BENEFACTORS.—TRUSTEES.

From various authentic sources we have the following sketches of Dartmouth's leading benefactors, always excepting the last Royal Governor of New Hampshire, John Wentworth, whose care for all the interests of the Province is a matter of enduring record. Of the distinguished person in honor of whom the College was named, the following account, published in 1779, is from "Collins' Peerage":

"William, the present and Second Earl of Dartmouth, for his more polite education, traveled through France, Italy, and Germany; and, on his return to England, took the oaths, and his seat in the House of Peers, on May 31, 1754. His Lordship was sworn of His Majesty's Privy Council on July 26, 1765; in August following he was appointed first Commissioner of Trade and Plantations, which he resigned in 1766; in August, 1772, he was appointed Secretary of State for the Colonies; and on November 10, 1775, Keeper of the Privy Seal.

"His Lordship married, on January 11, 1755, Frances Catharine, only daughter and heir of Sir Charles Gunter Nicholl, Knight of the Bath; and by her had issue eight sons and one daughter.

"His Lordship is also President of the London Dispensary; Vice-President of the Foundling and Lock Hospitals; Recorder of Litchfield; LL. D., and F. R. S."

The armorial inscription is:

"GAUDET TENTAMINE VIRTUS."

Forbes' Life of Dr. Beattie gives the following interesting paragraph:

"His Majesty (George III.) asked what I thought of my new acquaintance, Lord Dartmouth. I said, there was something in his air and manner which seemed to me not only agreeable, but very enchanting, and that he seemed to me to be one of the best of men; a sentiment in which both their majesties heartily joined. 'They say that Lord Dartmouth is an enthusiast,' said the king, 'but surely he says nothing on the subject of religion but what every one may and ought to say on the subject of religion.'"

Of John Thornton, the devout Episcopalian, the kinsman of Wilberforce, and the most munificent of Dartmouth's early benefactors, almost the sole supporter of the founder for several years, Rev. Thomas Scott, in a memorial "Discourse" says:

"It is worthy of observation, that this friend of mankind, in the exercise of his beneficence, not only contributed his money (which often is done to very little purpose) but he devoted his time and thoughts very much to the same object; doing good was the great business of his life, and may more properly be said to have been his occupation, than even his mercantile engagements, which were uniformly considered as subservient to that nobler design.

"To form and execute plans of usefulness; to superintend, arrange, and improve upon those plans; to lay aside such as did not answer, and to substitute others; to form acquaintance, and collect intelligence for this purpose; to select proper agents, and to carry on correspondence, in order to ascertain that his bounties were well applied: These and similar concerns were the hourly occupations of his life, and the ends of living, which he proposed to himself; nor did he think that any part of his time was spent either happily or innocently, if it were not some way instrumental, directly or indirectly, to the furtherance of useful designs."

"Abiel Chandler was a native of Concord, N. H. In his childhood his parents removed to Fryeburg, Maine, where he labored on a farm till he was twenty-one years of age. He was graduated at Harvard College in 1806, and spent the next eleven years in teaching at Salem and Newburyport, Mass. To the good reputation which he had previously gained as a student, he added that of an excellent preceptor. A little later he commenced a mercantile life at Boston. He was of the house of Chandler and Howard, and afterwards Chandler, Howard, and Company, for more than a quarter of a century, when he retired with a fortune. To numerous relatives he made liberal bequests, with great delicacy and judgment. After his legacy to the college, the residue of his property was bequeathed to the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane.

"The origin of Mr. Chandler's endowment of the Scientific School is referable to an incident that occurred to him when a young man at Fryeburg. He fell in company with some students of Dartmouth College, and he was impressed by their superiority to himself. He conceived the purpose of being himself a scholar, and he fulfilled it. When, after a few years of honorable industry as a teacher he became a merchant, he saw himself, though now a scholar, ignorant, to a great extent, of the principles and methods of mercantile life. Whereupon he set himself to a new variety of learning. He gained it, and with it gained a fortune. But he saw other men around him, in different spheres, suffering as he had done from a similar want of knowledge,—merchants, traders, ship-masters, artisans, farmers, laborers.

