Dartmouth in the Dictionary of American Biography

ALUMNI OF THE COLLEGE LISTED INTHE HISTORIAN'S WHO'S WHO

THE PUBLICATION of Volume XXI of the Dictionary of American Biography a few months ago marked the completion of one of the greatest projects in the history of American scholarship. Almost a decade has passed since Volume I made its appearance on the reference shelves of Baker Library. Already the earlier volumes show the inevitable wear and discoloration of constant use as well as—alas!—the trail of the moronic individual who underlines passages with his fountain pen and enters inane comments on the margins. His bloodbrother strips the birch trees along the roadsides.

These handsome red-bound volumes embody the records of more than four centuries of American achievement. No living men are included. The need of an authoritative biographical work for this country, comparable to Great Britain's Dictionaryof National Biography, had long been evident. It was made possible by the generosity of the late Adolph S. Ochs, for many years owner of the New York Times, and work began in 1925 under the auspices of the Council of Teamed Societies. Professor Allen Johnson of Yale was selected as editor and continued in that capacity until his untimely death in a Washington traffic accident in 1931. Those who are familiar with the earlier stages of the undertaking know how much of its success is due to the careful planning, meticulous scholarship, and editorial skill of Dr. Johnson. Following his death, his able associate Dr. Dumas Malone carried the work to completion and Dartmouth paid a deserved tribute by conferring on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Tetters at the Commencement of 1937

Earlier productions of the sort had been confined largely to soldiers, politicians, and the learned professions, but the present Dictionary is all-inclusive and representative of American history in its broadest sense. John L. Sullivan, pugilist, rubs elbows with John Sullivan the Revolutionary general. Baseball players, musicians, philanthropists, swindlers, editors, assassins, engineers, bankers, poets, quacks, teachers,—the long column, 13,633 in all, marches along against the background of American development since 1492, heterogeneous, but always interesting and often inspiring.

INCLUDES "FORGOTTEN MEN"

Selection of subjects was a difficult task. While there has been some criticism both as to inclusions and omissions, the final list is as fair and objective as scholars and editors—fallible like all mortals—are capable of making. Errors of omission may be corrected in supplementary volumes. Every effort was made to do justice to "forgotten men" whose achievements failed to impress contemporaries but subsequently proved important. Authorities in various fields of knowledge were constantly consulted as to the merits of individual cases.

In general, contributors were selected on the basis of professional qualifications in particular fields. While it is impossible within the limits of the present article to deal with alumni contributions, it is of interest to note in passing that E. W. Spaulding '22, Division of Research in the State Department, contributed 26 articles mostly in the field of diplomatic history.

Among the 2248 contributors, the present faculty is represented by eleven members, Professors Anderson, Colby, Gerould, McCallum, Meneely, L. B. Richardson, Riegel, W. A. Robinson, Stevens, D. L. Stone, and Waterman. The late Professors Lingley and Poor also contributed. The latter's biographies of four astronomers and a maker of lenses and precision instruments illustrate the care of the editors in selecting qualified authors for special and technical subjects. Two articles are sketches of deceased colleagues, that of the late William Patten by Professor Gerould and of Albert H. Washburn by Professor W. A. Robinson. In all, members of the faculty contributed 151 articles. While many of these are short and of somewhat routine character, it is safe to say that the average user of the Dictionary will little appreciate the labor represented in assembling a few hundred words of essential fact from scanty contemporary records, or the still greater labor of digesting and compressing into brief scope a great mass of conflicting information and not always reliable obituary and biographical opinion. On the other hand even the casual reader can appreciate the broad knowledge of historical background and well balanced judgment apparent in such contributions as Professor Meneely's article on Edwin M. Stanton, or Professor Richardson's brief biography of President Tucker—to mention only a couple. It is also worth mention that our honored senior member, Professor-Emeritus James F. Colby, is able to include "personal recollections" in his list of sources for a valuable sketch of Luke P. Poland, having been closely associated with that distinguished Vermont jurist and senator in what seem to most of us the remote days of General Grant and Reconstruction.

