The Letters of Henry E

The Letters of Henry E. Parker

The following is an essay, most likely written by Henry E. Parker, on the history of Dartmouth College. It was probably written while Parker was a pastor in Concord N.H. The document is undated and unsigned.

This is probably a draft, and as such is difficult to read in some places. It was written on the back of church "form letters" requesting church members who have relocated to transfer their church membership.

Dartmouth College grew out of the Christian enterprise & missionary spirit of the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock.

A pastor greatly beloved -- a preacher of rare gifts -- possessor of a handsome competency by patrimony & marriage, his influence, talents & means he devoted with ardor to Christian & philanthropic ends. Settled over a loving Society at Lebanon, Conn, but not receiving a full support from the Society, he thought it right to employ a portion of his time in other than parish labors; and, like Eliot & Brainard, animated with a deep desire for the Christianization & civilization of the Indians, he opened a school, about the year 1740, in his own house, for the education of Indian youth, receiving also English youth whom he hoped would become missionaries among the Indians.

His work soon attracted the attention of the philanthropic & benevolent Mr. Joshua Moor of Mansfield who owned a house & two acres of land adjoining Mr. Wheelock's residence presented them to the latter for the occupancy of his school, & to which in commemoration of the donor he gave the name of "Moor's Indian Charity School." After benefactors in the colonies & in the mother-country gave contributions to further the objects of the school. A board of gentleman of the highest character was formed in England to receive the contributions made in Great Britain for the object [written diagonally to insert:] except those made in the Northern part of the realm for which the Scottish Society for the propagation of Christian knowledge acted as al???ness.

. At the head of the English Board was the eminent & excellent William Earl of Dartmouth, Secretary for the colonies, himself a (liberal) donor & using his influence to secure gifts from other quarters,The King himself cheerfully & generously responding. At about the same time & ?? significant ?? towards him abroad of the esteem Mr. Wheelock received from the University of Edinburgh the title of Doctor of Divinity.

With that prudential wisdom always a characteristic of his movements, Dr. Wheelock secured increasing public confidence in his undertaking by inviting a few gentlemen of the highest standing in Conn. to act as a board of trust, supervising his management of the school & its funds. In carrying out the objects he had in view, particularly in preparing missionaries for the Indians, the deed was soon felt of a more extended course of education, and Dr. Wheelock, with the approval of the Board of Trust in Con. & also friends in Great Britain, engrafted a collegiate course of instruction upon that already established in the school. This led to the contemplating a change of locality, for Yale being already established it did not seem best to have another College within the bounds of the Connecticut Colony. As soon as the proposed change became known several places sought for the Institution. Liberal offers came from more than one town in Western Massachusetts. The city of Albany made generous offers. One liberal proposal was made for its transfer to the banks of the Mississippi. But none, on the whole, were as inviting as those from the Province of New Hampshire seconded by the excellent, large-hearted Colonial Governor of New Hampshire, John Wentworth. After a careful inspection by Dr. Wheelock in company with one or two of his trustees, of many different localities in the Province, the town of Hanover, about midway in the valley of the Connecticut, between the Northern & Southern boundaries of N.H. was selected as the site for the new College, and the name of Dartmouth was given to it from the pious & illustrious English Earl who had been so serviceable a patron of the Indian School of which the College was the flower.

Through the services of Gov. Wentworth a royal charter was obtained for the College in 1769 from George the Third.

In the latter part of the summer of the following year the transfer of the Institution was made. The long & tedious journey, as roads were then, of a couple of hundred miles, was made by a part of Dr. Wheelock's family in a coach which had been presented, but by the rest, with all the students on foot; the company, numbering some seventy in all, marching their way along the streams & through the forests, driving a few swine before them, the meat most easily raised in the new settlements. So they moved on -- that novel spectacle of a College turned emigrant, pioneer, settler -- up into the then northern wilderness; for Hanover had barely been entered by settlers; not a half dozen years had elapsed since the first family had located within its limits; and the primeval forest had to be felled where Dr. Wheelock erected the first log structures.

