The Wheelock Succession

To THE UNEASY position, made available by the removal of John Wheelock, was called a young clergyman from Yarmouth, Maine—Francis Brown. It was his task to maintain the College as a going institution in face of adverse decisions of the New Hampshire courts, to keep it in operation when its buildings and equipment were in the hands of its adversaries, and to act as the directing force in the political and legal campaign which it was waging for its very existence. With untiring energy and keen effectiveness he performed these functions. Resourceful, industrious, pertinacious, he was the center of the struggle. Utterly devoted to the College cause, he refused to withdraw from it in the face of attractive and honorable opportunities to enter other fields of service. Withal, he was effective in the ordinary operations of the College, respected, loved and honored by the student body.

His cause eventually prevailed, but too late for his personal enjoyment. Worn out by his continuous labor and mental anxiety, he had already fallen prey to a wasting disease and died less than a year after the decision was rendered. To him, more than to any other man, Dartmouth College, in the form which we know it today, owes its continued existence.

Copy by Joseph Ames from S. F. B. Morse portrait.III. FRANCIS BROWN 1784-1820 Dartmouth, Class 1805; President, 1815-1820