ALUMNI FROM CLASSES OF 1771-1885

Of greater interest to the College constituency, however, is alumni representation in the roll of subjects. Here is the most authoritative roster ever made of the men best entitled to permanent recognition in the history of our country. No living person appearing in the Dictionary, critical judgment rather than mere opinion has been the essential basis of selection. When we remember the millions who have, done their share in upbuilding the United States of the present day, there is real distinction in such membership. Thirteen thousand-odd is in reality a highly exclusive gathering, even if most of those present are dealt with in a paragraph or two. (Two of its members, Daniel Webster and Salmon P. Chase, are among the select few to whom the editors allotted maximum space.) The accompany- ing list of Dartmouth graduates—from the class of 1771 to that of 1885—is representative of many activities and widely scattered localities.

To the student of American affairs these names bring back familiar history. Some are reminiscent of "sad, forgotten, faroff things and battles long ago." William Eaton, 1790, fought the Barbary pirates in 1804 and Eleazar W. Ripley, 1800, distinguished himself on the Niagara frontier in 1814. Several others commanded troops during the Civil War. Some bring back the fading echoes of old controversies, theological, political and social. Elihu Palmer, 1787, denouncing Moses, Mohammed and Jesus as imposters, expounding political and religious liberalism with copious drafts on the philosophy of Volney, Conclorcet and Voltaire, a supporter of Jeffersonian democracy, was regarded by his contemporaries as a dangerous incendiary, as popular in respectable circles as a Communist at a D. A. R. convention. His college contemporary, Elijah Parish, 1787, was a bulwark of Federalism, a fiery opponent of the national administration, an enemy of all innovation social or political, a believer in the damnation of infants and all adult Democrats.

There were some choice radicals in the eighteen-thirties. John Humphrey Noyes, 1830, whose announcement that he had attained perfection was too much for the Calvinistic professors of the Yale divinity school who cast him into the outer darkness in 1834, founded the Oneida Community a few years later. Stephen Symonds Foster, 1838, faced ridicule and occasional violence in the cause of Abolition, served a jail sentence as an opponent of military service, and became a leader of sundry other reforms. He was a New Dealer in his day and generation although, unlike his modern prototype, he was a conscientious objector to taxes even for the other fellow. Charles Knowlton, Med. 1824, wrote the tract on birth control which landed him in a Massachusetts jail in 1838 and served as Exhibit A in the celebrated Bradlaugh trial in the Court of Queen's Bench in 1877.

A GREAT PIONEER SURGEON

The nineteenth century was still a period of pioneering in many fields, and the word "pioneer" is applied to a surprisingly large number of these men. They had little to work with in many instances. Amos Twitchell, 1802, would be amazed if he could spend a forenoon in the Mary Hitchcock Hospital, but he became one of the great surgeons of his time, operating in farmhouse kitchens without anesthetics or antiseptics and developing new methods by "surgical acumen and originality." He saved a gunshot patient by tying the carotid artery for the first time in the annals of American surgery, and without knowing that only once before in medical history had a British naval surgeon performed the same feat. George T. Angell, 1846, was active in a new movement when he interested himself in preventing cruelty to animals and his achievements in that line were fittingly recognized by a parade of draft horses at his funeral in 1909.

In other fields George H. Bissell, 1845, was a pioneer in the petroleum industry, beginning his study of that product at a time when, as his biographer remarks, "the bulk of it was used for medicinal purposes." Gardner G. Hubbard, 1841, an associate of Bell and Vail was the first organizer of the telephone industry, beginning an association of Dartmouth graduates with that great public utility carried on in later years by Harry B. Thayer '79 and Edward K. Hall '92. George Atkinson, 1843, conducted researches in dry farming methods which turned the vast stretches of the Inland Empire of Washington into one of the greatest wheat producing areas of the world. John H. Patterson, 1867, organized the cash register business. It would be interesting to go on and on but the story is too long.

In all, 156 graduates of the College are listed. There are nine others who studied here but did not graduate, either at Dartmouth or elsewhere. Twelve who transferred to other colleges where they received degrees should be credited to those institutions. Father and son appear in three instances, Elisha Ticknor, 1783, and George Ticknor, 1807; Ether Shepley, 1811, and George Foster Shepley, 1837; Charles E. Hovey, 1852, and Richard Hovey, 1885. Samuel Fessenden, 1806, was followed by William Pitt Fessenden, one of New England's greatest statesmen, and two grandsons, distinguished commanders in the Civil war, but the latter three graduated at Bowdoin. The same was true of Governor Samuel Bell's (1793) son, Luther V. Bell who, however, after leaving Bowdoin graduated at the Dartmouth Medical School in 1826 a distinguished physician, and a grandson, Louis, physicist and engineer, graduated at Dartmouth in 1880. There is no room however for any extended discussion of genealogical aspects.

