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Home , Albert Carrington, John Warner, John Wheelock, Samson Occom, Samuel Kirkland, Samuel Thurston

“Founding of ,” wood engraving by Samuel E. Brown, published in John Warner Barber, The History and Antiquities of , , and , 1841. The Reverend established both Moor’s Indian Charity School and Dartmouth College to prepare Native American and colonial youth for useful careers as teachers and ministers in the American wilderness. Hanover, , where the two related schools were located by 1770, was then still “shaded by lofty pines, with no accommodations except two or three small huts composed of logs, and no house on that side of the river within two miles through one continued dreary wood.” 45

From the Connecticut Valley to the West Coast: The Role of Dartmouth College in the Building of the Nation Richard K. Behrens

HE ORIGINAL of Dartmouth Davenport, had converted a family to College, its raison d’être, was to educate Christianity. The native parents wanted their son, TNative Americans together with European Samson Occom, to be educated so Wheelock accepted colonists. As the college expanded its activities from him as a student in 1743 and prepared him for a the initial mid-eighteenth-century focus on New teaching assignment with the Montauks on the eastern England, its attention was soon directed, of necessity, end of . to the West. As graduates of Dartmouth ventured Occom’s success with the Montauks subsequently west, they built effectively on earlier college relation- created interest among the Delaware Indians, who ships, facilitating westward expansion in a number of sent two of their young men to Wheelock to seek ways. Dartmouth alumni contributed to the nation’s education. In 1754 when Indian students arrived in development as missionaries and teachers to the Lebanon from New Jersey, local townspeople were Native population; as explorers, surveyors, and engi- sufficiently impressed to provide one thousand neers; as religious leaders; and, in greater numbers, as pounds in cash, land, and buildings to establish a settlers, community leaders, and politicians. The school. Named after its principal donor, Joshua resulting dispersal of influential Dartmouth graduates Moor, the school specifically educated Native across the continent helped shape the nature and Americans as well as prepared colonial youth to work 3 direction of American growth.1 with them. After the French and Indian Wars ended in 1763, Missionary Beginnings the increase in inland colonial settlement gradually The Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, a Yale graduate pushed the Indian population west and north. This active as an itinerant preacher in the 1740s at the required Wheelock to extend his search farther for height of the religious revival known as the Great students and to move where he could better serve Awakening, founded both Dartmouth College and them. He began to seek out a location where he its predecessor, Moor’s Indian Charity School.2 could establish an “Indian School—That [would] be Religion and education were the dual objectives of an Academy for all parts of useful Learning, part of it Wheelock’s schools. Rev. Wheelock, then of Lebanon, a College for the Education of Missionaries School Connecticut, intended initially to establish a Latin Masters, Interpreters, &c, and part of it a School for 4 school to prepare boys for Yale. By chance, however, reading and writing &c.” During an extended trip Wheelock’s brother-in-law, the Reverend John to England and Scotland in 1766, Samson Occom raised substantial funds for the new venture from RICHARD K. BEHRENS, retired from corporate bank- British and Scottish missionary societies as well as ing and finance, is an independent researcher in Early from individuals.5 American and family history. He has been fascinated with In 1770 Wheelock moved Moor’s School to New England history in general and that of Dartmouth Hanover, New Hampshire, on the Connecticut River in particular since his arrival in Hanover in 1960 as a after obtaining a charter in the King’s name from that member of class of 1964. province’s Royal Governor John Wentworth for the 46 Historical New Hampshire

