, the letters or accounts of the Dickinson faculty in 1863, or any correspondence or diaries from younger people at the time of the war. The Dickinson Archives can be searched for mention of a Professor Marshal or George Davenport Chenoweth.

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Citation

Collections Search

I started my search online at the Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections website. I started with a very general search and entered “class of 1845” into the search bar. However, this mainly just brought up the Dickinson Encyclopedia entries for some of the more notable students of the class. In addition to these entries, the search did find two documents; a letter from Thomas McFadden to his friend Robert Black from December 1843 and the program for the 1845 Commencement ceremony. As it turns out the McFadden Letter was the document given to me by Jim and Melinda so I had already read and studied it.

Since this broad search for the class of 1845 was not turning up anything too specific, I decided to use the search guide online to try to find any other documents relating to the class. I entered the time period I was looking for (1840-1859), chose “Letters” for the format, and hit search. Scrolling through the letters listed the only name I could find from the class of 1845 was Thomas McFadden. Therefore, I decided to broaden my search and selected “Any Format” to see if I could anything else from the class of 1845 besides McFadden’s letter. However, after scrolling through the results and still not finding anything I decided to go to the archives to see if the archivist there could help me find anything.

They told me that since I was unable to find anything of note online I should try the card catalog instead. The card catalog was fairly easy to use, although more often than not I was unable to find anything about the student I was searching for, I did manage to find two documents: a letter Charles Henderson Stinson wrote to his father in 1841; and a letter Isaac Urner wrote to the treasurer in 1845. Using the information on the back of the card the archivist located the Stinson letter fairly easily. The Urner letter, though, did not have any information listed so the archivist showed me where I could find the finding guide for the Treasurer from that period. I looked through the finding guide but was unable to find the letter, so the archivist went to see if Jim had any idea where it would be. After some searching they came back with a folder that contained not only the Urner letter but also letters from Robert Maclay, William Biddle Gordon, and some of the other students. In addition to these two folders, the archivist also brought me the drop file on Thomas McFadden which contained a letter written by his son in 1948 explaining what happened to his father after Dickinson. I was also shown the Dickinson College Catalogs from the years the class of 1845 was at Dickinson.

While most of my searching was done within the Archives I also went onto Google Books to see if I could find Robert Maclay’s 1861 Life Among the Chinese which I mentioned in my last journal. I was able to find the book without much difficulty by simply searching the title.

Document Identification

Out of all the documents I found in the Archives and on Google Books, I thought that the two letters pertaining to Thomas McFadden were the most interesting. In McFadden’s letter to his friend Robert Black from 1843 he describes what college life at Dickinson was like. He relates what made him choose Dickinson; what the girls in Carlisle are like (he refers to them as “Angels” with “Sylph-like forms”); and his relationship with his roommate, among other things. I found the latter to be particularly interesting so I chose to transcribe that section. It reads as follows:

“My ‘Chum’ demands my attention next. I don’t like him much, and don’t think I shall stay with him longer than Christmas vacation. He is very profane and immoral, and scarcely utters a sentence without an oath. That I cannot and will not abide, he will either reform or we will part. And he is rather slovenly in his general habits and though he dresses neatly, yet his room, if I did not take pains in fixing it, would look like a hog pen. He is not at all studious in his habits, but to the contrary, and as that is something ‘catching’, I shan’t stay in the neighborhood.”

Reading through this section (and the letter as a whole) I was struck by how relatable much of what McFadden was saying is. Practically everyone has at one point or another had some problem with their roommate, and ,while they may not be issuing an ultimatum like McFadden, they can empathize with his situation. Many of the other stories he relates to Black are also relatable. McFadden mentions that earlier on in the semester he came down with an illness and was so alarmed that he wrote home to his parents. Being sick for the first time without your mother there to take of you can be a trying experience and again something that many people can emphasize with and relate to. McFadden’s description of the females in Carlisle is also something I’m sure many of the boys on campus today can relate to. I find it amazing that, despite all the transformations our society has experienced in the nearly 173 years since this letter was written, many of the experiences McFadden had during his time at Dickinson are still being had today.

In addition to these more general stories about college life, McFadden also includes details that are specific to Dickinson. One of these stories deals with the Union Philosophical and Belles Lettres literary societies, the two extracurricular clubs on campus during this period. McFadden provides Black with some details about the societies and their history, but the most interesting part of this section is when he explains why he chose Union Philosophical over Belles Lettres. McFadden says he chose UP because everyone in UP had nothing but good things to say about the society while he heard members of Belles Lettres express dissatisfaction with their society. While it’s hard to determine from this letter alone how accurate this statement truly is, it could still be useful for anyone researching the history of the two societies.

