The name is absent

American Colonial Colleges 279

As soon as the rumor of this great haul reached New Eng-
land, some two-score towns in Connecticut, Massachusetts,
and New Hampshire fell over one another in eagerness to
attract the College. With so much competition, Wheelock
was able to pick and choose. At this time, John Wentworth,
royal governor of the northern New England province, was
trying to “put New Hampshire on the map,” as the saying is.
His Excellency cared very little for Indians, but a good deal
for prestige; and with a docile, almost hand-picked legis-
lature, he was in a position to bid high for the new college.
Wheelock was offered a whole township and a royal charter
if he would establish his college in New Hampshire. He
accepted; and in 1769 the charter was issued, incorporating
Wheelock and Wentworth, and ten others, as the President
and Trustees of Dartmouth College. It was named after
Lord Dartmouth, partly out of gratitude for his heading
the board of English trustees under whose authority the
endowment had been collected, but mostly in the lively hope
of favors to come. As with the gentleman after whom Yale
College was named, the first installment proved to be the last.

In the matter of the site, President Wheelock outwitted
Governor Wentworth, who was eager to develop the north-
ern section of New Hampshire, where he owned extensive
lands. He therefore offered the College an entire township
in the White Mountains. All the New Hampshire trustees
were in favor of it. But Eleazer Wheelock knew what he
wanted. He was too old to start a college in a complete
wilderness, the towns further south bid handsomely for the
college, and finally he induced the Governor and Trustees
to settle on the town of Hanover, which donated a lot of a
thousand acres.

In the summer of 1770, Eleazer Wheelock said farewell
to his Connecticut parish, closed his Indian charity school—

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