Graduates of the two schools were influential not only in their effect on colonial Indian relations but also in their contribution to the Revolutionary War— on both sides of the struggle. , a Mohawk who had been sent to Moor’s School by his brother-in- law, the British Indian agent Sir William Johnson, would later lead British Indian forces during the Revolutionary War. Nevertheless, Brant, while living in exile in Canada after the war, sent his sons to Moor’s School and continued to maintain old school ties.7 Samuel Kirkland (Moor’s School, 1762), who had worked closely with the Oneidas in the province of New York since 1762, arranged to send James Dean, the son of one of his fellow missionaries, to Moor’s School and then on to Dartmouth (class of 1773).8 Rev. Samson Occom (1723–92), oil on canvas, by Adna Tenney Dean later taught at Moor’s School and served as (1810–1900), after a mezzotint by Jonathan Spilsbury, London, interpreter for most of the early Dartmouth mission- 1768. Wheelock’s first Indian student was portrayed two decades ary excursions into Indian lands. In 1775, Elias later wearing white minister’s bands while raising funds in England for Wheelock’s Indian school. Courtesy of the , Hanover, New Hampshire; gift of Mr. George W. Nesmith and others. founding of New Hampshire’s first college. Dartmouth’s charter described the school’s future location “as convenient as any for carrying on the great design among the Indians . . . the laudable and charitable design of spreading Christian Knowledge among the Savages of our American Wilderness.” Dartmouth was unique among colonial institutions of higher learning in that its original stated purpose emphasized education of the Native population. Harvard had operated a school for Indians in the sev- enteenth century but had disbanded it by 1698.6 Although the overall success of Moor’s School proved limited, its impact on the Mohawks and the Oneidas in particular was significant. Before long, missionaries and teachers educated by Wheelock— both Native American and white, from Moor’s Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea) (1743–1807), oil on canvas, by School and Dartmouth—were living and working Charles Wilson Peale (1741–1827), Philadelphia, 1797. among the Indians at missions from Ohio to Wheelock described the Mohawk chief, another former student, as “of a sprightly genius, a manly and gentle deportment.” When sit- Quebec. The missionaries often encouraged the ting for a portrait, Brant changed from his usual “suit of blue native youth they met at these locations to attend broad cloth” to Indian attire. Courtesy of Independence National Moor’s School and Dartmouth. Historical Park. Dartmouth College 47

Boudinot, president of the First Continental charge was to make treaties with the southern tribes Congress, chose Dean to be the American Indian and to begin a “civilization” program. The idea was agent with the assignment of keeping as many tribes that teaching the migratory natives to use European as possible neutral during the Revolutionary War. agricultural and textile equipment would help con- The success of Kirkland and Dean with the Oneidas vert Indian land use from hunting to agriculture and contributed to the American victory at the Battle of thus reduce conflict.12 Saratoga and thus encouraged many of the other Shortly after Dinsmoor arrived in in tribes to stay neutral. The Oneidas shared their har- 1796, he instituted controlled access to Indian vest with the American soldiers in New York and land.13 When , as a young army offi- later sent four hundred wagons of badly needed corn cer, tried to cross land, Dinsmoor asked to to George ’s beleaguered troops winter- see his passport. Jackson’s reply, as he pulled out two ing at .9 That the followed the revolvers, was simply, “These are my passports.” Oneidas’ lead and stayed out of the war in the South Jackson’s alleged response foreshadowed his rather helped ensure Washington’s victory at Yorktown. belligerent attitude toward enforcing the provisions Dartmouth, owing to its location and special of the Act of 1830.14 Dinsmoor con- relationship with the Indians, was the only college tinued to serve as Indian agent until after the War of in America to remain open during the war. In 1780 1812 and, during that time, succeeded in keeping the British with the help of their Mohawk allies most of the tribes neutral. attempted to cut through from Canada to As early as 1792 John Wheelock (class of 1771), a the Connecticut River but did not proceed beyond decorated Revolutionary War colonel who had suc- Royalton, Vermont, about fifteen miles west of ceeded his father in 1779 as college president, Hanover. At least one Native Dartmouth graduate attempted to extend recruitment of Indians to attend is said to have participated in the attack on Royalton. Dartmouth and Moor’s School as far south as the ter- The college itself, however, remained safe.10 ritory of the Cherokees. However, the trustees for the When the new American government came Scottish Missionary Society, which supported the into being in 1789, , as the school, refused to release funds for that purpose until nation’s first president, had among his highest they were satisfied with progress in the Northeast.15 priorities settling internal boundary disputes by In 1792, moreover, Samuel Kirkland, whose son creating three new states (Vermont in 1791, George W. Kirkland (class of 1792) had just graduat- Kentucky in 1792, and Tennessee in 1796) and ed from Dartmouth, set up the Oneida Indian dealing with Indian land issues. He was concerned School near Utica, New York, in direct competition that his fellow southerners would ravage more with Moor’s School.16 Wheelock was forced to scram- Indian land, as they had already done in Kentucky ble to attract enough Indian students to be eligible to and Tennessee, and he determined to prevent this use the Scottish trust funds. The extent to which stu- by encouraging the southern tribes to reduce their dents could be recruited from Canada was limited footprint on the land and thus minimize conflict since the northern tribes were often under the con- with white settlers.11 trol of Catholic priests. Hostilities during the War of Washington was fully apprised of the Oneida and 1812 further reduced the possibility of recruitment Cherokee assistance to victories in the North and the from the north.17 South. After careful consideration he turned to In 1810 the American Board of Commissioners Dartmouth as a resource for individuals skilled with for Home Missions began to fund Indian missions Indians. In 1796 he appointed Silas Dinsmoor (class directly, after which the mission activities of Moor’s of 1791) as Indian agent in the South. Dinsmoor’s School and Dartmouth went into decline. The new 48 Historical New Hampshire