 

The letter written by McFadden’s son to the Alumni Secretary in 1948 is also quite interesting because it provides closure to McFadden’s story. After 1843 McFadden disappears from the college catalog and the 1905 has no information listed for him. Since there was no information listed for him I assumed that he did not do anything that interesting or noteworthy after Dickinson and thus did not look into his story in my last journal. However, after reading his son’s letter I realized that my assumption was wrong. The letter is transcribed below in its entirety:

T.Gilbert Mc Fadden

53 W. College Avenue

Westerville, Ohio

March 10, 1948

Alumni Secretary,

Dickinson College,

Carlisle, PA.

RE. Thomas McFadden, member

Of class of 1845 (?)

Dear Sir:

A number of years ago I visited your campus noting the old building in which, probably, my father roomed as a student in the 1842 (?) to 1845 period.

I understand that he did not receive his diploma, because on his return home by stagecoach at Christmas vacation he was severely exposed to weather, particularly water, while coach was crossing a stream. A prolonged siege of illness caused by this, prevented his return in time to graduate. His home was in Rushville, Ohio.

I do not know whether the college has any record of him. Hence I am sending this memo:-

Thomas McFadden, after his unfortunate experience on return home for winter vacation, decided to study medicine. He graduated from University of Maryland in Baltimore with his medical degree in 1848, and began practice in Rushville, Ohio.

In 1855 he moved to Westerville, Ohio, where the college, Otterbein, had been organized a few years before. He was immediately called to important responsibilities on executive committee and was made Otterbein treasurer.

In 1858 he devoted his entire time to college interests, becoming the first “Professor of Natural Science”.

In 1861 he resigned to become the head surgeon of 46th Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He lost his health in the Battle of Shiloh.

The main science building of Otterbein College has been named “McFadden Hall” to honor the memory of the one who established and built up the science work. He died in active service at the college in 1883.

In going over some of the papers of my father’s I noted the enclosed connected with Dickinson College. Rather than destroy them I am sending them to you. They may be of no value, yet I have learned that anything “antique” concerning a college is not to be destroyed.

Very truly yours,

G. McFadden

As shown by this letter Thomas McFadden led a quite distinguished life after Dickinson. Civil War medicine is a fascinating subject, and now that I know that Thomas McFadden was the head surgeon of a regiment during the conflict it may very well be what I choose as the topic of my final project.

In addition to this, the letter also showed me that making assumptions in history can be more of a hindrance than a boon. Just because there may not be any information listed in a reference source doesn’t mean that you won’t find out anything worthwhile after some digging. This is an important lesson, and one I won’t soon forget.

 

Bibliography:

McFadden, Thomas, Letter to Robert Black concerning life at Dickinson, Carlisle, 3 December 1843, I-Friends-1978-4, Friends of the Library, Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.

McFadden, T. Gilbert, Letter to Alumni Secretary concerning father Thomas McFadden, Westerville, 10 March 1948, McFadden Tom class of 1845, DF-Student, Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Liam Donahue

Professor Pinsker

9/23/16

History 204

Charles Himes and William Fisher

 

Collections Search: The archives assignment relating to the class of 1870 provided a good jumping off point for this assignment. The document I was provided with was a letter to none other than William R. Fisher, a graduate of the class of 1870 that I researched for my previous journal. The letter discussed the death of Charles Francis Himes, an apparent acquaintance of Fisher’s. It turns out that Himes had taught at Dickinson for many years, and had been there while Fisher had taught there from 1874-76. The online archives also listed a series of letters from Himes to Fisher during this period. I was interested in knowing more about Fisher, and about his relationship with Charles Himes, so I went to the archives with the call number of the letters, MC 2000.12, Box1, Folder 3.  I was rewarded with a file of seven letters, more than I had expected. Three of them were transcribed. I read all of these letters, successfully transcribing one of them. However, I was unsure of two of the words at the end of the note, so I asked one of the archivists, Malinda Triller Doran, who helped me decipher Himes’ handwriting. The two words are underlined in the transcription. Malinda also helped out by giving me a few tips for transcribing, as well as a field guide to 19th century handwriting.

Document Identification:

This first document is a letter of congratulations to Fisher for being given the post of “Professor of Modern Languages.” This letter is the (apparent) result of a larger crisis that the College was going through at this time.

Transcription:

Carlisle, Pa. July 2nd, 1874

W.R. Fisher, Esq.

Bryn Mawr, PA.

My dear Sir,

I have the honor to inform you that you were elected “Professor of Modern Languages” in Dickinson College, at a meeting of the Board of Trustees held June 26th 1874.

yours truly,

Charles F. Himes, Secty. Of Brd. of Trustees of Dick. Cole.

