Educational Fundraising

Times were hard for Eleazar Wheelock in the early 17605. His chief patron, Colonel Joshua More, died. Donations by Benedict Arnold and Benjamin Franklin were not enough. Wheelock was using his own meager income from preaching to support his charity students. His school for Indians was in danger of going under.

Wheelock's hopes rose in 1764 when he got a tip from a fellow evangelist in London: An "Indian minister in England might get a Bushel of Money for the School." Wheelock dispatched his first Indian pupil, Samson Occom, a Connecticut Mohegan who had become a popular New England preacher. Occom delivered hundreds of sermons in England and Scotland over the next two years and with the help of Norwich, Vermont, minister Nathaniel Whitaker raised £11,000, including a generous donation from the Earl of Dartmouth. It was die greatest Fundraising feat in the history of education up to that time. And out of that seed grew Dartmouth College.