Gamaliel Lyman Dwight (1841-1875) was educated in Providence, Rhode Island, and attended Brown University. As a freshman at Brown University, he joined the Rhode Island First Regiment for the Union Army in the Civil War (1861-1865). Dwight served as a private, corporal, sergeant, lieutenant and captain. He left the military with honor on July 17 1864. After the war, he completed his studies at Brown University and studied medicine at Harvard Medical School and in Berlin, Germany.He married Anne Ives Carrington in 1871 and had a daughter that same year. Due to health issues Dwight was unable to practice medicine and died in the Bahamas on January 19, 1875.

Sarah Helen Power Whitman (1803-1878) was a published poet, transcendentalist, with interests in science, mesmerism, and the occult. Sarah was born to Nicholas Power and Anna Marsh in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1828, she married the poet and writer John Winslow Whitman. Sarah published poetry using the name "Helen" in the Boston Spectator and Ladies' Album of which her husband John was co-editor. After John's death, Sarah exchanged letters and poems with Edgar Allen Poe. They were briefly engaged but never married. After Poe's death, Sarah continued to write including a collection entitled "Hours of Life, and Other Poems" was published in 1853. Sarah Helen Power Whitman died on June 27, 1878.