"The Chandler School is the ripened fruit of a well-considered purpose to benefit mankind. He had confidence in the importance of his object, the integrity of his aims, and the wisdom of his advisers. He bestowed his charity with a hearty good-will, and left the event with God."

"John Conant was born in Stowe, Mass., in 1790. His family descended from the French Huguenots who were driven into England by Louis XIV. His father was an industrious and successful farmer. In the district school he was taught the merest rudiments of an English education. In after years, by the aid and sympathy of an intelligent and well-educated wife, he fitted himself to write for the public journals, to lecture on temperance and agriculture, and to perform with credit and honor the duties of important official stations, in town and State. His leisure hours were devoted to study. He collected a small private library of choice books in history, biography, and science, and made them the companions of rainy days and winter evenings.

"At the age of twenty-six, he purchased a farm in Jaffrey, under the shadow of 'the great Monadnock,' on which he labored for thirty-five years, and gathered 'a plentiful estate.' This was accumulated by means of those home-bred virtues, industry, prudence, and economy; for he never, in a single instance, increased his wealth by speculation.

"When the New Hampshire Insane Asylum was occupying the public attention, he contributed liberally to its endowment, and was at one time president of its Board of Trustees, being sole superintendent of the first buildings that were reared.

"Turning his thoughts toward the rising academy at New London, Mr. Conant proposed to add to its literary and scientific departments an agricultural school. He ascertained, however, that his whole estate would be inadequate to the work, and, after making generous donations to the academy, he turned his attention to the Agricultural College at Hanover.

"In his endowment of this institution, along with other things, he has provided a model farm for the college, and founded a scholarship for each town in Cheshire County, twenty-two in all, with an additional one for Jaffrey.

"Mr. Conant was through life a liberal contributor to public enterprises, and a supporter of the gospel, and for twenty years was an active member of the Baptist Church."

Boynton's History of West Point gives the following valuable paragraphs relating to Sylvanus Thayer, by whose munificence to the cause of education he has laid his Alma Mater and his native town under lasting obligations:

"Brevet-major Sylvanus Thayer, of the Corps of Engineers, on July 28, 1817, assumed command as superintendent of the West Point Military Academy, and from this period the commencement of whatever success as an educational institution, and whatever reputation the Academy may possess, at home or abroad, for its strict, impartial, salutary, elevating, and disciplinary government, must be dated. Major Thayer was an early graduate of the academy. He had served with distinction in the War of 1812, and had studied the military schools of France, and profited by the opportunity to acquire more complete and just views concerning the management of such an institution than were generally entertained by educational and military men of that day. The field before him was uncultivated; the period was one when rare qualifications for position were not considered valueless; and, blessed with health, devotion to the cause, and firmness of purpose, he was permitted to organize a system, and remain sixteen years to perfect its operation.

"Immediately after entering upon his duties, the Cadets were organized into a battalion of two companies, with a colonel of Cadets, an adjutant, and a sergeant-major, for its staff; and within the year he created a 'Commandant of Cadets,' to be an instructor of tactics.

"The division of classes into sections, the weekly rendering of class reports, showing the daily progress, the system and scale of daily marks, the establishment of relative class rank among the members, the publication of the Annual Register, the introduction of the Board of Visitors, the check-book system, the preponderating influence of the 'blackboard,' and the essential parts of the Regulations for the Military Academy, as they stand to this day, are some of the evidences of the indefatigable efforts of Major Thayer to insure method, order, and prosperity to the institution. When relieved, at his own request, the upward impetus given to the institution had attracted general observation."

General Thayer evidently believed that "peace hath her victories" as well as war, and nobly acted in accordance with his intelligent, earnest convictions.

"Joel Parker was born at Jaffrey, N. H. After studying in the academy at Groton, where the late President James Walker was one of his schoolmates, he entered the Sophomore class at Dartmouth College in February, 1809, at the early age of thirteen, and graduated in 1811, not yet seventeen years of age. After his graduation he studied law at Keene, and with his brother Edmund at Amherst, and entered the bar of Cheshire County, at the October term in 1817, at the former place, where he at once engaged in practice.