Longevity seems to have been characteristic of most men in the Dictionary and may account for the termination of the Dartmouth list with the class of 1885. We can hope that members of later classes may long remain ineligible for supplementary volumes.

Whether the classes of the twentieth century will be as productive of men of distinction is another question. In the earlier period "going to college" was a serious business. Probably there was a process of natural selection at work which was superior to any devised by committees on admission in later years. Money was scarce, it took ambition and determination to get through, although in a country which was still in the pioneer stage the opportunities and rewards for the educated man were correspondingly great. But there are the "new frontiers" of the present century and lack of opportunity will hardly be an acceptable alibi in years to come. Some members of the class of 1938 who totter over into the next century among "the oldest living graduates" may consult a supplementary series of the great Dictionary and formulate their own conclusions as to the success or failure of the classes from 1886 to 1985 and the reasons for the same. The past at least is secure.

THE COMPLETE ALUMNI ROSTER

Class of 1771 JOHN WHEELOCK, President of Dartmouth College 1774 JOSEPH MCKEEN, Congregational clergyman, first president of Bowdoin College 1777 ASA BURTON, Congregational clergyman, educator 1782 CALEB BINGHAM, pioneer writer of textbooks 1783 ELISHA TICKNOR, educator, merchant 1785 ELIJAH PARISH, Congregational clergyman, author 1787 ELIHU PALMER, deist, political and religious liberal 1788 DANIEL CHIPMAN, lawyer, author 1789 DANIEL MERRILL, Baptist clergyman MARTIN CHITTENDEN, governor of Vermont 1790 WILLIAM EATON, army officer, diplomat 1791 EBENEZER ADAMS, educator SETH WILLISTON, clergyman and home missionary 1792 JESSE APPLETON, theologian, educator EBENEZER PORTER, Congregational clergyman, educator 1793 SAMUEL BELL, lawyer, governor of New Hampshire, senator ZEPHANIAH SWIFT MOORE, Congregational clergyman, president of Williams and Amherst Colleges ERASTUS ROOT, lawyer, politician 1795 DAVID EVERETT, lawyer, journalist, author SAMUEL WORCESTER, Congregational clergyman 1796 PHILANDER CHASE, Episcopal bishop THOMAS GREEN FESSENDEN, poet, journalist, inventor 1797 DANIEL ADAMS, physician, educator 1800 ELEAZAR WHEELOCK RIPLEY, soldier 1801 DANIEL WEBSTER, statesman 1802 AMOS TWITCHELL, pioneer New Hampshire surgeon 1803 REUBEN SIMOND MUSSEY, surgeon, temperance worker GEORGE CIIEYNE SHATTUCK, physician, philanthropist 1804 SAMUEL LORENZO KNAPP, miscellaneous writer 1805 FRANCIS BROWN, president of Dartmouth College HENRY COLMAN, Unitarian minister and agricultural writer 1806 SAMUEL FESSENDEN, lawyer, abolitionist RICHARD FLETCHER, jurist ALBION KIETH PARRIS, senator, governor of Maine 1807 TIMOTHY FARRAR, jurist, author GEORGE TICKNOR, educator, author 1808 ICHABOD BARTLETT, lawyer, politician 1809 STEPHEN HARRIMAN LONG, explorer, engineer LEVI WOODBURY, senator, cabinet officer, member of Supreme Court 1811 AMOS KENDALL, journalist, postmaster general JOEL PARKER, jurist DANIEL POOR, Congregational missionary to Ceylon and India, linguist ETHER SHEPLEY, jurist, senator 1813 RUFUS WILLIAM BAILEY, Congregational clergyman, president of Austin College JOSEPH BARLOW FELT, antiquarian BENJAMIN GREENLEAF, educator, author of textbook 1814 THADDEUS STEVENS, lawyer, congressman, political leader JOSEPH TRACY, Congregational clergyman, editor, author 1815 JOSEPH ESTABROOK, teacher, president of University OF Tennessee ELISHA HUNTINGTON, physician, public official LEVI SPAULDING, missionary to India 1816 CHARLES BRICKETT HADDOCK, educator JOHN HUBBARD, physician, governor of Maine ABSALOM PETERS, Presbyterian clergyman, editor, author 1817 WILLIAM GOODELL, missionary to the Near East JAMES MARSH, philosopher, president of University of Vermont 1818 GEORGE BUSH, Presbyterian clergyman, Swedenborgian HENRY KEMBLE OLIVER, teacher, Massachusetts labor official, labor statistician THOMAS COGSWELL UPHAM, teacher, metaphysician, author 1819 RUFUS CHOATE, lawyer, statesman 1820 GEORGE PERKINS MARSH, lawyer, diplomat, scholar 1822 IRA PERLEY, lawyer, jurist 1825 CALEB SPRAGUE HENRY, clergyman, educator, author ISAAC FLETCHER REDFIELO, judge, author 1826 SALMON PORTLAND CHASE, statesman, secretary of the