Useless Dartmouth Information
Score of Zero Will Be "Highly Satisfactory" Says Our Noted Historian, Author of This New Kind of Quiz
EVERYONE IS CONDUCTING quiz tests. The newspapers, the magazines, the radio teem with them, with contestants ranging all the way from the omniscient John Kieran of Information Please and the pestiferous Gerard of the Quiz Kids to a team of six aged scrub ladies selected from the force of Kimbelkatz & Company, world's largest manufacturers of flexible toothpicks. All these contests have a certain similarity, however, in that the information asked for is of the order which one might just as well do without.
It seems necessary that THE DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE should enter this field with the publication of a quiz upon the men of Dartmouth. The author has been asked to select from the large store of useless information that he has amassed sixty questions about persons who have been connected with the College. In this selection the purpose has been, in general, to choose items which are odd, or trivial, or insignificant or bizarre—in other words information of the maximum lack of significance or utility. Because such items are easier to obtain concerning the graduates of the earlier period (and with the incidental purpose of trying to avoid libel suits from recent graduates or their immediate descendants) for the most part this quiz is confined to persons connected with the College in the first hundred years of its existence.
In scoring this quiz the logical rather than the usual method is to be followed. Assign yourself one point for each question answered correctly. Then, as in golf, the lowest score wins. Thus a score of 60 indicates a disgracefully cluttered mind, while one' of zero shows a highly satisfactory state of ignorance. Perhaps you will not be able to score a zero, but do as well as you can. Three of these questions were propounded to the President of the College, who obviously had not th'e slightest idea of the correct answer of any of them. At this point the test was brought to a premature conclusion by the inquisitor agilely dodging out of the door—thereby saving his head from being shattered by a copy of the latest edition of the General Catalogue of Dartmouth College, hurled by well-justified presidential wrath. The door, however, which received the full impact of the blow, has never been the same since. Editor Hayward, when questioned, glumly refused to make any reply; evidently he knows some of the answers and is ashamed to acknowledge it. Miss Mildred Saunders, college archivist, knows the answers to a good many of them, and has even been helpful in suggesting additions to the list; aid for which the writer is grateful. The extreme limit, however, is reached with the writer himself, who knows the answers to all of them. Do not worry, however. Bad (that is, well informed) as you may be, you cannot be so bad (that is, so idiotically informed) as that.
So to the questions. Try them. You may be pleasantly surprised and encouraged at finding out how few of them you can answer.
( 1) How many Dartmouth graduates havelived to become centenarians?
Four. Laban Ainsworth, 1788, died Mar. 17, 1858, aged 100 yrs. 7 mos. 28 days; John Sawyer, 1785, died Oct. 14, 1858, aged 103 yrs. 5 days; Oliver S. Taylor, 1809, died Apr. 19, 1885, aged 100 yrs. 4 mos. 2 days; Zeeb Gilman, 1863, age on Jan. 1, 1942, 100 yrs. 7 mos. 18 days.
( 2) Who was the youngest person ever tobe graduated from the College?
William W. Moore, 1804, age at graduation, 12 yrs. 8 mos., 10 days. At Commencement he took part in a Hebrew dialogue. He died at the age of 21.
( 3) What President of Dartmouth eventually became its oldest living alumnus?
Daniel Dana, 1788, was the oldest graduate from Oct. 14, 1858 to his death on Aug. 26, 1859 at the age of 88.
( 4) The daughter of what Dartmouthgraduate married a President of theUnited States?
Jane, daughter of Jesse Appleton, 1792, President of Bowdoin, married Franklin Pierce.
( 5) What Dartmouth graduate probablyoccupied public office more continuously and held a greater variety ofimportant posts than any other?
Levi Woodbury, 1809, Judge of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire, 1816-1823; Governor of New Hampshire, 1823-1824; United States Senator, 1825-1831, 1841-1845; Secretary of the Navy, 1831-1834; Secretary of the Treasury, 1834-1841; Justice of the United States Supreme Court, 1845-1851. But for his death he would have stood an excellent chance of receiving the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1852.
( 6) What Dartmouth graduate was, atdifferent times, a prominent candidate for the presidential nominationby both Republican and Democraticparties?
Salmon P. Chase, 1826, candidate for the Republican nomination, iB6O, for the Democratic nomination, 1868.
