Forgotten Dartmouth Men
As A STUDENT of American Literature and „ as a graduate of Dartmouth, I have always been curious about the fourteen months of Joel Barlow's life—the period from September, 1773, into November, 1774—which he spent in Hanover so shortly after the founding of Moor's School and Dartmouth College. And often I have wondered just how much the influence of these two institutions affected the career of this distinguished publisher, lawyer, poet, traveller, and statesman who was destined to become a graduate of Yale in the Class of 1778 in the company of such illustrious men as Oliver Wolcott, onetime Secretary of the Treasury; Zephaniah Swift, Representative to Congress; and Noah Webster, the greatest American lexicographer.
Consequently I have attempted to piece together the few known facts about Joel's life at Moor's and Dartmouth. No portraits of that period exist,1 the Barlow Manuscripts of the Widener Library begin with the Yale period, and even his own writings are strangely reticent about his first school days away from Connecticut.
Joel Barlow was born on a farm at Reading (Redding), Connecticut, where his family was permanently located in the year 1754. Like many another American man of letters, he attended the district school2 where he received the essentials of a primary education but where he also had the reputation of being rather a dull scholar.3 As this was a purely local opinion, little credence should be given to it, particularly in the light of subsequent events.
Following closely upon his instruction in the local school, his parents placed him in charge of the local pastor, Rev. Nathaniel Bartlett, a minister fresh from his studies at Yale College who was to hold his new pastorate for an unbroken period of fiftyseven years! As the result of Rev. Mr. Bartlett's excellent training, his pupil entered Moor's Charity School in September, 1773. In President Eleazar Wheelock's Diary, I find the following entry:
"Septr. 14th 1773. Mr. Samuel Barlow of Reading in the Colony of Connecticut brought his son Joel here to School and informed me that Miss Elisabeth Barr of Fairfield had manifested her Willingness to come hither and take the Place & undertake the Business, Which Miss Sarah Comestock was invited to, and recommended her sd. Elisabeth and Said She was esteemed by Others acquainted with her to be of Education and Ability equal to the Business of overseeing, superintending, and directing the affair of Cooking for the College and the School4 and managing the Prudentials there of, with proper assistant, and Proposed that he Would hire her, & pay her for her Service provided I would turn it toward the Support of his Son here.
"To which Proposal I complyed on condition that said Miss Elisabeth on tryal Should be well pleased to ingage and pursue the Business, and on tryal should be found so equal to it as to perform it to good Satisfaction, and on his Part that his son the said Joel should officiate as a Waiter on the Table at meal Time and also at the beck of Miss Elisabeth only in Play Time, & vacations from Studies to perform Such Errands and incidental Services as She Shall have Occasion for in her Business, and in consideration of her, Miss Elisabeth and his sd. Joel's Services he is to have provided his Board viz eating drinking washing firewood Candles study Room & Tuition. And this to continue only during the time of her sd. Elisabeths Services or to run parallel with one another ie the Time of Services and the Term of sd. of Joel's Support as above.
"Mr. Barlow is to use endeavours to find a suitable conveyance for the said Elisabeth hither, by my son John Wheelock, or the Revd. Mr. Ripley or some of my Laborers—or any others of those parts, and to use these Endeavours Gratis. The expence of said Elisabeths Journey I am to bear, which is not designed to be the Expence of a man's coming on purpose."5
From this record, one finds that "waiting on table" in the Commons traces its inception back at least one hundred and sixty years. The present Dartmouth student will do well to compare his necessary expenses with the seven items which the College was obligated to provide for Joel, although he well may wonder whether or not there was any limitation placed upon the quantity of food or drink consumed!
During the year 1773-1774, while the youth was completing his course at Moor's School, he made preparations for entering Dartmouth that fall. He was now twenty years of age. His father had died near the beginning of 1774; hence it was found necessary for the legality of the arrangements with Dartmouth that he should have a guardian appointed. Therefore he appeared before President Wheelock on March 7, 1774 according to the evidence on file among the probate' Records of Fairfield County, Connecticut:
"Province of vs Dartmouth College New Hampshire in Hanover in the County of Grafton this Seventh Day of March A.D. 1774. Personally appeared Joel Barlow a student in Moors School now incorporated with Said College, Son of Mr. Samuel Barlow late of Redding in the County of Fairfield and Coloney of Connecticut deceased, and freely and voluntarily made choice of his Hond. Mother Mrs. Esther Barlow of Redding aforsd widow and Relict to the aforesd deceased, to be his Guardian and desired proper certificate to be made there of to the Honourable Court of Probate in the Said County of Fairfield.
before me Eleazar Wheelock, Justice Peace."