 

An earlier letter from Himes to Fisher, dated June 5, 1874, and labeled as “Strictly Confidential” shines some light on what was going on at Dickinson in 1874.                                                                   

 

In this letter, Himes speaks of an impending “reorganization of the faculty of the College,” that will be “brought about at the meeting of the Board of Trustees at Commencement[.]” He then goes on to speculate over which positions will be changed, mentioning that he thinks that “the places of Profs. Stayman and Trickett will be otherwise filled.” Trickett, according to  his entry in the Dickinson Archives Online Encyclopedia, was the current modern languages professor. But I knew from previous research that Fisher was a professor of modern languages during his time at Dickinson. Himes refers to the apparent period of transition that the college is going through as a “crisis,” yet concedes that these rearrangements are “perhaps the best thing that can be done,” and hopes that it will mark the start of “a new era” for the College. He goes on to talk about how the two hardest chairs to fill will be “the chair of Math…and next to that of modern languages.” Himes states that he has “mentioned [Fisher’s] name to [College President McCauley] and he has been very favourably impressed with it.”

Himes closes by mentioning how President McCauley “seems very desirous…to control a movement, which he did not originate,..to cause as little violence as possible…& he thinks this may best be accomplished quietly.”

This behind-the scenes drama was taking place during the summer of 1874, the year Fisher started teaching at Dickinson. The above letter of congratulations indicates that Fisher was given the position of professor of modern languages. This document, then, shows us one person’s perspective of what was going on at the college the year Fisher started teaching there, and part of how he came to get the position that he did.

 

However, the drama continued even after Fisher had the position. The next note of Himes’ is dated July 1, 1874.

In this letter, part of which I transcribed, Himes related that “the Board…seemed to be very much in earnest and have reconstructed.” He then stated that apparently “neither [Fisher] nor [Trickett] [were] heedful that [they] were opposing candidates.” Himes also said that Professor Trickett “may feel some gratification in knowing you succeed him.” This may not have been the case, as Himes’ last letter hints.

Dated July 27, 1874, it was one of warning, telling Fisher that since Himes believes Professor Trickett to be “under the influence and in full alliance,” (of what is not specified), it is best “to say just as little upon any of the recent events as possible.” This was because, says Himes, if “any charges are made against you,…you will stand all the better for having said nothing that may appear to have been said in your own defense.” Himes also said that “the prospects of the College…have been much improved by the revolution.” It is likely that the “revolution” referenced here is the reorganization of the faculty. This kind of behind the scenes maneuvering is interesting to say the least. How common was it at Dickinson during this time? What about other colleges? Does it still go on today, here or elsewhere? Another avenue of inquiry could be why this restructuring was taking place at all. Did it have to do with the recent civil war? Were the faculty not getting along? Perhaps there are more documents in the archives that can answer these questions.

Further research shed a lot of light onto what was going on at the college during this time. Charles Coleman Sellers’ Dickinson College: A History notes in chapter 11 (entitled “McCauley”) that both McCauley and Himes were motivated by “the need for a faculty of recognized eminence”(Sellers 264). He also says that their planning was carried out “with the secrecy of a coup d’etat”(264). This is evident in the way Himes labelled his letter to Fisher as being “strictly confidential,” yet Selllers tells us that “Fisher had…shown Trickett the ultra-confidential letter”(267). Now Trickett knew what was going on. To further complicate matters, as the July 2nd letter to Fisher shows, it was Fisher himself who got Trickett’s old chair. As to why Trickett was getting the axe in the first place, Sellers reports that during 1873, several of Trickett’s students from the lower three classes had refused to “‘recite in Prof. Trickett’s recitation room'”(266).Clearly, Trickett did not endear himself to the students. Sellers speculates that it was his “standards of promptness and perormance”(266) that the students took issue with.

Curious about further archival sources related to all this, I looked again to the archives. On the archives website,  I found an article in the Dickinsonian from October 1874, and went to the archives to see if I could find a hard copy, for the better quality.

I was successful. In an old, badly bound book in the archives I hit pay dirt, finding mention of the crisis in four consecutive Dickinsonian editions from October 1874 to January 1875. This article from the October 1874 Dickinsonian related the news that Professor Trickett was filing a lawsuit against Fisher, “to show by what right [Fisher] occupies his current position.” (As newly appointed Professor of Modern Languages). It lists the claims made by “the realtor,” Professor Trickett, as being that he “was ejected without due notice or being able to defend himself.”

I tracked this lawsuit through three more editions of the Dickinsonian, all found in the archives. The next mention of it was in the November 1874 edition.

This article explains that the case was decided in favor of “the realtor,” Professor Trickett, and that “when the respondent [Fisher] was elected by the trustees, there was…no vacancy.” Things were looking up for Trickett.