( 7) What Dartmouth President had eightsons who were graduated from Dartmouth, the tuition of each of whomhe paid in full from a salary of $1200a yeart
President Nathan Lord. The sons were John King Lord, 1836, Joseph L. Lord, 1839, Frederick R. Lord, 1842, William H. Lord, Henry C. Lord and Samuel A. Lord, all of 1843, Nathan Lord, 1851, Francis B. Lord, 1856.
( 8) What Dartmouth graduate, a prominent politician and friend of Lincoln,much surpassed that President in aquality upon which the latter especially prided himself.
John Wentworth, 1836, member of Congress from Illinois and for many years Mayor of Chicago, "Long John" his height, 6 ft. 6 in., height of Lincoln, 6 ft. 4 in.
( 9) What Dartmouth graduate was thefounder of the most successful communistic community in America, andwas notorious for his radical notionsupon the relation of the sexes? John Humphrey Noyes, 1830, founder of the Oneida Community.
(10) What Dartmouth graduates were, incollege, very good boys?
Of Samuel Badger, 1840, it was said, "It is remarkable that he was never absent from prayers or recitations during the whole of his college life." Of Rufus Choate, 1819, John N. Putnam, 1843, later Professor of Greek, and Walbridge A. Field, 1855, later Chief Justice of Massachusetts, it was said that they "held through their whole course the standard of perfection."
(11) What Dartmouth graduate, a Confederate quartermaster during theCivil War, was removed from a cabinet position by a President becausehe "was not complaisant to the demands of railroad leaders for government land grants?"
Amos T. Ackerman, 1842, removed from the position of Attorney General by President Grant in 1871 at the behest of the railroad leaders, Gould and Huntington.
(12) What Dartmouth man, carrying noweapon other than an umbrella, ledan American force throush a hostilecity?
George W. Brown, 1831, Mayor of Baltimore, learning of the rioting which had greeted the passage of the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment through that city in April, 1861, met the marching column, then in much disorder, and, carrying hat in one hand and umbrella in the other, led the forces through their continued march without further trouble being encountered.
(13) What Dartmouth man invented paper window shades, devised the firstelectric fire alarm system, constructedan incandescent lamp long before thedays of Edison, invented a "self-exciting" dynamo, and greatly advancedthe art of torpedo warfare, but financially did not profit greatly from hisinventive work?
Moses G. Farmer, 1843.
(14) What two brothers were graduatedfrom Dartmouth, one of whom became a large slave holder in Arkansas,while the other was prominent as ananti-slavery man, a general in theNorthern army and for a short perioda Republican United States Senator?
The slave holder, Jeremiah Marston, 1843; his anti-slavery brother, General Gilman Marston, 1837.
(15) What Dartmouth graduate was theleader in a prosecution for heresyagainst another Dartmouth graduate,who afterwards became President ofthe College?
Rev. Joshua W. Wellman, 1846, was a prime agent in the institution of the prosecution against Rev. William J. Tucker, 1861, and other professors of the Andover Theological Seminary.
(16) What Dartmouth graduate was hangedin effigy because, as a public official,he refused to half-mast the flags underhis jurisdiction upon the death of oneof his predecessors?
Redfield Proctor, 1851, as Secretary of War refused to half-mast the flags of the department upon the death of Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War under President Pierce. As a result he was hanged in effigy in Mississippi.
(17) What Dartmouth man was killed by ablow of an axe delivered by his wifewhen he was kneeling at family prayers?
John C. Caldwell, 1854, at Byfield, Mass., on Dec. 31, 1878.
(18) What Dartmouth graduate, fourteenyears after entering a state, a strangerwithout means, was elected Governorof that state?
Edward F. Noyes, 1857, Governor of Ohio, 1871.
(19) What Dartmouth graduate, throughstrenuous diplomatic efforts; succeeded in saving a city of 10,000 Christians from sack and massacre by aMoslem army?
Rev. Henry Marden, 1862, missionary in Turkey, averted, by negotiations and personal efforts, the attack of the Turkish soldiers upon the city of Zeetoon.
(so) What Dartmouth graduate led underthe American flag a motley force ofGreeks, Italians and Arabs from Alexandria across the Libyan desert andcaptured the city of Derna, .only tohave his victory nullified by diplomatic muddling at Washington?
