New Dormitory Named

Harking back to the earliest days of the College and to the undergraduate days of Eleazar Wheelock at Yale, the Dartmouth trustees have voted to name the new dormitory now under construction east of Fayerweather Row for Benjamin Pomeroy.

Classmates at Yale in the class of 1731, as sharers of the first award of the noted Berkeley Scholarship at Yale, the intimate friendship between Wheelock and Benjamin Pomeroy grew throughout their lives. When Wheelock founded the College in 1769 his friend became a member of the first board of trustees, having previously served actively as trustee of Moor's Charity School. He came with Wheelock to the Coos country to select a site for the College.

Benjamin Pomeroy attended all but four of the 17 meetings of the Dartmouth trustees between 1770 and 1782, journeying 500 miles on horseback from Hebron, Conn., for each meeting. Of the four he missed, three were held during the Revolutionary War when travel was impossible. The records show that his counsel and advice were highly regarded and valued both by Wheelock and the rest of the board. In the spring of 1779 when word came to Hebron of Wheelock's death, the aged Pomeroy, then almost blind, started at once for Hanover, and in the college hall paid the last formal tribute to his lifelong friend in a memorial service, largely attended by the College, the residents of Hanover, and of the neighboring towns. His last attendance at a trustee meeting was in 1782. Through the infirmities of age he was compelled to resign in 1783, and died in 1784.

It is not too much to say that, from his college years, Wlieelock relied on the help of Pomeroy more constantly than on that of any other man. It is doubtful if any individual, except Wheelock himself and Gov. Wentworth, had more to do with shaping the destinies of the institution in its formative years.