College Party

In 1776 the towns along the New Hampshire side of the Connecticut River Valley launched a small revolution of their own. Town fathers were adamantly against the system of representation in the state legislature, which was based on the amount of taxes a county or district paid the more taxes, the more representation. The Upper Valley towns happened to be among the state's poorest. So Dartmouth founder Eleazar Wheelock and his son-in-law, Dartmouth tutor and librarian Bezaleel Woodward, started a daring secessionist movement that became known as the College Party.

In July 1776, 11 towns met in Hanover and later refused to pay taxes or participate in the New Hampshire government. Two years later, 16 Upper Valley towns voted to secede from New Hampshire and join the new Republic of Vermont. College Party members envisioned an eventual state combining land from both sides of the river, with Dresden (as the college town renamed itself) as its capital.

But Ethan and Ira Allen, the founding brothers of Vermont, would have nothing of it: "A Petulent, Pettefoging Scribbling sort of Gentry," Ethan called the party, adding that its members "will Keep any Government in hot water till they are thoroughly brought under by Exertions of Authority." The Aliens officially disowned the secessionist towns in February 1779. Wheelock died two months later, and the party disbanded.

The name of Dresden lives on, however: Norwich and Hanover make up the Dresden School District, the first interstate district in the nation.

Wheelock the Secessionist.