The need for a dormitory to house Dickinson School of Law students was recognized as early as 1898, twenty years before the Law School moved from its original home in Emory Hall, located at the corner of South West and West Pomfret Streets, into its current home in Trickett Hall on South College Street in Carlisle.
The following is a reminiscence of the World War I military experiences of my grandfather, Ralph Ray Watts. His memory of those experiences was recorded by my grandmother, Laura Mae Wakefield Watts. I suspect some of the "editorial" comments were added by my grandmother. Her handwritten summary was later transcribed by a cousin, Cindy Pricker.
One of the Hamilton Library's oldest 18th century manuscripts provides a unique glimpse into what life was like for Pennsylvania's soldiers serving in America's French and Indian War, the 250th anniversary of which is now being commemorated.
Two hundred and fifty years ago Cumberland County was the focus of one of the three battles in 1758 that would change the outcome of the French and Indian War in North America. Carlisle, the new seat of Cumberland County, was the launching point for the third military expedition to attempt to take Fort Duquesne from the French and open up the Ohio country to English traders. General John Forbes would lead this campaign and succeed where others had failed.
In 1754 and 1755, Great Britain suffered two humiliating defeats in North America at the hands of the French. First, Colonel George Washington faced the French at a hastily built fortification in western Pennsylvania named Fort Necessity. After a short skirmish, Washington conceded defeat and surrendered his predominantly provincial command to the combined French and Indian force opposing him.
WHITE MAN'S CLUB: Schools, Race, and the Struggle of Indian Acculturation, by Jacqueline Fear-Segal (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007), 422 pp., $55.00 hb.
Winters in New England are lengthy and bitter, and the college-age students at the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) Training School (Springfield College today) in Springfield, Massachusetts in the early 1890s could become somewhat boisterous when weather conditions prohibited their going outside to participate in sports.
James Hamilton, Jr. (1793 - 1873), was born in and was a lifelong resident of Carlisle. His father was a wealthy attorney and James followed in his footsteps after graduating from Dickinson College. Beyond law, James was also interested in education, science, and history, and became an active philanthropist in support of those interests.
There is a rugged knot of mountains where Cumberland, Franklin, and Perry Counties come together, crossed now by roads with odd names such as "Cow Pen Road" or "Three Square Hollow Road". It is lovely in the Fall with the foliage in bright color and again in the late spring when the mountain laurel froths in sunlit openings.
When John Bratton, editor of the American Volunteer newspaper, paid a visit to the village of Churchtown in April 1875, and then wrote about it in his newspaper, little did he know he would rile up the editor of a competing newspaper and send him off on his own trip to Churchtown.