The Storied History of Dartmouth College

By Aziz G. Sayigh and Boris V. Vabson | Sunday, October 1, 2006

Dartmouth represents the ninth oldest of America’s Colonial Colleges. Established in 1769, she was the last to receive her charter from England’s Crown. Dartmouth’s founding has since become the matter of legend, at the center of which lies one man’s unlikely vision, for a small school among New England’s wilderness. In the ensuing decades, Eleazar Wheelock, Samson Occom, and Daniel Webster, Dartmouth’s favorite son, have all emerged as larger-than-life figures. Learning about their journeys is as integral a part to the Dartmouth experience as DOC Trips, Winter Carnival, or the Green itself. We present their stories here, among others, in a fundamental overview of our College’s celebrated history.

Eleazar Wheelock and Samson Occom

A sense of divine mission, which guided Wheelock to found Dartmouth, drove his life’s many other pursuits. Born in Windham, Connecticut in 1711, Wheelock graduated from Yale in 1733, and was subsequently ordained as a preacher. Soon afterwards, he became seized by the Great Awakening, a religious fever spreading throughout New England. The Awakening particularly influenced Wheelock’s sermons, which regularly reduced audiences to tears.

One of Wheelock’s first pupils was Samson Occom, a young Connecticut Mohegan who was converted in the Awakening’s very heat. Wheelock helped him prepare for college until Occom’s weak eyes forced an abandonment of study. Occom established himself as a schoolteacher in New London, later becoming a preacher and schoolmaster to the Montauk tribe of Long Island. The manufacture and sale of wooden spoons, cedar pails, churns, and leather books, as well as fishing and hunting, sustained Occom’s large family, as well as his missionary work.

His efforts led Wheelock to conceive of a language and missionary school, for Indian as well as white students, in the Colonies’ heart. After receiving a £500 bequest from two young Delawares, and an equivalent donation of land and buildings from Colonel Joshua More, Wheelock set up More’s (later Moor’s) Indian Charity School, in 1754. The charity school was a pioneering enterprise, and received support from such luminaries as George Whitefield, the famed Connecticut Revivalist, who donated a bell.

A decade after the school’s inauguration, Colonel More died, leaving the institution without its primary benefactor. Furthermore, interest in educating Indians was declining, as consequence of the French and Indian War of the late 1750s. Wheelock also proved unable to obtain a charter for the institution, either from the King or the Connecticut legislature. Financial hardship, meanwhile, only increased in severity.

The Royal Charter and The Earl of Dartmouth

Wheelock sent his former pupil, Samson Occom, to England in 1764. As a well-received novelty in England, Wheelock was convinced the Indian minister would be successful in raising funds. Wheelock’s inklings were confirmed when, along with Nathaniel Whitaker, Occom collected approximately eleven thousand pounds. It was an impressive figure for the time, especially given deteriorating relations between England and the Colonies.

A number of prominent Englishmen contributed to Occom’s cause. Among them was William Legge, Second Earl of Dartmouth, and Secretary of State for the Colonies. He was an admirer of George Whitefield, and, by extension, of Wheelock and Occom. Becoming president of the London Board for Moor’s School, he eventually secured a £200 gift from the King.

However, John Wentworth, an American residing in England, became the key player in Dartmouth’s founding. Recently appointed as Royal Governor of New Hampshire, he was rather eager to have the school relocate from Connecticut. His uncle, former Governor Benning Wentworth, had offered Wheelock 500 acres of land, to which John added the grant of an entire township. Wheelock accepted, and a new charter was finalized in December 1769. Wheelock chose Hanover as the school’s domicile shortly thereafter.

Wheelock and Occom parted ways in 1768, allegedly over the expenditures of Occom’s family. It is also likely that Occom anticipated the character of Wheelock’s new college, as one primarily for whites, given the failure of Moor’s Charity School. Occom’s affiliation with a cause he had served so well thus ended.

Wheelock originally intended to name the college Wentworth, but the Governor persuaded him to designate it Dartmouth, to gain England’s favor. Ironically, The Earl of Dartmouth, William Legge, lost interest shortly thereafter. He considered Wheelock’s new plan a perversion of the original.