In the year 1821, contemplating a change of residence, he visited the West, and was admitted to practice in the Circuit Court of the United States at Columbus, Ohio, in January, 1822; but, fortunately for his native State, returned in the latter year, and devoted himself assiduously to his chosen pursuit.

Free from domestic cares, affianced only to his profession, he early gained an honorable position by the steady exercise of natural abilities well adapted to its pursuit. He was industrious, thorough, minute, painstaking, cautious, persistent, and untiring. "Judge Parker's mode of practice in the trial of cases," writes an early professional associate, who still enjoys a ripe and honored age, "to take down the testimony in full of the witnesses in writing, and to cross-examine them at great length as to all the circumstances they might know relative to the case, contributed greatly to change the previous practice of the witness' first telling his story of what he knew, followed by a brief cross-examination, with only a few notes, made by the counsel, of the leading points of the testimony."

Of Judge Parker's judicial life in New Hampshire, Charles Sumner, in 1844, wrote: "It will not be unjust to his associates to distinguish. Mr. Chief Justice Parker as entitled to peculiar honor for his services on the bench. He may be justly regarded as one of the ablest judges of the country."

The event which brought Judge Parker more conspicuously before the public, and undoubtedly contributed justly and largely to give him a wide and established reputation for vigor, independence, learning, and capacity, was his controversy with 14 Mr. Justice Story of the Supreme Court of the United States in regard to the proper construction of a clause—it might even be said the meaning of a word [lien]—in the Bankrupt Law of 1841; a controversy which became political in other hands, and threatened to reach the magnitude of a conflict between the United States and New Hampshire.

After the experiences of this generation, such a collision seems trifling; but it involved subjects of grave importance, and was a contest between no insignificant combatants,—not without interest at this day to a student of common or constitutional law.

It began in 1842, when Story and Parker were each in the full vigor of judicial life, and enthusiastic crowds of young men were learning the science of the law from Story's lips. It ended seven years after, when Story had passed away, and Parker was lecturing where Story taught, to young men who now revere the memory of both. He had laid aside the honor and labors of the office which required him to engage in the struggle; and, in the first year of his service as a professor in the school to whose success and reputation Story had so largely contributed, the court which Story had adorned declared the survivor victorious. Like Entellus, he might say,—

The eminent service rendered to the country and the age, by Judge Parker, while Royall professor of Law at Cambridge, forms a material part of our national history.

Richard Fletcher was a native of Cavendish, Vt. Having graduated at Dartmouth, in 1806, he studied law with Daniel Webster, and commenced practice in Salisbury, N. H. In 1819 he removed to Boston, where he shortly took rank with the very first of legal advocates.

His biographer says: "While in practice before the courts his presence ever commanded the utmost respect. Of good form, of handsome and expressive features, and of most gentlemanly and pleasing address, with his great learning and untiring industry, it is not strange that he should have succeeded at the bar and on the bench.

"He was an orator of great power,—fluent and elegant in diction, bright and sparkling in thought, keen and quick in repartee.

"His care not to be engaged in unworthy causes was a matter of note.

"In political life he found little that suited his tastes, although at different times a member of both the State and National Legislatures.

"Mr. Fletcher was a sincere Christian. His religion was not so much of the aggressive kind, nor did he often urge his views upon others; but it pervaded his entire character, and shone out in all his actions. In his will he made a provision for publishing biennially, a prize essay adapted to impress 'on the minds of all Christians a solemn sense of their duty to exhibit in their godly lives and conversation the beneficent effects of the religion they profess, and thus increase the efficiency of Christianity in Christian countries, and recommend its acceptance to the heathen portions of the world.'"

Few of Dartmouth's alumni have manifested a more affectionate, steadfast devotion to their Alma Mater, than Mr. Fletcher.

Tappan Wentworth was the son of Isaac Wentworth, of Dover, N. H., and was born there February 24, 1802, and died in Lowell, June 12, 1875. His father was a poor man, a boatman running a freight-boat between Dover and Portsmouth.