One reason which had led to the selection of the new site was its nearer proximity to the Indian tribes Dr. Wheelock hoped to benefit. Neither previously nor subsequently, however, did the results of his efforts in behalf of the Indians realize his hopes; although it is difficult to conceive how those efforts could have been more wisely or energetically conducted -- Apart from other causes, the French & Indian War proved inpropitious in its influence in keeping Indian pupils away from the school before its removal from Con; & afterwards the Rev. War, in which the Indians were again arrayed against the colonists, was similar in its effects -- still; with all that was untoward & disappointing, Dr. Wheelock's efforts for the Indians did accomplish much good. Nor is its amount to be measured altogether by the perhaps 150 Indian youth who were under his instruction; although such instances as the celebrated Col. Brant & the eloquent preacher Joseph Pearson [?] both of whom were among his Indian pupils, sufficiently attest the value of his educational efforts for the Indians. He originated a large am't of missionary labour the (whose) influence extended to or among the Mohawks, Delawares, Mohegans, Naragansetts, Oneidas, Senecas, & others. (Indians) besides the varied good which resulted in his awakening (giving form to) interest & sympathy both in this country & abroad towards our Indian tribes.

Dr. Wheelock lived only nine years after the founding of the College, & was succeeded in the presidency by his son, who after continuing in office thirty-six years, became unhappily involved in a variance with a position of the Faculty -- a variance extending soon to the Trustees of the College & to the Legislature of the State, the latter of whom in 1816 by legislative act sought to change the charter, name & entire administration of the College. This led to protracted suits at law in the state & U. S. courts, in which the most eminent counsel of the country were engaged & some of the most important principles of law decided. Few cases have probably come before the Supreme Court of the U.S. of greater interest. In 1819 Judgement was finally given in favor, of the college, but it has taken nearly two generations since to correct the ill effects resulting from the State being brought into antagonism with its only College.

There have been, including its present energetic head, seven presidents of the college, all, with but a single exception clergymen, and as a body conspicuous for their pulpits & administrative abilities, a body alike eminent as preachers & divines & successful as executive officers.

Near the close of the last century a Medical Department became connected with the College which has been distinguished from the first by having among its Lecturers some of the most honored names of the Medical Profession in our Northern States (Country). A Scientific Department has been in successful operation for sixteen years. In accordance with an act of the Legislature of the State in 1866 establishing the N. H. College of Agriculture and the ??? fine Arts," & authorizing its location at Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, this new Department has been organized & put in operation. An edifice especially for the Department is now in process of erection, and a valuable farm adjoining the college grounds is in the possession of the department and available for its purposes. Thanks to the liberality of Gen. Sylvanus Thayer the means have been furnished for establishing in the college an especial "School of "Civil Engineering", designed mainly as a supplementary (&) post-graduate course.

The valuable Astronomical Meteorological Observatory was established mainly through the liberality of the late Geo. C. Shuttuch L.L.D of Boston-- The libraries of the Institution contain about forty thousand volumes. Some forty scholarships, besides other funds are available for the gratuitous assistance of students needing aid.

The College may be said to have been fortunate in the class of (the) students frequenting its halls; since they have not been so much those sent to college as those who have sought college advantages. Hence the explanation why its graduates have to so great an extent been efficient workers in after life. Says one, long familiar with the operations & influence of the Institution, though himself a graduate of Yale, "The whole country is indebted to Dartmouth college, as may be seen from its Financial Catalogue, & facts known by all. It has sent forth more than nine hundred able ministers of the Gospel, who have done good service to the churches in all parts of the land, & many of our best Foreign missionaries, like Goodell, Temple, Poor, Spaulding, & Knight. It has furnished thirteen Governors of States: thirty one Judges of Courts, & several of these Chief Justices of States, & one Chief Justice of the United States: four Cabinet Officers; five diplomatic Agents abroad that have done honor to their Country; more than fifty members of congress, eighteen U.S. senators; eighty nine College Professors; and thirty one Presidents of Colleges. It has filled seventeen Theological Chairs and thirteen Medical chairs with its graduates; to say nothing of more than one thousand Medical Gentlemen of skill, and distinguished men in all the walks of life."

A hundred years have passed since the founding of the college: its friends may appeal to its history thus far as giving increasing illustration & emphasis to the words of Mr Webster in his celebrated plea for his Alma Mater before the Supreme Court of the U.S.: "Dartmouth College was established under a charter granted by the Provincial government; but a better constitution for a college, or one more adapted to the condition of things under the present government, in all material respects, could not now be framed. Nothing in it was found to need alteration at the Revolution. The wise men of that day saw in it one of the best hopes of future times, and commended it, as it was with parental care, to the protection & guardianship of the government of the state."

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