First built was a temporary log hut “without stone, brick, glass, or nails,” which served as a classroom and dormitory. In 1770, Wheelock constituted the college’s sole faculty member. John W. Ripley, Bezaleel Woodward, and John Smith joined him as tutors the following year. In 1771, Levi Frisbie, Samuel Gray, Sylvanus Ripley, and John Wheelock all became graduates of the College. Dartmouth has produced a class every year since, the only American college to do so, as the Revolution, the War of 1812, and other skirmishes periodically disrupted studies at other institutions.

Daniel Webster and The Supreme Court

Wheelock appointed his son, John Wheelock, to succeed him upon the father’s death in 1779. John was only twenty-five, and seemed insufficiently qualified for the presidential office. Hesitant to approve his posting, the trustees eventually relented, due in part to Wheelock’s willingness to serve without salary.

Eager to cultivate respect and support, the younger Wheelock proved too fervent in such attempts, alienating students and the trustees. By 1809, Wheelock’s opposition took hold of the board’s majority, and slowly converted a majority of the professors to their point of view. Impeaching Wheelock in 1815, the trustees elected Reverend Francis Brown as successor.

Wheelock, having no desire to yield, convinced New Hampshire’s Democrats to join him in his struggle against the trustees, whom he accused of various offenses against the College. New Hampshire Democrats, led by then-Governor William Plumer, at first condemned the Dartmouth charter as one “emanating from royalty,” and one thus unsuitable for a republic like the United States. In 1816, these Democrats then, by means of the state legislature, changed the name of Dartmouth College to “Dartmouth University,” increased the number of trustees from twelve to twenty one, and created a board of overseers with veto power over trustee decisions. Dartmouth was effectively transformed from a private college to a state university. The resulting controversy would outlive Wheelock himself, who died in 1817.

Daniel Webster, a young Dartmouth graduate (Class of 1801) of growing repute, had been courted by both parties to the dispute, to serve as legal counsel. Some of the college community’s older members recalled Webster’s Dartmouth arrival, in 1797. Webster was then dressed in homespun clothing, dyed by his mother, whose colors had bled upon contact with rain. Such was the humble beginning of a future Senator and Secretary of State.

Webster lodged his support behind the College’s original trustees. He suggested they file suit against William H. Woodward, former treasurer of Dartmouth, demanding return of the charter, seal, records, and account books seized by him. The trustees were defeated in the Superior Court of New Hampshire, but had their grievances elevated to the national scene. The trustees could appeal to the Supreme Court, though their prospects in that body were uncertain. Furthermore, additional funds were in need, as the college’s endowment at the time amounted to only $1,500. Webster, for a fee of $1,000, agreed to represent the Board of Trustees of the College in the Supreme Court’s chambers. He would argue that New Hampshire’s actions, in impairing the “obligation of contracts,” were unconstitutional.

Webster testified on March 10, 1818, in the case of Woodward vs. the Board of Trustees, before Chief Justice John Marshall and the U.S. Supreme Court. Webster’s four-hour oration stands one of the most memorable in U.S history. At the end of his argument, he famously concluded:

“This, sir, is my case. It is the case not merely of that humble institution; it is the case of every college in our land. … It is more. It is, in some sense, the case of every man who has property of which he may be stripped,–for the question is simply this: Shall our state legislature be allowed to take that which is not their own, to turn it from its original use, and apply it to such ends or purposes as they, in their discretion, shall see fit? …

“Sir, you may destroy this little institution. It is weak. It is in your hands! I know it is one of the lesser lights in the literary horizon of the country. You may put it out. But if you do so, you must carry through your work. You must extinguish, one after another, all those great lights of science which, for more than a century, have thrown their radiance over our land.

“It is, Sir, as I have said, a small college, and yet, there are those who love it. …”

Webster’s lip quivered and his voice choked as he delivered the final words. Justice Marshall’s eyes were reportedly moist with tears. A decision was postponed for a year as some of the justices pondered the case. During the interim, Webster, aware of public sentiment’s influence on court decisions, circulated widely the printed copies of his argument.

In February of 1819, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Trustees and the College. Only one dissenting vote was cast. In his magisterial opinion, Marshall remarked, “Perhaps no judicial proceedings in this country ever involved more important consequences.” Indeed, the case had extended national power at the expense of the state’s, confirmed the charter right of all private colleges of the land, protected business and non-profit organizations, and furthermore encouraged their very establishment.

The Storied History of Dartmouth College

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