Samuel M. McPherson was born on October 11, 1837 at Lewisburg, Virginia, now West Virginia, to state legislator and Virginia militia officer Colonel Joel McPherson and his wife Amanda McClung McPherson. He was the fourth child of eight. McPherson entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, was elected to the Union Philosophical Society there, and graduated with his class in the early summer of 1858.

Born in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, John Richardson came to Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania as a freshman in the fall of 1854 as a member of the class of 1858. Although he only remained at the College for one academic year, he became a member of the Belles Lettres Literary Society.

Richardson enlisted in the Confederate States Army and was killed sometime during 1863.

Joseph P. Wright was born in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania on December 25, 1836. He entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he was elected to the Union Philosophical Society and graduated with the class of 1858 in July of that year. Wright then moved on to study medicine at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.

William Emory Fisk Deal was born on March 8, 1840 in Calvert County, Maryland to William Grove and Janetta Suttan Deal. He prepared for his undergraduate years at the West River Classical School and entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1855 with the class of 1859. He was a member of the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity and was elected as a member of the Belles Lettres Society.

James Sterrett Woods was born on April 18, 1793 in Dickinson Township near Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the son of Samuel and Francis Sterrett Woods. He was prepared for college at the Hopewell Academy of John Hooper and entered the local Dickinson College with the class of 1814. Upon graduation with his class, he enrolled at the Princeton Theological Seminary and, in 1817 and 1818, he was licensed to preach, first in New Brunswick, New Jersey and then with the Huntingdon Presbytery in central Pennsylvania.

William McFunn Penrose, the eldest son of Charles Bingham and Valeria Fullerton Biddle Penrose, was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on March 29, 1825; Richard Alexander Fullerton Penrose was his younger brother. Their father was a well-known lawyer in the town. In 1840, William entered the local Dickinson College with the class of 1844. He won election to the Belles Lettres Society and graduated with his class. He then studied law, was admitted to the Carlisle bar in 1844, and immediately began a practice in Cumberland County.

David F. Woods was born in Dickinson Township, Pennsylvania on September 16, 1837, the son of Richard and Mary Jane Sterrett Woods. He was educated in local schools but prepared for higher education in an academy connected with his uncle, the Reverend David Sterrett Woods, in present day Juniata County. He entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, near his birthplace, in 1856 as a sophomore with the class of 1859. He graduated with his class and, for a time, went to Huntington, Pennsylvania to work in the banking house of Bell, Garretson, and Company.

BELFORD, James Burns, (cousin of Joseph McCrum Belford), a Representative from Colorado; born in Lewistown, Mifflin County, Pa., September 28, 1837; attended the common schools and Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa.; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1859; moved to California, Moniteau County, Mo., and commenced practice; moved to La Porte, La Porte County, Ind., in 1860; member of the State house of representatives in 1867; appointed an associate justice of the supreme court of Colorado in 1870 and moved to Central City; moved to Denver in 1883; upon the admission of

James Burns Belford was born in Lewistown, Pennsylvania on September 28, 1837, the son of Samuel and Eliza Belford. He was a cousin of Joseph McCrum Belford, class of 1871, who served a congressman from New York State. He prepared at Lewistown High School and entered Dickinson College in 1855. He retired from his class in 1857 though not before he had been elected to the Belles Lettres Society. He went on immediately to study law and was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1859.