He was sent first to common schools till he reached the classical school where he studied Latin in a class with the late John K. Young, D.D., Dr. George W. Kittredge, and Hon. John H. White, but was taken from school after having read two books of Virgil. Judge White says: "Tappan was a good scholar, energetic and self-reliant. I was in the Latin class with him, and was told by the father that he was too poor to keep him in school." He then spent about three years in Portsmouth, in a North End grocery store.

From Portsmouth he went to South Berwick, Me., into the stores of the late Benjamin Nason and Alphonso Gerrish, successively, as clerk. He there attracted the attention of Hon. William Burleigh, a then member of Congress from York district, by a spirited article he had written in favor of Mr. Burleigh's reËlection. Mr. Burleigh now offered to take him as a law student, and the young clerk entered upon the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in York County in 1826. After seven years' successful practice in his profession in South Berwick and Great Falls, he came to Lowell, bringing some seven thousand dollars with him.

He now seemed to form his life plan of work, professionally and financially,—diligence in his profession and all possible investments in real estate. At his death his $7,000 had swollen into nearly $300,000, during his forty-five years of Lowell life.

During these years he became a leading member of his profession, was often in offices of trust in city affairs, at different times in both houses of the Legislature, and a member of Congress from 1853 to 1855.

After assigning "pride of ancestry and name" as one reason for Mr. Wentworth's munificence to Dartmouth, Judge Crosby says:

"Another reason for the gift to the college is found in his appreciation of the value, the power, and the beauty of education. He had had hard experience in relation to it. He had hungered for it when he could not get it. He had obtained it in limited departments, by hard work, at great odds and under great embarrassments, when other claims must be postponed in its behalf. And as he looked over our college studies he found many branches he had never pursued and could not approach."

"The fund is not given for scholarships, professorships, libraries, or buildings. It is given for the support of the institution, to make instruction independent, learned and cheap; given to invite the youth to come here, and to give them the best opportunities of cultivation at lessened expense, to lay foundations of learning and mental enlargement for any department in life. It will maintain ten learned professors or twenty tutors, or give 20,000 volumes of books annually, as the honorable Trustees shall think the demands of the college require.

"It may enlarge, repair, or ornament these grounds; it may be turned into laboratories, museums of natural history, or art; it may raise the curriculum to higher studies and extended courses. It is not restrained by his personal judgment and direction in the future, but left to the better judgment of living mind."

Should Dartmouth ever lose her maiden name, she would not hesitate in regard to the new one.

William Reed was born at Marblehead, Mass. Compelled to abandon the hope of a public education, he afterwards engaged in mercantile pursuits, which he followed with great energy and activity and with a good degree of success.

Having by his untiring energy and perseverance, and by his strict habits of economy come into possession of a considerable amount of property, he devoted the latter part of his life to philanthropic and benevolent purposes.

As a citizen he was distinguished for activity, public spirit and true patriotism. The many marks of attention and respect which he received from his fellow-citizens evinced the high estimation in which he was held by the community.

In 1811 he was elected to a seat in the Congress of the United States, a station which he filled for four years with honor to himself, with satisfaction to his constituents, and with advantage to his country.

While the cause of Foreign Missions received the largest share of his Christian sympathies and the largest amount of his charitable donations, yet he was deeply interested in all the benevolent operations of the day. His sound judgment was sought in the management of various public institutions. In 1826 he was elected a member of the Board of Visitors of the Theological Seminary at Andover, and occupied that station until his death. He was for several years a Trustee of Dartmouth; also of Amherst.

Dr. George Cheyne Shattuck was born in Templeton, Mass., in the year 1783, in the sixth generation from William Shattuck, who was born in England in the year 1621, and died in Watertown, Mass., in the year 1672, Dr. Benjamin Shattuck graduated at Harvard College in 1765, and having studied medicine, settled in Templeton. His youngest son inherited thirteen hundred dollars, and this sufficed for his support, fitting for college, and college and Medical education, commenced at Hanover and continued in Philadelphia and Boston, with such addition as he was able to make by school-keeping. There were no public conveyances when he went from Templeton to Hanover, and he bought a horse on which he rode to Hanover and then sold it, taking the pay in board. He received four degrees from his Alma Mater; the first in the year 1803 and the last, of Doctor of Laws, in 1853. He settled in Boston in the year 1807, and for the space of forty-seven years devoted himself to the practice of his profession. He secured the esteem, respect and affection of his patients, and gathered a handsome estate. He gave liberally to his Alma Mater for an Observatory, for books, and for portraits of distinguished alumni. He founded a professorship in the Medical Department of Harvard University and endowed scholarships in the Academical Department. He gave liberally to various charities during his lifetime, as well as to public institutions, and the poor and needy never appealed to him in vain. He died in Boston in the year 1854, in the profession of the faith in which he had been educated both at home and at college.

