I Give and Bequeath to the Trustees of Dartmouth College...

lOOKING BACK at the long list of men who loved and helped the College, our debt to Tuck '62, Sanborn '78, Cohen '79, Brown '78, Hayes '73, Wentworth 'goh, Ward '13, Silsby, Chandler, Carpenter '50h, Bommer and other giants is beyond comprehension.

Nor could any salute omit George F. Baker, whose inspiring beneficence is ever before us. This brings up a point we should like to make. Several donors have come up to Hanover to find out firsthand what the College most needed—and what the boys most wanted. Mr. Baker is the perfect example of the first, Johnny Johnson '66 of the second.

If Johnny Johnson '66 were alive today, we would call him a "character." A retired D.D. in Philadelphia, Mr. Johnson's heart belonged to Hanover. A small, wiry sprig with a white cavalry moustache, Johnson early sensed that Dartmouth's second greatest attraction for young men was the outdoors. Dr. Hopkins knew him well.

"Johnny," recalls Hoppy, "was young in heart always. He loved boys, and he was in complete sympathy with the pull which mountains, trails, and streams exert on them. Johnny was very good to Dartmouth. He mixed easily with younger men, learned their interests, and helped them with funds and encouragement." Here is a typical Johnson excerpt:

"Having made various gifts at various times .... for the use and benefit of the Outing Club, I now desire to combine all these funds into one foundation .... including the following: Skyline Farm (farm &- bldgs. at Littleton, N. H.) A lot of land and cabin on Cube Mt.

A cabin on Mt. Moosilauke A lot of land and cabin at Agassiz Basin, No. Woodstock, N. H.

A lot of land and cabin at Armington Pond An endowment fund for the Winter Carnival (mortgages) amounting to $10,000."

Johnny Johnson '66 came back to Hanover again and again. For Commencements and for Winter Carnivals. Each time, he became so enthused that he showered down another thousand or so, generally on some project of the Outing Club. A telegram to Dr. Hopkins in February, 1931 suggests that a small bailing-out job might have been in order:

"You may say to the boys and their friends now in Hanover assembled that I hereby add to the special Carnival Fund of the Dartmouth Outing Club the sum of $5000. Never mind the weather; remember what Farragut said in Mobile Bay. Farragut the weather and go ahead!"

On the occasion of another much-needed gift, Mr. Johnson took a poke at institutions not so fortunately situated as Dartmouth:

"It is my deliberate opinion, founded on wide observation for half a century, that Dart- mouth College does more good work, for the amount of money expended, than any other college in the United States; and that in its facilities for the well-balanced development of 'sane minds in sane bodies' it is unique among them all, and towers as much above them all as the mountains by which it is surrounded tower above the swamp lands and mud flats on which some of them are located."

(NOTE: Boston papers please copy.)

What impresses one today is the manner in which this man so impregnated himself with the Hanover scene that he knew "just what was needed where." Johnny gave $60, 000 for the Outing Club. His gifts included funds for the formation of the Ledyard Canoe Club, funds to forward the interests of the Camera Club, funds "for the endowment of Winter Sports among the Juvenile Population of Hanover with special reference to a Children's Carnival." He provided "Turkey Funds" so that boys who could not go home at Thanksgiving might have a proper feed at the Moose Mt. cabin of the D.O.C. None of his many gifts was large, but all tied in closely with some project dear to the hearts of Youth.

When he died, Johnny Johnson left assorted real estate to the College. One would not expect a man of Johnson's sentimental, mercurial temperament to keep too close a finger on his various investments, and there is some evidence to the effect that he did not. Let Dr. Hopkins open the door on an inspection visit which he and a dignified Trustee made.

"There was a small piece of property out in Tacoma," recalls Hoppy, "which Mr. Johnson left the College. He had acquired it through a mortgage and because it was so far away we were very much interested in it.

"Dr. Blank and I, while on a trip to Tacoma, began inquiring for this address, which (for the benefit of our Tacoma alumni!) I shall call 'BO Ridge Road.' As we proceeded, the neighborhood deteriorated rapidly, until we found ourselves proceeding along a footpath beside the railroad tracks. Eventually we came upon a large down-at-heel house, badly in need of paint, which bore the number we sought.

"Dr. Blank was obviously ill at ease in such sordid surroundings, so I mounted the steps and knocked. Presently the door was opened by a slatternly woman who bawled: 'What're you comin' around hereknockin' so loud for? You know the girlsis always sleepin' in the morning!' We left in seme confusion, and later, when the house was torn down, the Trustees were not exactly overwhelmed with a sense of loss."

The College has received many timely gifts, but never was one more appreciated than that of a man who signed himself: "A Citizen of New Hampshire." The College was girding itself for its great struggle with the State—a struggle which meant life to Dartmouth and which set a precedent for prolonging the lives of countless other colleges.

The year was 1816, and the college officers were desperately seeking to raise funds for legal defense. The President and several professors were reduced to begging, literally, about New England for funds which had never seemed so inadequate. Into this gloomy and fateful moment came a letter from a merchant of Orford:

"Considering that from science and literature emanate the most rational enjoyments of social life, that these have ameliorated the condition of man and raised him from barbarity and degredation to all the endearments of social intercourse, I have viewed with pleasure the gradual rise of your respected seminary.

Under your auspices it has flourished and under them, I trust, it will continue to flourish, though for a time power may contribute with party for its destruction. Yet it seems one of those instances in which good is educed from evil. Having learned that the funds have, in some instances, been withheld from the legitimate authorities, I feel it is a duty to afford you this assistance. Accept, therefore, Gentlemen, this donation not as the effect of personal friendship but as something from a conviction that all mankind are morally bound to use their endeavors to support the cause of science and virtue."

The "Citizen of New Hampshire" was John B. Wheeler, whose own educational opportunities had been extremely limited, and the "assistance" was a draft for one thousand dollars. It is doubtful if any gift ever received by the College was more timely, or led to more important consequences.

Had it not come at the time it did, it is difficult to see how the Dartmouth College Case could even have been entered upon. No man ever more justly deserved a similar honor than did John Wheeler when, in 1905, his memory was perpetuated by the naming for him of the dormitory called "Wheeler Hall."

(To be continued)

REV. JOHN E. JOHNSON '66, generous benefactor of the Dartmouth Outing Club, from a photograph taken by Professor Griggs at Sky Line Farm.

More About the Men Who Have Helped to Keep Dartmouth Going.