In the December edition of the paper, it is reported that the “writ of ouster obtained against Fisher by Trickett will remain unexecuted until Dec. 15,” and that the Board of Trustees would soon be “consider[ing] this complicated affair.” The article goes on to say that they hope that the actions of the Board of Trustees “will subserve the procuring of justice and the removal of tedious difficulties.”

The final mention of the Trickett/Fisher debacle is in the January 1875 edition of The Dickinsonian. It reads with a sense of finality and retrospection.

The author relates that “many bitter words have been uttered against what transpired in June,” declaring finally that “[n]one are more anxious to have peace and harmony reign in college than the students.” Here it is important to note that the authors of each particular article are not listed. According to Sellers, President McCauley’s administration started the Dickinsonian in 1872, and “at the outset the[y]…contain a large infusion of faculty and alumni  productions(271). Knowing the perspective that these articles are being written from could tell us more about how people actually felt about this issue. For instance, was the above sentence written by a student who felt he was speaking for the student body at large? Or was it written by an alumnus, an outsider writing about his observations?

The next article in the January edition describes the trial, and that”there might be a settlement of the difficulty,” which resulted, finally, in the resignation of Trickett and the other two professors. Here, mention of the Fisher/Trickett case ends. The crisis had finally been resolved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sources

http://archives.dickinson.edu/people/charles-francis-himes-1838-1918

http://archives.dickinson.edu/people/william-righter-fisher-1849-1932 

http://archives.dickinson.edu/people/william-trickett-1840-1928

 

Himes, Charles Francis to Fisher, William Righter, June 5th 1874. MC 2000.12 B1, F3, Letter From Charles Himes to William Fisher, Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections, Carlisle, PA

Himes, Charles Francis to Fisher, William Righter, July 1st 1874. MC 2000.12 B1, F3, Letter From Charles Himes to William Fisher, Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections, Carlisle, PA

Himes, Charles Francis to Fisher, William Righter, July 2nd 1874. MC 2000.12 B1, F3, Letter From Charles Himes to William Fisher, Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections, Carlisle, PA

Himes, Charles Francis to Fisher, William Righter, July 27th 1874. MC 2000.12 B1, F3, Letter From Charles Himes to William Fisher, Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections, Carlisle, PA

Sellers, Coleman Charles, Dickinson College, A History. Dickinson College, Carlisle PA, 1973. Print.

 Dickinsonian, 6 October, 1874

Dickinsonian, 3 November, 1874

Dickonsonian, 5 December, 1874

Dickinsonian, 5 January, 1875

 

An overview of Dickinson Class of 1868:

• 30 students total
• 13 graduates, 17 non-graduates

• 24/30 were involved in campus societies or greek life
• 19 in fraternities
• 13 in Belles Lettres Society
• 8 in Union Philosophical Society

Place of Origin:

• Maryland: 11
• Pennsylvania: 6
• Delaware: 3
• Washington D.C.: 2
• New Jersey: 1

• England: 1

Despite the relatively small size of the class, there was a wide range of careers listed in the Alumni Record, making categorization difficult. I tried to organize them under broad areas, e.g. Education, Medicine, Law, Politics, Religion, etc. But again, because of the wide variety, this method wasn’t practical:

• 5 educators
• 6 physicians (5 of whom were non-graduates)
• 4 lawyers
• 4 clergymen
• 5 with military affiliations
• 2 politicians
• 2 engineers
• 2 merchants/manufacturers
• 2 journalists
• 2 railroad officials

8 students were listed as having more than one occupation in the Dickinson Alumni Record of 1905, so there is some overlap in the above list. There were also 5 student entries without any information.

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Other Reference:

There were two graduates I was first interested in researching further: Alexander Crawford Chenoweth and John Franklin Goucher. These two had some of the longest descriptions in the Alumni Record, and had interesting international connections. However, after finishing my data overview, I was struck by the number of non-graduates who went on to become physicians. These were Benjamin Reid Davidson, James Edward Gibbons, Albertus A. Miller, John Cook Rives, and Charles Richey Winterson.

I ran Davidson, Gibbons, Miller, Rives, and Winterson through Wikipedia, American National Biography Online, and the Dickinson Encyclopedia, on the off chance that they might appear there, despite being relatively unknown/unaccomplished. There was a Wikipedia hit for a James Gibbons, but he was a cardinal and the archbishop of Baltimore. When I moved on to look for county histories and records of physicians in each of their respective townships in the 19th century, I encountered a number of biographies on His Eminence, but no reference sources on any of the Dickinson non-graduates.

There are no reference sources on them through Google Books, either. A search of their respective county histories yielded nothing. I did find a History of Montgomery County, PA, birthplace of James Gibbons, that was published in 1884, but the James Gibbons listed therein served as part of the 103rd Pennsylvania Regiment, a group of volunteer soldiers that was active starting in 1862. He was mustered on October 12, 1864, when James Gibbons of the Class of 1868 entered Dickinson.