George H. Bissell was born at Hanover, N. H. He is descended from a family of Norman-French origin, which came from Somersetshire, England. His mother came of Belgic and Holland descent. One of his ancestors was the first settler at Windsor, Ct., in 1628. The late Gov. Clark Bissell, of Connecticut, and Gov. William H. Bissell, of Illinois, were relatives. In 1846, after successful teaching elsewhere, on the organization of the High School in New Orleans Mr. Bissell was elected its first principal over many competitors. Subsequently he was chosen superintendent of the public schools in that city. His remarkable administrative abilities and high qualifications as a scholar were of great service in his onerous position. The schools reached a discipline and prosperity before unknown. He is also a member of the legal profession.

In the development of petroleum Mr. Bissell was a leading pioneer; perhaps he justly deserves the preËminence in this great work. Mr. Bissell is a self-made man. We quote a portion of his letter to President Smith, announcing his munificent donation for a gymnasium:

"In acceding to your wishes, my dear sir, I can but recall that day, now twenty years since, when, leaving Dartmouth, alone and unaided, I felt that 'Tentanda via est, qu me quoque possim tollere humo.'

"It affords me unqualified pleasure now to be able to gratify a wish then cherished, to aid in some degree my Alma Mater, and in that manner which you assure me is the most effectual."

"Gen. David Culver was born in Lyme, N. H. In the year 1832 he left the parental roof, and after a residence in Hartford, Conn., and New York City, for some years, where in both cities he was actively engaged in lucrative business pursuits, he returned to his beautiful ancestral home in Lyme, in 1855. The residue of his years he spent in pleasant agricultural life, on the old farm of his strongly-endeared childhood, memory, and attachment. In the rural district of this home he was ever apparently content and happy, and, much to his praise, seemed greatly beloved by his neighbors. His townsmen many times by their united suffrage gave him important offices of public trust and confidence. Of the Congregational Church of Christ, in Lyme, he was for many years a highly valued helping member, and for the gospel ministry was a liberal supporter, giving of his means in so quiet a manner that he appeared not to wish his good deeds blazoned to the world.

"For the needy, suffering poor of his personal acquaintance, especially the helpless poor, he had a sympathizing heart, and so deeply pitied them, in many instances, as to greatly alleviate their sufferings by ministering pecuniarily to their relief.

"To the cause of general education in the community,—elementary, common, agricultural, and collegiate,—he was always a warm-hearted, deeply-interested friend. In many instances, to aspiring youth in indigent circumstances, who were striving after the acquisition of the needful knowledge to prepare themselves and others for usefulness, he has been known to bestow pecuniary assistance to aid them on their way.

"And so agreeably bland was he in his mode of conferring his favors, as to greatly augment the value of them, and at the same time heighten the esteem of the recipients for the donor." Outside of her alumni Dartmouth had few warmer friends than General Culver.

Samuel Appleton was a native of New Ipswich, N. H.

His enterprise and his liberality have given his name a conspicuous place in New England history. We append a portion of one of his letters to President Lord, which shows his generous appreciation of liberal culture.

"It affords me much pleasure to have it in my power to do something for the only college in my native State which has done so much to establish a sound literary character in the country. Dartmouth has done her full proportion in educating for the pulpit, the bar, the healing art, and the senate, good and great men who have done honor to their names, to the college, and to the country."