“A Front View of Dartmouth College with the Chapel, & Hall,” drawn by Josiah Dunham (1769–1844); engraved by Samuel Hill (c. 1766–1804); published in the Magazine, February 1793. The increased number of graduates by the last decade of the eigh- teenth century was reflected in the college’s physical growth. Dartmouth Hall, completed in 1791, was the largest educational structure in New England. The artist Dunham was among the first of many Dartmouth graduates to move westward. Courtesy of Dartmouth College Library.

Home Missions board, however, maintained strong Heading West Dartmouth associations. One of the group’s leaders By the 1790s Dartmouth College had grown dramati- and its first corresponding secretary was Samuel cally under its new leadership. From a meager four Worcester (class of 1795) who died in 1821 during a graduates in 1771 to a surprising forty-nine graduates trip to the South to visit and promote Indian in 1791 and an average of more than thirty-six per missions. The Board of Commissioners then year, Dartmouth provided a relatively high proportion appointed his nephew Samuel A. Worcester to work of the talent needed by the new republic. In the with the eastern Cherokees in Tennessee. The board 1790s Dartmouth graduated almost as many students later sent Alfred Finney (class of 1815) to work with as Harvard and more than either Yale or Princeton. the western Cherokees in Arkansas.18 In 1820 Finney In 1791 almost twice as many students graduated and his brother-in-law Cephas Washburn, a Yale from Dartmouth as from any of the other colleges.20 graduate, founded the Dwight Indian School near Without sufficient urban population centers in Fort Smith in what became western Arkansas, thus northern New England to attract Dartmouth graduates extending the impact of Dartmouth missionary and and with other colleges supplying southern New educational activity well beyond the Mississippi.19 England cities, many Dartmouth alumni began in Dartmouth College 49

the early 1800s to find their way to new lands in the South and West. William Wilson (class of 1797) moved to Ohio in 1805, practiced law, became a judge, and served in Congress.21 Daniel Breck (class of 1812) moved to Kentucky in 1814, practiced law and served as judge, legislator, Kentucky Supreme Court justice, and congressman. General Eleazar Wheelock Ripley (class of 1800), who played a key role in Canada in the War of 1812 when his troops killed Tecumseh and broke the Indian alliance that had been supporting the British, settled in Louisiana where he later served as state senator and congress- man.22 After serving at Fort Mackinac, Josiah Dunham (class of 1789) moved in 1821 to Lexington, Kentucky, where he founded a female academy. In time, the Indian “civilization” and missionary programs in the South led by Dartmouth graduates helped open the entire Mississippi Valley for European settlement. As Eleazar Wheelock and those he trained had worked toward assimilation rather than displacement, this was a rather ironic develop- (1800–1844), (1805–44), and the ment. By the 1820s and 1830s, however, Dartmouth Nauvoo temple, lithograph, drawn by Sutcliffe Maudsley; pub- and Moor’s School graduates pushed into the upper lished by Moses Martin, London, 1847. One of the best-known, Mississippi Valley. When Stephen Mack, of non-Indian graduates of Moor’s School was Hyrum Smith, broth- Tunbridge, Vermont, finished at Moor’s School in er of the Mormon leader Joseph Smith. After moving from Vermont 1816, he joined his father, one of the founders of to Missouri to Illinois, both brothers were assassinated in 1844, becoming martyrs to their many followers. Courtesy of the Library Detroit, in the fur trade in Michigan. By 1820 he of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. had extended their business from west of Lake Michigan to the headwaters of the Mississippi.23 He extended the Mormon community’s activity was soon joined in that area by Cutting Marsh (class through Ohio and as far as western Missouri. In of 1826), William Thurston Boutwell (class of 1828), 1833 Luman Shurtleff, cousin of Dartmouth pro- and Sherman Hall (class of 1828), who labored as fessor Roswell Shurtleff (class of 1799), joined the missionaries with the Upper Mississippi Valley Mormon community, increasing the awareness at tribes.24 Mack also became an early land developer in Dartmouth of this new religious sect.25 Illinois and one of the founders of . There is some evidence that the westward expansion In 1817, Mack’s cousin, Hyrum Smith, also of and public service that was becoming more deeply Tunbridge, finished his education at Moor’s School, ingrained in the Dartmouth community resulted and the Smith family moved to western New York. particularly from the teaching methods of Professor It was there that Hyrum’s brother, Joseph Smith, Shurtleff.26 Serving as professor of divinity from after recovering from major leg surgery performed 1804 to 1828 and of political economy from 1828 to by the Dartmouth Medical School professors 1838, he was also the college librarian. In 1804 Nathan Smith and Cyrus Perkins, founded the Professor Shurtleff sponsored the Dartmouth Mormon faith. By 1830 the Smith brothers had Theological Society and two literary societies in 50 Historical New Hampshire