Though I was unable to find any information on Gibbons, this particular county history is a good example of a source that could be seen as blurring the lines between the primary and reference genres. I considered it a reference because it is one in the sense that it’s offering a very compact record of the happenings in a certain area over a century. In the words of its author,

The ‘History of Montgomery County’ is presented to the public as a memorial of the first century of its corporate existence. Material facts have been diligently sought after and patient labor cheerfully bestowed upon the work. Events are chronicled in narrative rather than in controversial form, and truth, gleaned from a thousand sources, has been condensed in order to make it a valuable work of reference for the present and future generations.

The History, though it serves as a sort of encyclopedia, also dates to a time when 4 of the 5 physicians I was looking for were still alive. However, I think it is distant enough from the early careers of these men–almost 20 years removed–to disqualify it as an excellent primary source.

In closing this miniature historical inquiry, I would stress that my systematic research on Benjamin Reid Davidson, James Edward Gibbons, Albertus A. Miller, John Cook Rives, and Charles Richey Winterson was both rather rudimentary and extremely time consuming. It took approximately 6 hours just to find that there was no information to be found in any of the more popular channels, like the databases listed by Professor Pinsker, nor in a search for county histories. In the interest of time, and due to my own frustration with the dead ends, I elected to put my research on hold in favor of looking at more promising figures from the class. I may return to the physicians in the future, with a more efficient method.

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Ancestry.com: John Franklin Goucher

I began my study of Goucher through Ancestry.com, primarily with the census records available there, but also through Immigration and Travel Records– Passport applications and the like, because I knew from the Dickinson Alumni reference source that he often travelled internationally.

The earliest census in which Goucher appears is the year 1850, when he was 5:

At the time, he was living with his mother, father, and 3 older siblings. John Goucher, the head of the family, was a physician, and three years older than his wife, Eleanor (spelled “Elenor” by the census-taker).

After this, John F. Goucher disappears from census records until 1900, according to Ancestry.com. Even allowing for name misspellings, no families with a close number of members and similar names appear in Pennsylvania, or elsewhere in the U.S. He would have been around 15 at the time of the next census, in 1860. His family stayed in the Pittsburgh area, because that’s where he is listed as going to high school in the Alumni source.

Goucher entered Dickinson in 1864, earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1868, a Master of Arts in 1872, a Doctor of Divinity in 1885, and Doctor of Law in 1899. If he was in school during all the years when the census was taken up until 1900, that would be the most probable cause for his absence from the records. More research would have to be done into the standard living situation of a graduate student in the latter half of the 19th century– dorms might not have counted as households.

It’s also entirely possible that Goucher was traveling abroad in Japan during a couple of the censuses.

Regardless, in 1900 Goucher resurfaces on the United States Federal Census, this time with a wife and three daughters, as well as a boarder named Mary McCauley, and a black servant, recorded as Nellie Kemp.

A 20 minute search in ancestry.com showed that Nellie Kemp doesn’t appear in any other census records. From this one, I know her family was from Virginia, and she was 20 in 1900.

Mary McCauley, on the other hand, was a 47 year-old widowed woman. She had one child, who was no longer alive in 1900. There is information on multiple Mary McCauleys, or variations of that name, available on ancestry, though many of these appear to be from Germany, not Maryland.

I would like to return to these two women in the future, perhaps in another post.

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Sources:

American National Biography Online

Wikipedia

Dickinson College Archives

Ancestry.com

Dickinson Alumni Record

pacivilwar.com

 

The Dickinson Class of 1852 contains many different men from a vast varieties of backgrounds. The class contained 21 graduates with 34 non-graduates. The 21 graduates were all very active in extracurricular activities. Out of all 21 men who graduated only three of them were not in either the Belles Lettres Society, Union Philosophical Society or Zeta Psi Fraternity. It would definitely be interesting to research more into these clubs to figure out what exactly appealed to the 18 members of their class. Some of the students were part of both a society and Zeta Psi. Also, 23 members of the non-graduating members of the class were involved in one of these three clubs. The jobs that the graduates of the class of 1852 can be split into seven basic categories.  Four students pursed jobs in law, five in medicine, six in the clergy, three teaching, two in the Army, one in politics and one as a manufacturer of fruit jars. Although the occupations of half of the non-graduates are unknown, the other 17 students pursued similar lives to the students; four became teachers, three became politicians, three joined the Army, three became farmers and one became a merchant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Combining both the graduates of 1852 and non-graduates there are eight states represented, as shown of the graph the states are, from largest too smallest, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, New York, West Virginia, Missouri and New Jersey.