William Eaton, 1790.
(21) Of what Dartmouth graduate is itsaid that, having the hallucinationthat he could raise the dead, he wasrestored to mental health by his failure to succeed in that process whenhe attempted it with his dead wife?
Isaac Osborn, 1779.
(22) Who may justly lay claim to havebeen the Paul Bunyan of Dartmouth?
George Grout, 1795. "Such was his strength and agility that, in wrestling, he threw in succession seven brothers, powerful athletes, who had challenged the whole college to contend with them."
(23) What Dartmouth graduate was thefirst surgeon to perform the operationof tying the carotid artery?
Dr. Amos Twitchell, 1802, in 1807, when but 26 years of age, saved the life of a man injured by a gunshot wound in the neck by this operation, not previously thought possible without fatal results.
(24) What Dartmouth men were involved,as the accused, in spectacular murdertrials?
Dr. Valorus P. Coolidge, 1844, Med., was sentenced to death for poisoning Edward Matthews at Waterville, Maine, on Sept. 30, 1847, wifh hydrocyanic acid. "However he was not hanged and there is mystery as to his end. According to some authorities he died in prison, but there is very strong evidence that he made his escape with the connivance of someone in authority."
Daniel McFarland, 1851, shot and killed Albert D. Richardson, war correspondent and writer of books, in the office of the New York Tribune, in 1869. McFarland was acquitted by a jury which was said to be "peculiarly obtuse, even for New York."
(25) What Dartmouth graduate, a teacher,was in the habit of travelling throughthe country dressed in ragged clothescontaining many capacious pocketsfor holding rags and other junk whichhe might. find, and who also was theauthor of a long series of chap books,largely filled with poetry and now excessively rare?
Chapman Whitcomb, 1785.
(26) What Dartmouth graduate was killedin a duel, for which crime his opponent was hanged?
Alphonso C. Stuart, 1809, was killed in Belleville, 111., in 1819. It is said that Stuart and the seconds in the contest had agreed not to use bullets, but his antagonist, suspecting this, himself put a ball in his pistol. He was convicted of murder and hanged. As a result of this contest the practice of duelling in Illinois was ended.
(27) What Dartmouth graduate was admitted to the United States Senateonly after a long contest concerningthe validity of his credentials?
Charles H. Bell, 1844, appointed by Governor Prescott of New Hampshire in 1879 for the period between the expiration of his predecessor's term and the meeting of the legislature. The validity of this appointment was approved by the Senate only by the close vote of 35 to 28.
(g8) What Hanover residents, officers ofthe College, became members of Congress?
Jonathan Freeman, A.M., 1795, trustee, 1793-1808, a member of the House, 1797-1801. Professor James W. Patterson, 1848, member of the House, 1863-1867, of the Senate, 1867-1873.
(29) Of what Dartmouth graduate didWendell Phillips say, "It neededsomething to shake New England andstun it into listening. He was the manand offered himself for the martyrdom?"
Stephen S. Foster, 1838, extreme abolitionist and fervid crusader against slavery.
(30) What Dartmouth graduate becamegovernor of a state when 79 years ofage?
Moody Currier, 1834, Governor of New Hampshire, 1885-1887.
(31) What Dartmouth graduate was aschool teacher, adjutant general ofthe state militia, organizer of a volunteer regimejit (the only one from thatstate) in the Mexican war, superintendent of a large cotton mill, treasurer of his state, a church organist, thewriter of many familiar hymns, developer and first head of a state laborbitreau?
Henry K. Oliver, 1818, of Salem, Mass.
(3a) Of what Dartmouth graduate is itsaid that his hair turned white overnight as a result of agony over the unfaithfulness of his wife?
Levi Willard, 1776.
(33) What two Dartmouth men were bornon the same day, were graduated inthe same class and were associated ina law partnership which lasted overfifty years?
Henry C. Hutchins, 1840, and Alexander S. Wheeler, 1840, of the Boston firm of Hutchins and Wheeler.
(34) What two Dartmouth graduates wereprominent in the establishment of thepetroleum industry?
Dr. Francis B. Brewer, 1843, upon whose land the first development of oil was made, and George H. Bissell, 1845, organizer of the company which drove the first oil well. An early analysis of petroleum in the laboratory of the College had much to do with the beginnings of the enterprise.
