Wentworth is the name of a hall, Dresden is somewhere in Germany, and, for better or worse, America has but one Connecticut, a couple states down the river.
And Dartmouth is the College on the Hill, symbolized by Baker Tower and distinguished by interminable winters. But it could have been the college of the Three Rivers, associated with the New York Statehouse or renowned for lengthy summers.
Each scenario could have materialized when the College moved from Lebanon, Connecticut to the town we now call Hanover, New Hampshire, but which might have been the town of Dresden, New Connecticut. But for colonial politicking, the College itself could have been named for New Hampshire's governor, John Wentworth, and you would be reading The W.
Eleazar Wheelock founded his college primarily to educate Native Americans. Within a few years, he decided to move the College from Connecticut to a location closer to Native American tribes. Wheelock received offers from towns from Maine to the Mississippi.
(Wheelock also considered other Connecticut locations, but, as the Yale alumnus noted in a letter to his friend Hugh Wallace, it already "has a college in its bowels" and would thus be unsuitable.)
Wheelock seriously considered locations near both Pittsburgh and Albany. When Pennsylvania ignored his request for a land grant and Albany was rejected by the Trustees, he looked north. Responding to an offer from Chester, New Hampshire, Wheelock presciently wrote that "these lands are northward, and the winter is long and cold ... and transportation will always be expensive." It is not entirely clear how Wheelock anticipated the construction of Lebanon Airport, but his comment in this last regard still rings true.
Hanover was first mentioned in official correspondence in 1770, with Haverhill and Orford. A site in Haverhill was surveyed, and the town granted 50 acres in North Haverhill. However, on July 5, the Trustees voted unanimously to move the College to Hanover, citing easy transportation links with Lake Champlain and Portsmouth, proximity to Native American tribes, and the "situation...on a beautiful plain."
After moving to the Hanover plain, Wheelock turned his attention to gaining a royal charter. He agreed to a compromise charter with Governor Wentworth and offered to name the College after him. As Frederick Chase writes in his "History of Dartmouth College and Hanover, NH," "Wentworth...was too modest and disinterested to accept" the offer.
Instead, Wheelock named the College after Lord Dartmouth, "for the obvious purpose of conciliating the English trustees," whom he feared would scuttle the charter. The contrivance failed, Dartmouth remained suspicious of the plan, and he never donated money to the College.
Later, Wheelock took the opportunity offered by the New Hampshire Constitutional Convention to incorporate, with Hanover's consent, as the Town of Dartmouth. Since that name was already taken by another town, now Jefferson, the College District was renamed Dresden.
Shortly thereafter, Dresden became a key player in the "New Connecticut" controversy when northern New Hampshire and Vermont attempted to unite as a separate state. The Royal Governor's policy of granting legislative representation only to towns he recognized had long irritated the northwest, where only three towns were recognized by 1776, and parts of Vermont identified more with western New Hampshire than with Vermont cities west of the Green Mountains.
With strong encouragement from college officials, these towns entered into a fierce political conflict with Vermont and New Hampshire in the midst of the American Revolution that, according to John Rice in "Dartmouth College and the State of New Connecticut," "only stopped short of bloodshed because that larger struggle forbade such a distraction."
After six years of quasi-independence as the state of New Connecticut, opposition from Congress and General George Washington finally ended the towns' scheme in 1782. Upon its return to New Hampshire, Dresden's incorporation was not recognized by the governor, and he returned it to Hanover.
Rice cites lingering animosity over secession as contributing to the state's attempt to take over Dartmouth in 1816. While relations with New Hampshire are still sometimes uneasy, secession has long since dropped from consideration. After all, whatever New Hampshire's flaws, it sure beats the bowels of Connecticut.
