Dickinson College - History

History

The Carlisle Grammar School was founded in 1773 as a frontier Latin school for the young men in western Pennsylvania. Within years Carlisle's elite, especially James Wilson and John Montgomery, were pushing for an expansion of the school into a college. In 1782 Benjamin Rush, a revolutionary leader and the preeminent physician in the new nation, met in Philadelphia with Montgomery on the porch of prominent businessman and politician William Bingham to discuss the founding of a frontier college in the town. It was in this conversation that the idea for the college was formed, and "Bingham's Porch" was long a rallying cry at Dickinson.

Dickinson College was chartered by the Pennsylvania legislature on September 9, 1783, six days after the signing of the Treaty of Paris (1783) ending the American Revolution, making it the first college founded in the newly recognized nation. Rush intended to name the institution after the President of Pennsylvania John Dickinson and his wife, originally calling it "John and Mary's College." The name Dickinson College was chosen instead. At the time of its founding its location west of the Susquehanna River made it the westernmost college in America. For the first meeting of the trustees, held in April 1784, Rush made his first journey to Carlisle. The trustees selected Dr. Charles Nisbet D.D. a Scottish minister and scholar, to serve as the College's first president. He arrived and began to serve on July 4, 1785 and served faithfully until his unexpected death in 1804.

A combination of financial troubles and faculty dissension led to a college closing from 1816-1821. In 1832, when the trustees were unable to resolve a faculty curriculum dispute, they ordered Dickinson's temporary closure a second time.

The law school dates back to 1833, and became a separate school within Dickinson in 1890. The Law School separated from Dickinson in 1919. It is now affiliated with Penn State.

Among the 18th century graduates of Dickinson were two U.S. Supreme Court justices, Robert Cooper Grier and Roger Brooke Taney, who served together on the Court for 18 years.

During the 19th century two famous Dickinson College alumni were important participants in issues which led to the Civil War. These were James Buchanan, the 15th President of the United States, and Roger Brooke Taney, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. It was under Taney's leadership that the Supreme Court issued the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision, which held that Congress could not prohibit slavery in federal territories. Buchanan threw the full prestige of his administration behind congressional approval of the Lecompton Constitution in Kansas. In 1863, Confederate forces twice occupied Carlisle and the Dickinson campus.

When George Metzger, class of 1798, died in 1879 he left his land and $25,000 to the town of Carlisle for the purpose of opening a college for women. In 1881, the Metzger Institute, a College for Young Ladies, opened. The college existed separately until 1913, when its building was leased to Dickinson College for the education of women, and the building served as a women's dorm until 1963.