(35) What Dartmouth graduate, an investigator of and writer upon agriculture, and a welcome guest in the highest circles of English society, "foolishlypublished a gossipy book upon thegreat people he had seen and knownand thereby lost caste." Upon his return to England, "he was neglected,which broke his heart, and soon afterhe died."
Henry Colman, 1805.
(36) a. What class graduated two men whoconstituted the representation of astate in the United States Senate atthe same time? b. What class graduated two men who became bishops inthe Episcopal Church? c. What classgraduated two men who became presidents of the same New England university?
a. 1851. Redfield Proctor, Senator from Vermont, 1891-1908, Jonathan Ross, Senator from the same state, 1899-1900. b. 1870. Abiel Leonard, Bishop of Nevada and Utah, 1888-1903; Ethelbert Talbot, Bishop of Wyoming and Idaho, 1887-1898, of Central Pennsylvania, 1898-1905, of Bethlehem, 1905-1927. c. 1816. John Wheeler, President of the University of Vermont, 1833-1849, succeeded by his classmate Joseph Torrey, 1862-1866.
(37) For what Dartmouth graduate is oneof the highest peaks in the RockyMountains named?
Long's Peak in Colorado is named for Stephen H: Long, 1809, Chief of the Topographical Department of the United States Army, who explored the region in 1820. Long afterwards became a leading authority in the new field of railroad construction.
(38) What Dartmouth graduate, the presiding judge of a court, insisted onhaving the windows of the court roomwide open on the coldest winter day,to the great discomfiture of all otherswhose attendance was required?
Charles Doe, 1849, Chief Justice of New Hampshire.
(39) What Dartmouth graduate, a nativeof New Hampshire, was the owner ofthe plantation upon which the surrender of Vicksburg to General Granttook place?
James Shirley, 1818.
(40) What Dartmouth graduate, as Governor of a state, signed an enactmentwhich was of interest to the entirenation?
John Hubbard, 1816, Governor of Maine, 1849-1853 signed the first state prohibitory law (the Maine law).
(41) What Dartmouth graduate, amid riotous scenes, was expelled from the firstlegislature of Kansas because of hisopposition to slavery, but who, despitethe fact that he was twice arrested andhis office sacked, continued that opposition until final victory was won?
John Hutchinson, 1853.
(42) What Dartmouth man, acting Superintendent of West Point, engaged ina heated struggle to resist replacement by another Dartmouth man, asa result of which he was cashiered bya court martial. Later he was extremely active in establishing institutions of college and secondary gradedevoted to military instruction.
Alden Partridge, 1806, founder of Norwich University and seven other military institutes, most of the latter short-lived. He was replaced at West Point by Major Sylvanus Thayer, Dartmouth 1807, the real founder of that institution, so far as effective work is concerned.
(43) What Dartmouth graduate was theauthor of an early book on birth control?
Dr. Charles Knowlton, 1834, Med,., author of Fruits of Philosophy, or the PrivateCompanion of Young Married People. The author was prosecuted and fined at Taunton, and sentenced to three months hard labor at Cambridge, but prosecution failed at Greenfield. A reprint of the book in England was the subject of the famous test case of the Queen vs. Charles Bradlaugh and Anne Besant (1877). Failure of the prosecution, with the resulting publicity, led to an immensely increased sale of the book, which rose from 1000 yearly to a quarter of a million.
(44) What Dartmouth graduate, of higheststand in his class, a brilliant lawyer"of commanding personal appearance, courteous of manner, of graceful bearing, brilliant in society," having been "drawn within the vortexof an overmastering habit whichmade a wreck of his future prospects"at length died as an inmate of theGrafton County poor house?
James Hutchinson, 1806.
(45) What Dartmouth graduate made aspeech in a state legislature "whichproduced an effect second to nospeech ever uttered in an Americanlegislative assembly"
Thaddeus Stevens, 1814, in a speech in the Pennsylvania House in defense of the newly-established state school system, won over a hostile House and caused a hostile Senate to reverse itself.
(46) What early Dartmouth graduate, apoet and dramatist, wrote a coupletstill often quoted?
Daniel Everett, 1795. The couplet: "You'd scarce expect one of my age To speak in public on the stage."
(47) What Dartmouth graduate attainedgreat influence in the MormonChurch?
