It would be the understatement of the past 243 years to say that the Dartmouth of 2012 is different than the College on the Hill founded by Eleazar Wheelock in 1769. The school has grown to almost 6,000 students and 600 professors. From the original campus, we have lost 231 acres of land, as well as all of the original architectural structures. Our library collection has multiplied by about 1,000 volumes, and the number of dining options on campus has increased tenfold.
Before founding Dartmouth, Eleazar Wheelock had already tried to establish a school for Native American students in 1755 with the backing of the Second Earl of Dartmouth, but he had difficulty recruiting students. In order to attract more students, Wheelock decided to establish a school for English students and use his original funds to support this venture. The Second Earl of Darmouth ultimately never donated to or even supported Wheelock's new school, but in an ironic twist, Wheelock, unaware of the Earl's disapproval, decided to name it Dartmouth.
So before there were majors ranging from government to neuroscience, there were a handful of classes primarily targeted "for the education and instruction of Youth of the Indian Tribes in this Land ... and also of English Youth and any others," according to the College's original charter. That's right, white majority, you were an afterthought as far as the creators of your school were concerned.
Dartmouth received its charter in December 1769, but Wheelock didn't actually formally resign from his church congregation in Lebanon and move to Dresden, N.H. later renamed Hanover until the following year. The College's history doesn't reveal much about why the founders finally settled on this town, but Wheelock was hoping to recruit Native American students from Canada because the selected location wasn't far from the border.
Dresden was known for its "healthfulness," but it wasn't much more than dense forest prior to the American Revolution, according to Wheelock Geneology, a website devoted to the history of the Wheelock family. That being said, Wheelock's selection of a motto for the College might have had something to do with the despair he felt as he cleared acres of land and built makeshift shelters, according to an April 1997 article from the College's Notes From Special Collections titled "The Dartmouth College Seal." The terrifying cries of wild beasts that could be heard from the College's cabins also probably contributed to the motto.
Much like the winters experienced by students of the College today, the first Dartmouth winter was described as "severe," and "considerable fortitude" was necessary to make it through the frigid months, according to Wheelock Geneology. And just think about how many more times the students probably slipped on the ice on their way to class without salt trucks to pave the way for them! In addition, Dartmouth's first "dormitories" were crude at best, and the few other facilities on campus had been built in a rush to have shelters available for when the temperatures dropped to freezing.
The first six students at Dartmouth were all transfers from Yale University. In 1771, four of them graduated as missionaries to educate Native Americans, while the other two received degrees as "independent students." That year, the College's first Commencement address was held, making it Dartmouth's longest- standing tradition. The students came together to present the audience of 60 people with various orations in English and Latin, as well as a poem and an anthem set to music. It may not have been as iconic as Conan O'Brien ripping on Harvard, but the record does state that the first six grads succeeded in bringing some observers to tears with their words on the purpose of education.
Although its purpose was admirable, and it was created with passion, Dartmouth College was not an immediate success as an institution. By 1774, the College's funding in England had been completely exhausted, pulling the school deeper into debt until Wheelock's death during the American Revolution in 1779, according to Wheelock Geneology.
In the decades to follow, however, as the United States grew as a nation, the enrollment of the College increased. Alumni included the likes of Daniel Webster, Class of 1801, who would argue in favor of the College in the historical Dartmouth v. Woodward case of 1819. In doing so, he would deliver one of the most influential lines in the history of the school: "It is, Sir, as I have said, a small college. And yet there are those who love it."