Treasury, Chief Justice ,828 SHERMAN HALL, Congregational clergyman, missionary to Chippewa Indians MILO PARKER JEWETT, educational pioneer, president of Vassar and Milwaukee-Downer Colleges 1829 MOSES MCCURE STRONG, surveyor, lawyer, legislator 1830 JOHN HUMPHREY NOYES, social reformer, founder of Oneida Community ASA DODGE SMITH, Presbyterian clergyman, president of Dartmouth College 1831 SAMUEL GILMAN BROWN, president of Hamilton College JOHN LORD HAYES, lawyer, author, scientist 1832 ERWIN DAVID SANBORN, educator SAMUEL HARVEY TAYLOR, educator JOSEPH DANA WEBSTER, soldier, engineer JOHN WENTWORTH, editor, congressman 1833 JOHN LORD, historical lecturer 1834 DANIEL CLARK, politician, jurist MOODY CURRIER, financier, governor of New Hampshire SAMUEL HOLMES MATHER, lawyer, banker RICHARD BURLEIGH KIMBALL, author, lawyer 1835 AMOS TUCK, congressman, lawyer 1836 SAMUEL COI.CORD BARTLETT, Congregational clergyman, president of Dartmouth College JAMES WILSON GRIMES, lawyer, governor of lowa, senator EDMUND RANDOLPH PEASLEE, physician 1837 GEORGE FOSTER SHEPLEY, soldier, governor of Louisiana 1838 STEPHEN SYMONDS FOSTER, abolitionist, reformer 1839 OREN BURBANK CHENEY, Baptist clergyman, president of Bates College GEORGE GILMAN FOGG, lawyer, editor, diplomat FITCH EDWARD OLIVER, physician, historian 1840 EDMUND FARWELL SLAFTER, Protestant Episcopal clergyman 1841 GARDINER GREENE HUBBARD, first organizer of telephone industry, promoter of education of the deaf 1842 AMOS TAPPAN ACKERMAN, lawyer, public official HIRAM ORCUTT, educator 1843 GEORGE HENRY ATKINSON, Congregational clergyman, educator, community builder HARRY BINGHAM, lawyer, politician 1844 CHARLES HENRY BELL, lawyer, politician, author MELI.EN CHAMBERLAIN, historian JOHN NOBLE GOODWIN, lawyer, politician ALVAH HOVEY, Baptist clergyman, educator HARVEY JEWELL, lawyer 1845 GEORGE THORNDIKE ANGELL, reformer GEORGE HENRY BISSELL, promoter of petroleum industry SAMUEL HOPKINS WILLEY, pioneer California clergyman, and editor 1846 CHARLES AUGUSTUS AIKEN, educator, president of Union College 1848 OLIVER MILLER, jurist JAMES WILLIS PATTERSON, educator, senator 1849 JOHN BELL BOUTON, author CHARLES DOE, jurist 1850 JOHN ORDRONAUX, lawyer, physician 1851 REDFIELD PROCTOR, governor of Vermont, secretary of war 1852 a CHARLES EDWARD HOVEY, educator, Union soldier 1853 MOSES GERRISH FARMER, inventor, pioneer American electrician HENRY FAIRBANKS, clergyman, inventor, manufacturer CHARLES AUGUSTUS YOUNG, astronomer NATHAN JACKSON MORRISON, Congregational clergyman, president Olivet and Drury Colleges 1854 JOHN EATON, educator WILLIAM CALLYHAN ROBINSON, legal educator, author 1855 GREENLEAF CLARK, jurist NELSON DINGLEY, editor, governor of Maine, congressman WALBRIDGE ABNER FIELD, jurist 1857 EDWARD FOLLANSBEE NOYES, governor of Ohio, minister to France 1858 CHARLES OLIVER THOMPSON, engineer, educator 1859 LUTHER TRACY TOWNSEND, Methodist minister, author, educator 1860 CECIL FRANKLIN PATCH BANCROFT, educator ALBERT SMITH BRICKMORE, educator 1861 WILLIAM JEWETT TUCKER, clergyman, president of Dartmouth College GEORGE SYLVESTER MORRIS, educator, philosopher 1862 JOHN ROBIE EASTMAN, astronomer 1863 CHARLES ALFRED PILLSBURY, flour miller 1864 DANIEL CROSBY GREENE, missionary 1866 HENRY CLAY IDE, lawyer, statesman, diplomat 1867 JOHN HENRY PATTERSON, promoter and manufacturer of cash registers WALTER HENRY SANBORN, jurist 1868 AMBROSE LOOMIS RANNEY, physician 1870 LEWIS Boss, astronomer FRANCIS BROWN, theologian, president of Union Seminary ETHELBERT TALBOX, Protestant Episcopal bishop 1871 HENRY ALLEN HAZEN, meteorologist CHARLES FRANCIS RICHARDSON, teacher, author WARREN UPHAM, geologist, archeologist 1872 CHARLES RANSOM MILLER, editor, newspaper director 1873 FRANCIS EDWARD CLARK, Congregational minister, founder of Young Peoples Society of Christian Endeavor GEORGE AUGUSTUS GATES, educator, president of Grinnell College HENRY MARTYN PAUL, astronomer, engineer, teacher JOHN HENRY WRIGHT, Hellenist 1874 SAMUEL WALKER MCCALL, congressman, governor of Massachusetts 1875 FRANK SWETT BLACK, lawyer, governor of New York CHARLES AZRO PROUTY, lawyer, member Interstate Commerce Commission 1877 JUSTIN HARVEY SMITH, historian 1878 JOHN COTTON DANA, librarian, museum director CHARLES DANIEL TENNEY, missionary, educator 1879 CHARLES MERRILL HOUGH, jurist 1884 Louis BELL, physicist, engineer 1885 RICHARD HOVEY, poet

