Presidents of the College

EVER ANIMATED by the drive of moral force, deeply urged to raise the stand- aid of his fellow man, Wheelock made as his special endeavor the Christianizing of the Indian. Founder of Moor's Indian Charity School in Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1755, by the success of his efforts he at- tracted wide attention and large financial aid both in the Colonies and in England, so that, by 1769, he was in the position to enlarge his educational efforts to the status of a college.

Securing a charter from the Royal Gov- ernor of New Hampshire, he selected Han- over as the site of his institution. Coming to the new country in 1770, at the age of nearly sixty he found himself confronted with the task of clearing the primeval forest, of erecting temporary buildings for both School and College, of raising crops to support the student community, of maintaining missionary enterprises to the Indians and of attracting Indian boys to the School, of establishing a church, and, through his own efforts and those of his immediate family, of carrying on instruc- tion in the newborn College. Of all these activities he was the sole directing head.

Success rewarded his endeavors and in a time unbelievably short a college, its standards and accomplishments quite on a parity with those of the seven older in- stitutions of its type established in America, was flourishing in what, a few years before, had been an utter wilderness. Of the nine pre-Revolutionary colleges Dartmouth was the only one which car- ried on its activities during that contest

without serious interruption. In the founding of Dartmouth Whee- lock built things far larger than he, even in his most optimistic moments, could ever have realized.

I. ELEAZAR WHEELOCK, 1711-1779 Yale, Class of 1733; President,