One subject that is always interesting to explore during the mid-1800’s is the American Civil War and the time period leading up to it.  Dickinson College’s Class of 1852 had a total of five graduating and non-graduating members serve in the army, for both the United States of America and the Confederate States of America. The Dickinson Encyclopedia and the House Divided Project help provide more information about these five soldiers, graduates Ulysses Hobbs and John McCarthy and non-graduates Charles Albright, George Freaner and James H. Jarrett. Although there is not a lot of information on some of these men, both Charles Albright and James H. Jarrett are written about.

Charles Albright was born in Berks county, Pennsylvania. Albright left Dickinson in 1851 to pursue a career in law. He soon after became interested in the settlement of Kansas, particularly with a group called the Western Pennsylvania Kansas company “which intended to settle Kansas with men and families of solid anti-slavery and pro-temperance convictions” (Dickinson College Archives). Along with actively trying to stop the spread of slavery Albright also has a key role in President Lincoln’s rise to nomination. He was a delegate on the Republican National Convention, “that nominated Abraham Lincoln” (Dickinson College Archives). By time of the Civil War Albright was ready to fight for the values he had been spreading in Kansas as well for the man that he helped become president. Throughout the war Albright served in the 132nd Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, the 34th Pennsylvania Militia, and the 202nd Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. He was at the decisive Battle of Chancellorsville, where he “served for a time in command of a brigade” (Dickinson College Archives). After the war Albright worked at the Second Bank of Mauch Chunk. In 1872, Albright was elected to congress for term.

Although James H. Jarrett did not serve any time for the United States Congress his story is still extremely interesting. After leaving Dickinson College in 1850 he studied at the University of Maryland Medical School. When the Civil War broke out Jarrett had the intention of joining the Union Army. However, he recivded much slack from his parents and community. In fact “his younger brother, who was also a physician served with the Confederate First Maryland Calvary” (House Divided). However, he persisted and  joined the Union cause anyway. Throughout the war he served as a surgeon for “the Third of the  First Army of the Potomac”  (House Divided). After the war he returned to Maryland and opened a surgical practice.

Ancestry.com has many amazing tools, including census records dating back to the 1600’s, used to find information about people while using relatively little information to search for them. These census records provide information about not just where the people live but also who they are living with, occasionally their relationship with the people they are living with, but also general information about their life such as age, ability to read and write, native tongue. This information can be very useful when trying to tracking people throughout their lives, as is the case here when following the life of Ralph Pierce, graduate of Dickinson Class of 1852. The basic search bars in Ancestry.com include full name, the place where the person may have lived and the year that they were born. Before starting the search, you can choose how vague or exact you want the search to be. This is particularly helpful when there is incomplete knowledge about a person. The place of origin can also be as broad as a state in the United States, if it is unclear exactly where the person resided.

There were four relevant census records for Ralph Pierce  on ancestry.com, from 1850, 1870, 1880, and 1910. Pierce was 24 at the time of the 1850 census record. Although it states that his home is in Middleburg, New York, Pierce was still in school at Dickinson at the time. When not at school Pierce was living with William and Maria Oliver, who were not his parents. The second census record is 20 years later and at this time Ralph Pierce is living in Jefferson, Tennessee. At this time, he is the home owner of for this family. Although it appears that the four children living with him are his own, there is no confirmation of that on Ancestry.com. Ten years later Pierce is still living in Jefferson, Tennessee, but he is now living with six people who were not present in the last census records. There are multiple possible explanations for this information. During this time, recording accurate data was much more difficult than it is now. One census record could have recorded the first names of these people while the second one used accidentally used their middle names. It is also possible that the children Pierce was living with grew up and moved out of the house. The census record of 1880 clearly states that Pierce is married at this time and that these are his children. The final census record that Ralph Pierce appears in is in 1910 which, according to the census, makes him 87 years old. This however, contradicts previous census records in which he was 24, 43, and 53. Upon further investigation, using the Find a Grave Index on ancestry.com, a link was found to the description of his grave site. It shows that he died in 1908. This site also shows that his son lives with him in both the 1870 and 1880 census, once as Charles and once as Herbert. Following the life of Ralph Pierce has shown how much help ancestry.com can be when trying to track one person throughout their life.  This research also brings to light how all information gathered should be varied by more than one source.

Shown below are the four census record for Ralph Pierce. The highlighted yellow columns are Ralph Pierce.

 

1850 Census

 

 

 

 

 

1870 Census

 

 

 

 

 

1880 Census

 

 

 

 

1910  Census

 

 

 

 

Works cited:

“Albright, Charles,” Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections,  http://archives.dickinson.edu/people/charles-albright-1830-1880

“Albright, Charles,” House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/4962.

“Jarrett, James Henry,” House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/5975.