Joel Barlow's biographers have little evidence to show why he forsook "Classic Dartmouth's college halls for those of Yale. There is some indication, however, that he wished to be nearer his old home where he could more readily receive financial assistance. On November 8, 1774, President Wheelock sent the following letter to President Daggett of Yale:
"Dartmouth College Novr Bth 1774 Revd & dear Sir
The bearer Mr. Joel Barlow of Reading, was admitted into this College last Commencement after he had been Some Time in this school, and has by Sober regular and good Behavior so recommended himself to Universal Esteem that we should be quite unwilling to part with him were it not that by means of Father's Death his outward circumstances are straitned and he has a prospect of some advantages for his relief by being nearer home. These are therefore at his Desire, to recommend him as a good genius 7 & a midling scholar to be admitted by you into the freshman class if you shall judge his acquirements intitle him to it. And X hope he will be a comfort to you and an ornament to your Seminary. Wishing you, dear Sir, the Divine Preference, and Blessing in your important Department, I subscribe with much Esteem and Respect
Your brother and hh Servant Eleazar Wheelock."
Revd Presidt Daggett
Prophetic in deed was President Wheelock's wish that the student, "a midling scholar," should be an "ornament" to the Seminary which was his own alma mater: Joel Barlow not only sustained a distinguished reputation for scholarship throughout his Yale College course but as I have before stated, became preeminent in many fields of intellectual activity. himself far from his native land beneath the smoky rafters of a Savoyard Inn sitting down to a meal of Polante, the Italian corn meal mush. Then and there he wrote his merriest of mock pastorals, Hasty Pudding. Undoubtedly he turned his memory back twenty years to Hanover and the Dartmouth Commons where hasty pudding was ever a staple dish. He remembered once again the husking bees which he and his classmates attended in Hanover or Norwich when they helped the country maidens and hard-handed beaux strip the husks from the yellow and red ears of maize; and then, before the fiddler called the figures for the square dances, they sat down at the long tables at the harvest feast the main dish of which was hasty pudding. He celebrates the incident in the following lines:
But for my own part, I like to think of that eventful evening when Barlow found
"For now, the corn-house fill'd, the harvesthome,Th' invited neighbours to the husking come;A frolic scene, where work, and birth, andplay,bnite their charm, to chase the hoursaway.Where the huge heap lies centfd in thehall,The lamp suspended from the cheerfulwall,Brown corn-fed nymphs, and strong hardhanded beauxAlternate rang'd, extend in circling rows,Assume their seats, the solid mass attack;
The dry husks rustle, and the corn cobscrack;The song, the laugh, alternate notes reterial
sound,And the sweet cider trips in silence round.
Meanwhile the housewife urges all hercare,
The well-earned feast to hasten and prepare.
The husband takes his turn; and roundand roundThe ladle flies; at last the toil is crowned;When to the board the thronging huskerspour,And take their seats as at the corn before.I leave them to their feast."8
Hasty Pudding abounds in references which are reminiscent of rural New Hampshire of the Revolutionary Period, even though such allusions were common to New England as a whole; and more than in any other work, the merry poem shows Barlow in his best and in his happiest mood.
As highly as future generations may esteem the poet and his versatility, they must not minimize the importance of his Dartmouth education and its influence on his subsequent career.
1 Letter of Dr. Theodore A. Zunder to the author. 2 Near the site of the present district school in Reading, Ct. 3 See Hill's Biographical Sketch. 4 Moor's Charity School which had been incorporated with Dartmouth College. 5 Spelling and capitalization follows that of the original. 6 See Chase : vol. 1:300. 7 Good genius: used in the sense of a goodnatured fellow.8 Hasty Pudding: Canto 111. 9 Hovey—"Men of Dartmouth."
JOEL BARLOW Dartmouth Freshman,J 773-74