In closing this record, we can only allude to other leading benefactors, among whom are John D. Willard, who gave to Dartmouth some of the fruits of his busy, earnest life. Salmon P. Chase, loyal to his Alma Mater to the last. John Wentworth, who still lives to witness her work. Henry Bond, loving her scarcely less than his kindred, "according to the flesh." Frederick Hall, who gave his money, and what he valued more. John Phillips, whose name will live as long as Dartmouth, or Andover, or Exeter, shall exist. Israel Evans, the patriot divine, who cherished for Washington and Wheelock similar affection. Aaron Lawrence, the conscientious Christian merchant. Jeremiah Kingman, the busy agriculturist, who cultivated his mind as well as his fields. Mrs. Betsey Whitehouse, the parishioner of Abraham Burnham, by whose labors her valuable Christian and general character was largely moulded, and E. W. Stoughton, who fully realizes the close connection between a healthy body and a sound mind.

The services of Dartmouth's Trustees should not be passed over in silence.

We give a statement of the character of the Board half a century ago, when the College was in "middle life," from Mr. William H. Duncan.

"Of the members of that Board, there was Elijah Paine, of Vermont, who had received his appointment as District Judge of the United States for the District of Vermont from Washington, a graduate from Harvard, 'a Roman of the Romans,' one who would have done honor to Rome in her noblest and best days for the purity, integrity, and elevation of his character. Charles Marsh, who held for many years the unchallenged position of the leader of the bar in Vermont, a cousin of that giant in the law, Jeremiah Mason, whom he greatly resembled in many of his intellectual characteristics,—a high-toned gentleman, and a devout and reverend believer in Christianity. Moses P. Payson, a graduate of the College, of the class of 1793, a lawyer of courteous and elegant demeanor, and of high social position. Judge Edmund Parker, a sound lawyer, a man of good sense, and excellent judgment, and above all a man of unspotted character, a brother of the distinguished ex-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire. Israel W. Putnam, D.D., a graduate of the class of 1809, so long and so favorably known in New Hampshire as a clergyman. John H. Church, D.D., a graduate from Harvard, a man of apostolic solemnity and dignity of character, whose praise is in all the churches. John Wheeler, D.D., an accomplished scholar, afterwards President of the University of Vermont. Bennett Tyler, who was still a Trustee, although he had resigned his position as president, a man of commanding dignity of presence, an unrivaled logician, and one of the best pulpit orators it has ever been the good fortune of the writer to listen to. Judge Samuel Hubbard, of Boston, one of the best lawyers of New England, who for many years was the rival and the peer of the leaders of the Suffolk Bar. When on the bench of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, he was numbered among her most eminent jurists, and was ranked with Fletcher and Shaw. He was a man of the finest sensibilities, and a devout and reverent Christian. Mills Olcott, of the class of 1790, who had been the Secretary and Treasurer of the College before he was a Trustee, whose father had served before him for twenty years in the same capacity, a man of remarkable sagacity and enterprise in business affairs, of assured social position, and of great elegance and dignity of manner.

"And of this body of men was Ezekiel Webster, the elder brother of Daniel, a man of remarkable intellectual endowments; in sagacity and judgment, in the opinion of those who knew them both, fully equal to his distinguished brother, well read, as all the gentlemen of the old school were, in the old English authors; a profound lawyer, and, at times when he could be prevailed upon to speak, as eloquent as his brother; of commanding personal presence, which in no way can be so well described as by borrowing a Homeric epithet, for he was truly a 'king' among 'men.'

"Such was the body of men whose grave and majestic air used to impress the writer of this sketch, when the Commencements came round, in his college days, with the same feeling of awe and reverence with which the barbarians' were inspired when they first looked in upon the Roman Senate, supposing that they were looking upon an assembly of kings."

If to these we add the names of the eminent men who were the colleagues of the founder, and of Nathaniel Niles, Jonathan Freeman, Thomas W. Thompson, Stephen Jacob, Timothy Farrar, Samuel Bell, Asa McFarland, Seth Payson, Samuel Prentiss, George Sullivan, John Aiken, William Reed, Samuel Delano, Samuel Fletcher, Nathaniel Bouton, Silas Aiken, Joel Parker, Richard Fletcher, and the honored Governors of the State, we are fully impressed with the fact that the interests of the college have been in the keeping of wise and prudent guardians.