Albert Carrington, 1834, one of the twelve apostles of the Church, executor of the will of Brigham Young and "extensively married."
(48) What Dartmouth graduate, as a result of articles appearing in his newspaper attacking the Tweed ring, zvasblinded and disfigured by acid thrownin his face by persons resenting thesearticles?
Walter Gibson, 1858, editor of the Harlem Local.
(49) What Dartmouth graduate, refusedordination by an ecclesiastical council headed by President Bartlett, afterwards became President in successionof three colleges, and declined thepresidencies of seven others?
George A. Gates, 1873, President of Grinnell College, 1887-1900, of Pomona College, 1901-1908, of Fisk University, 1909-1912.
(50) What was the relation of Dartmouthto the Beecher family?
Rev. James C. Beecher was a graduate of the College in the class of 1848. Rev. Calvin E. Stowe was Professor of Greek and Latin, 1831-1833 (before his marriage to Harriet Beecher). Their son, Henry E. Beecher Stowe, a member of the class of iB6O, was drowned during his freshman year in the Connecticut River. Of Henry Ward Beecher, who had attacked President Lord because of his pro-slavery views, the latter said, "To have the reprobation and curse of such a man as Mr. Beecher I consider secularly an honor and scripturally a blessing."
(51) What Dartmouth graduate was theauthor of many of Andrew Jackson'spublic documents?
Amos Kendall, 1811, member of Jackson's "kitchen cabinet" and afterwards Postmaster General.
(52) What Dartmouth graduate held simultaneous professorships in six different institutions?
John Ordronaux, 1850, Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in the National Medical College, Columbia, Columbian Law School, Boston University, University of Vermont and Dartmouth.
(53) Of what Dartmouth graduate was itsaid that a "single sermon, based onthe text 'lf the ox were wont to pushwith his horn,' had the unprecedented sale of 1,200,000 copies?" Rev. David Merrill, 1821.
(54) What early Dartmouth graduateswere unusually successful as writers oftext books?
Caleb Bingham, 1782, wrote the American Preceptor and the Columbian Orator, which had a circulation amounting to 1,200,000 copies. Benjamin Greenleaf, 1813, was the author of a widely used series of mathematical texts. Alpheus Crosby, 1827, wrote the standard Greek Grammar. Alphonso Wood, 1834, was the author of a long series of botanical texts.
(55) What Dartmouth graduate became aleader of the bar of Maine, was aviolent supporter of the movement■which led to the Hartford Convention, and had an illegitimate son whobecame a leader of the United StatesSenate and Secretary of the Treasury?
Samuel Fessenden, 1806, father of William Pitt Fessenden, Bowdoin, 1823.
(56) What Dartmouth graduate declinedthe presidencies of six colleges?
Ebenezer Porter, 1788, Professor in the Andover Theological Seminary, 1812-1834, its president, 1827-1834, declined the presidencies of the University of Vermont, University of Georgia, Hamilton, Middlebury, South Carolina, and Dartmouth.
(57) What Dartmouth graduate declined aseat on the Supreme Court of theUnited States to succeed anotherDartmouth graduate?
Rufus Choate, 1819, in 1851, to succeed Levi Woodbury, 1809.
(58) Who was the first negro to graduatefrom Dartmouth?
Edward Mitchell, 1828.
(59) The daughter of what Dartmouthgraduate received a peculiar gift fromRobert Louis Stevenson?
Annie, daughter of Henry C. Ide, 1866, being born on Christmas day, Stevenson, in pity of her limitations in the matter of receiving gifts, formally turned over to her his own birthday, he "having no further use for it".
(60) What Dartmouth graduate although"afflicted with blindness and feeblehealth .... notwithstanding published a volume entitled 'FragrantFlowers and other Poems?' "
Daniel A. Drown, 1844.
DIRECTORS OF TWO ART MUSEUMS Joseph G. Butler '24 (left) is director of the Butler Art Museum in Youngstown, Ohio. Heand Thomas C. Colt Jr. '26, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Va., are ex-amining one of the entries in the Seventh Annual Show in Youngstown, where Mr. Coltwas a member of the Jury Committee. Paul Sample '20, Artist in Residence, served as amember of the Selection Committee last year. A traveling exhibit from the Butler Insti-tute will be shown in Hanover at the Carpenter Gallery in March.