“Rev Ralph Pierce,” Find A Grave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=144748538

 

 

 

Data Analysis- Dickinson College Class of 1862

A significant amount of data regarding the class of 1862 can be collected by using the 1905 Dickinson College alumni Directory.  I started to organize the data by creating excel spreadsheets, which I have included photos of.  I learned some important information about the class of 1862 by reading and analyzing the alumni record.

• There were 13 graduates in the class of 1962 compared to 44 non-graduates. That is a graduation rate of approximately 22.8%.
• Out of all 57 graduating and non-graduating members of the class of 1862:
  • 6 were from Virginia
  • 26 were from Pennsylvania
  • 2 were from Kentucky
  • 2 were from North Carolina
  • 13 were from
    

    A graphic representation of the geographical demographics of the class of 1862.

    Maryland

  • 1 was from Washington, D.C.
  • 1 was from New Jersey
  • 1 was from Indiana
  • 1 was from Mississippi
  • 1 was from West Virginia
  • 3 were from an unknown location

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Nearly every member of the class of 1862 was a member of either the Union Philosophical Society or the Belles Lettres Literary society. A large number of students were also members of fraternities. Popular greek organizations include: Phi Kappa Sigma, Phi Kappa Psi, and Sigma Chi. Many students went on to fight in the Civil War. Other popular professions included law, medicine, and religion. Of the 13 graduating members of the class of 1862, 3 members became physicians, 4 members became lawyers, and 2 members became clergymen.

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Reference Work

I started my work with reference sources by searching every graduating member of the class of 1862 using the American National Biography Online. Not a single graduating member brought up any results. I tried not to get discouraged so I turned to the Dickinson College Encyclopedia. I searched all of the graduating members of the class of 1862. This time I was able to find a search result for one member, Martin Christian Herman.

Martin Christian Herman

Martin Christian Herman was born on February 14th, 1841 in New Kingston, Pennsylvania. During his time at Dickinson College he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and the Belles Lettres literary society. After graduating Dickinson College in 1862, Herman took up the practice of law and opened his own law practice in Carlisle. Herman was so successful in his law career that he became the president judge of the Ninth Judicial District of Pennsylvania. Martin Christian Herman was also a trustee of Dickinson College from 1877 to 1878.

I found this information from the Dickinson College Encyclopedia regarding Herman very interesting, but I wished to know more, especially about his term as a judge. However, my search to find more information on Martin Christian Herman was a frustrating one.  I hit many dead ends and could not find any further information. Perhaps the most infuriating moment when researching Herman was when I found a promising bench guide for Cumberland County, only to find that the guide was not fully accessible on the internet.

I began to hit a wall with the other graduating members of the class of 1862. I decided to research some of the non-graduating members of the class that I thought had the potential to lead to something fruitful.

 

Benjamin Peffer Lamberton 

Benjamin P. Lamberton was born on February 25th, 1844 in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. He is a non-graduating member of Dickinson College class of 1862. During his time at Dickinson, Lamberton was a member of the Belles Lettres literary society.

 

Lamberton left Dickinson College and transferred to the Naval academy in order to pursue a career in the U.S. Navy. He graduated in  1864 and served on the U.S.S America during the Civil War.  Lamberton’s naval career was extensive and he served aboard many ships. He rose through the ranks in the navy and held a variety of positions, including the inspector of the lighthouse board in South Carolina. Lamberton was appointed as Commodore Dewey’s chief of staff, leading Lamberton to serve on the U.S.S Olympia in the battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish American War.

According to the Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars,  Lamberton left ship the day after the battle of Manila Bay and demanded the unconditional surrender of the Spanish. Lamberton’s demand was met and the Spanish surrendered. Lamberton’s naval career progressed all the way to him achieving the position of rear admiral. In Lamberton’s down time, he enjoyed duck hunting and fishing with President Grover Cleveland. Following Lamberton’s death in 1912, a destroyer was named in his honor.

My research with Benjamin Lamberton was definitely the easiest out of all of the members of the class of 1862. I was able to find an extensive Dickinson College Encyclopedia article about him. He was also the only member of the class of 1862 (to my knowledge) that has his own Wikipedia article. The most helpful reference source I used was the Encyclopedia of the Spanish- American Philippine American wars, which I found using google books.

Clay McCauley (MacCauley)

Clay McCauley was born on May 8th, 1843 in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. McCauley was a non-graduating member of Dickinson College class of 1862. During his time at Dickinson College, he was a member of Phi Kappa Sigma and Union Philosophical Society.

McCauley left Dickinson College and became a second lieutenant in the Union Army. At the battle of Chancellorsville, McCauley was taken prisoner by the confederates and was held at Libby prison for a short period of time. After his release,  McCauley finished his college education at Princeton University. McCauley then entered the MacCormick Theological Seminary. However, McCauley was not ordained as a Presbyterian pastor because he held controversial views on the atonement. McCauley then turned to Unitarianism, serving as a minister at various Unitarian churches across the country.

