34 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 



of the town from east to west. There were fifteen public 

 schools with some eight hundred scholars. Dickinson 

 College was granted a charter in 1783, and named after 

 John Dickinson, President of the Supreme Executive 

 Council of Pennsylvania, who was among those who 

 contributed liberally toward its establishment. It was 

 organized in the following year under the presidency of 

 the Rev. Dr. Charles Nisbet of Montrose, Scotland, and 

 a faculty of three professors. After various experiences 

 of success and defeat the college was transferred in 1833 

 to the control and direction of the Baltimore, Philadelphia, 

 and New Jersey conferences of the Methodist Episcopal 

 Church. Under these new auspices the college took a 

 fresh start, and a preparatory, or Grammar School, was 

 established. 



This school, attended by the young Bairds, was situ- 

 ated on the west side of the town separated from the 

 college building by High Street. In 1840 the name had 

 been changed to the "Dickinson Institute," and was 

 attended by sixty pupils, while the number of students 

 in the college had risen to one hundred and eighteen. 



A log cabin church had been built by the Presbyterians 

 of the county, about 1740, of which no vestige except 

 the burying ground remains. By 1834 there were two 

 congregations of this denomination, one each of the so- 

 called ''Old" and "New Lights." 



As an evidence of the tolerant spirit of Mr. Samuel 

 Baird it may be noted that, while very constant in his 

 attendance at service, usually twice on Sunday, Pro- 

 fessor Baird's early journal shows that he frequented 

 both churches though apparently attending most often 

 at the Second Church. Sometimes he visited the Epis- 

 copal or the Lutheran, and on at least one occasion the 



