DARTMOUTH LIFE IN 1820
A hundred years ago Dartmouth was a very small institution; but an institution to which young men, desirous of education, went to study. The students were mostly sons of the better New England families, which were conservative in their ideas and were imbued with great religious fervor. The principal object of attendance at college in those days was educational betterment, and not the getting rid of four years of one's life. To me, as a modern student, an account of Dartmouth a hundred years ago is most interesting, if only because it is so unlike present-day conditions.
To begin with, the prospective freshman did not have the short trip that he now has to the college. He had before him, if he lived in Massachusetts, as a great many did in those days, a long two days' journey in a stage coach. Upon his arrival at the college he was subjected to a second examination for entrance (one having been given in the spring at his preparatory school) in writing and orally. His next duty was to procure a room, in some town person's house, generally with at least two other boys. This room cost about $25 for the entire year. As the room was in a house which was nothing more than a farmer's home, all the conveniences of life were lacking. Cooking was done over open fires, and light was furnished by tallow candles. The boys probably lived in small rooms, cold in winter, and very bare. The entire atmosphere seems to have been simply that due to a crowd of young men living on a remote farm and studying hard.
Great stress was laid on the religious training that the young men got during, their college course. At five o'clock each morning, or as early as the President could see to read the Bible, the students were assembled in chapel for a service which lasted about fifteen minutes. As classes did not begin until about seven-thirty, most of the students went back to bed after chapel! Recitations occupied the entire morning and a good part of the afternoon. In the afternoons were lectures, required study hours, and usually a little time for some form of diversion. The formal duties of the day were ended by a second chapel service before supper; and then there was more time required for study in the evening. The students generally went to bed early; partly because of the great amount of work done in the day; partly because of the early hours of rising; and, partly, we may suppose, because of the poor light that tallow candles gave. There were no classes on Saturday afternoons. On Sundays all students had to go to church.
Old Dartmouth Hall, being the one college building, was used for nearly all purposes. It was about as large as the present building of the same name. The top floors had rooms for the students and the first floor larger ones for recitations and chapel exercises; all being warmed, if at all, by open fires; at any rate I find no record of the use of heating stoves. The campus occupied the same space that it does now; but in those days there was a fence around it so that the townspeople could turn out their cattle there in the daytime. The fact that cattle were also kept there at night led to many pitched battles between students and townspeople —real battles, not mere college horseplay.
The number, of students varied between seventy-five and ninety. The faculty numbered about twelve, including the President. The town consisted mostly of people connected with the college. Hanover was smaller than it is today, and farmers made up most of the population.
The college year began in late September and lasted about thirty-seven weeks; seven off at Christmas, four in the spring and four during August and September. The vacations given the students had to be long and far between, due to the inaccessibility of the college. Commence- ment came about the twentieth of August and was preceded by a four weeks' holiday for the seniors to go home and get clothes, mostly homespun, for graduation.
All amusements consisted of what the boys could get up among themselves. There was no organized form of sport of any kind. Card playing was forbidden by college rules; but rum flowed pretty freely. The boys played tricks upon the townspeople, much more than they do now.
Every year Sophomore Quarter-Day was held when certain members of the Sophomore class, elected by their classmates, gave an entertainment to the college, mostly speech-making with perhaps a short play. "Treats" were given by those elected to the other members of the class, and the class was so small that this could be done without ruining those paying for it! These treats often turned, so it seems, into wild carousals. Elections were held early in the spring for Commencement officers and speakers, and for the various prizes to be bestowed upon graduation.
The students led a very home-like life, due to their general lack of money and to their small number. Many of them had to earn their entire way through college, and it was not at all infrequent for one to be absent for weeks at a time, teaching school to earn money enough to continue his studies. The cost of going to college then was about a hundred dollars for a whole year.
Dartmouth drew its students in the first quarter of the nineteenth century from New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts. A great many were country boys who were used to the isolation of a small hamlet like Hanover. There was a general atmosphere of good feeling among all, and very few cliques sprang up. Many open clubs were formed for those interested in various subjects, mostly religion and debating. Debating was considered an important part of a man's education in those days, and every student, had to debate at least once a month before the whole college.
The students put most of their efforts into Latin, Greek and mathematics, with some English and philosophy added that the education might not be too narrow.