THE FOLLOWING non-graduates should, in line with regular policy, be credited to the College in addition to the foregoing list. The date is the year of entrance. JOHN LEDYARD (1772), explorer SAMUEL MERRILL (1812), Indiana official JONATHAN PECKHAM MILLER (1821), anti-slavery advocate THOMAS LOW NICHOLS (1830), pioneer dietitian, hydrotherapist, author WARREN FELT EVANS (1838), clergyman, author of books on mental healing ROSWELL MORSE SHURTLEFF (1853), landscape painter EDWARD PAYSON TENNEY (1854), clergyman, educator, author EDWARD PAYSON JACKSON (1856), educator, author HORACE FLETCHER (1866), writer and lecturer on nutrition Two medical graduates, not graduates of the College or holding a degree from other institutions are also in the Dictionary.JOSEPH ADAMS GALLUP (1798), CHARLES KNOWLTON (1824).

THE FOLLOWING, who graduated at other institutions were, for longer or shorter periods, students at Dartmouth. JOEL BARLOW, Yale, 1778, poet, statesman SAMUEL HUNTINGTON, Yale, 1785, governor of Ohio ALDEN PARTRIDGE, U. S. M. A., 1806, military educator LEONARD WOODS, Union, 1827, clergyman, President of Bowdoin College GEORGE WILLIAM BROWN, Rutgers, 1831, lawyer, judge, mayor of Baltimore DANIEL PHINEAS WOODBURY, U. S. M. A., 1836, soldier, engineer SAMUEL REYNOLDS HOUSE, Union, 1837, physician, medical missionary to Siam DANIEL KIMBALL PEARSONS, Vermont, 1841, physician, financier philanthropist GEORGE HENRY MOORE, C. C. N. Y., 1842, librarian, historian bibliographer HENRY BURNS HUTCHINS, Michigan, 1871, lawyer, educator, President of University of Michigan GEORGE BERNARD GRANT, Harvard, 1873, inventor, mechanical engineer WILLIAM ARCHIBALD DUNNING, Columbia, 1881, historian, teacher

(TOP) THE NORTH COUNTRY IN APRIL. (BELOW) A CLOSER VIEW OF THE COLLEGE,

Professor of Political Science