Joseph E. Broadwater was born in Accomac County, Virginia to David and Mary Ann White Broadwater on April 29, 1837.  He prepared for college at academies in Drummondville, Virginia and Bel-Air, Maryland before entering Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1854.  Broadwater was elected to the Belles Lettres Society and graduated with his class in July 1858.  He then studied medicine at the University of Maryland and was awarded the M.D. there in 1860.

Joshua A. Lippincott was born in Burlington County, New Jersey on January 31, 1835 to Crispin and Elizabeth Garwood Lippincott.  He prepared for college at the Pennington Seminary and enrolled at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1855, along with his older half-brother, Benjamin Crispin Lippincott.  While at the college, Joshua Lippincott was elected to the Belles Lettres Society.  He graduated with his class and his brother in the early summer of 1858.

Benjamin Lippincott was born the elder son of Crispin Lippincott and his first wife, Mary Ann Wilkins Lippincott, in Haddonfield, New Jersey on July 22, 1827.  He prepared for college at the nearby Methodist-affiliated Pennington School. In 1855, he entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania along with his half-brother Joshua Allan Lippincott.  Benjamin was elected as a member of the Belles Lettres Society and graduated with his class in 1858.  He then studied to become a Methodist clergyman.