McCauley was a highly educated man. He continued to pursue his intellectual curiosities by studying philosophy and theology in Germany. McCauley was also a man of many talents and tried his hand at anthropological research, newspaper editing, and traveling. McCauley went on a mission to Japan in 1886 with the American Unitarian Association in order to do educational work and promote progressive religions like Unitarianism. McCauley was a prolific author who wrote books on Japan, religion, Germany, and Native Americans. McCauley was well known and respected in Japan. He was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun and the Order of the Sacred Treasure by the Japanese emperor.

The first source regarding Clay McCauley that I found was  the civil war research engine at Dickinson College,  House Divided. The entry on McCauley was a brief but helpful overview on his life. It also included many useful images of McCauley.

After this, I tried to search McCauley on American National Biography Online but I had no luck. I thought that I would be unable to find more information on McCauley until I stumbled upon a finding aid created by the Online Archive of California. The finding aid had brief facts and descriptions on McCauley. The most important thing that I learned was that in some sources, Clay McCauley is referred to as Clay MacCauley. This little spelling change proved to make a big difference. I then searched Clay MacCauley instead of Clay McCauley on google. A lot of sources I would not have been able to find came up. The most useful reference I found was an entry on Clay MacCauley in the American National Biography Online, a database I had previously searched and found nothing in. I also found a lot of non-reference sources about MacCauley (or McCauley) that I hope to use in later stages of this project.

I also found an interesting wordpress webpage regarding McCauley. I did not use any of the information from this page in this journal, because it is not a reference source and I am not entirely sure that it is a reliable source. However, It included a research paper about Clay McCauley from a student named Dianna Coscette from a previous historical methodologies class. Her paper included a bibliography, which is what I took interest in. I think this will prove helpful in further research.

The most important thing I learned in regard to research from Clay McCauley is that a name is not always reliable. Sometimes names are spelt wrong or changed, which can make research difficult. It is important to realize that there might be vital information regarding the person you are researching under a different name. Always be on the lookout for potential misspellings and pseudonyms because it could make or break your research.

Ancestry.com Assignment

For the Ancestry.com portion of this assignment, I decided to focus on Clay McCauley because he was the member of the class of 1862 that I found to be the most compelling.

The first bit of information I found regarding Clay McCauley was the 1860 United States Federal Census. According to the census record, 17 year old Clay McCauley was living in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania with his father, Isaac H. McCauley. I believe that Ancestry.com transcribed his name incorrectly, making it J.H. McCauley instead of I.H. McCauley. The older woman in the household confuses me. I figured it would be Clay McCauley’s mother, but it looks like her name is listed as Mary McCauley instead of Elizabeth Maxwell. According to ancestry, McCauley does have a sister named Margaretta but she would not be 42 in 1860. The age of 42 lines up with the age of Elizabeth Maxwell, so I wonder if there was a mistake made by the census taker. There is also a 21 year old “domestic” named Anna Yost living in the McCauley household at this time.

The next document I looked at on ancestry was the 1870 census. According to this census, Clay McCauley was living in Waltham, Massachusetts with the Blood family. I know at this time he was serving at a parish in Waltham. This census record contains what I believe to be a mistake. It lists a “Hannah McCauley” but I believe that is meant to be Clay McCauley’s wife, Annie.

The next and final census record that I looked at was the census of 1880. Clay McCauley was living in Washington D.C. with his wife, who is again referred to by a wrong name. This time they listed her as Anna instead of Annie. The McCauley family seem to be lodging in a house owned by someone named Sarah B. Berry. Berry’s occupation is listed as “keeping house”. I gather this to mean that Berry rented out parts of her house to lodgers like McCauley and his wife. I know from my previous research on McCauley that in 1880 he was working at the financially troubled First Unitarian Church.

 Perhaps these financial problems is why McCauley lived in a shared house.

 Since I experienced issues with the spelling of McCauley’s name, I decided to search the alternate spelling “MacCauley” on the Ancestry.com database. I found a good amount of information, but not as much as I found under the spelling “McCauley”. This makes a convincing argument that McCauley is the correct spelling. However, ancestry.com provided some evidence for MacCauley. On ancestry.com, I found a picture of Clay McCauley’s (or MacCauley) grave. On his tombstone, his name is spelt like MacCauley. I will always remember to search both McCauley and MacCauley when doing my research, or else I will miss out on some important information.

Overall, I had a positive experience using ancestry.com. I would encourage others to use it in their research but it is important to realize that there can be mistakes in census taking and the spelling of ones names.