various western states and territories in the nation’s capital would play important roles in shaping federal policy toward western expansion. Leading the Way: Exploring and Trailblazing While others educated by Wheelock worked with Indians, John Ledyard (class of 1775) abandoned his early efforts with the and ventured off to sail around the world with Captain James Cook. As a result of participating in this British voyage, Ledyard is believed to be the first American to explore the continent’s northwest coast.29 Ledyard later formed a fur trading company with John Paul Jones and Roswell Shurtleff (1773–1861), from portrait by Joseph Greenleaf dreamed of walking across America. When Ledyard Cole (1806–58), 1831, reproduced from John Lord King, A actually attempted to walk around the world in History of Dartmouth College, 1913. Shurtleff (class of 1799) was a Dartmouth professor for thirty-four years. Those “who 1788, he came to ’s attention, stim- had been his pupils, were never backward in acknowledging their ulating interest in the possibilities of exploration of obligations to him.” the American West. Jefferson met with Ledyard in Paris on July 4 that year and, two weeks later, told which all topics in religion and politics were James Madison, “if [Ledyard] escapes through this thoroughly considered. These groups most likely journey he will go to Kentucky and endeavor to discussed the pre-Mormon polygamy systems of penetrate westwardly from there to the South Sea.”30 John Humphrey Noyes (class of 1830) and of Jacob The poorly supplied Ledyard, however, did not sur- 27 Cochran of nearby Enfield, New Hampshire. As a vive the trip across Africa and died in Cairo in 1789. result Dartmouth alumni seemed more open-mind- During the 1790s Jefferson’s interest in the West ed than most Americans when they encountered the intensified with Captain Robert Gray’s nine-day Mormons in the West. visit to the mouth of the Columbia River in May By the 1830s and 1840s Dartmouth graduates 1792 and Alexander Mackenzie’s 1793 transconti- were well distributed both along the gulf coast and nental crossing of Canada. Jefferson’s subsequent along the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys. A surprising purchase of Louisiana in 1803 extended the number served their new communities as newspaper nation’s western border to the Rocky Mountains. editors, projecting their voices from New Orleans to The following year, Jefferson sent fellow Virginians Chicago. Among them were George Porter (class of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on a highly 1831) in New Orleans, Louisiana; William Stickney publicized, well-supplied expedition to find a water Allen (class of 1824) in St. Louis, Missouri; Samuel route to the Pacific. Thurston (class of 1836) in Burlington, ; and Little was accomplished in the West, however, 28 John Wentworth (class of 1836) in Chicago, Illinois. until the War of 1812 had settled border issues with By the 1830s, the number of Dartmouth graduates Canada. From 1816 to 1823 Stephen Harriman in Congress in any one session averaged five senators Long (class of 1809), schooled with the sons of and fifteen congressmen. Shurtleff’s Dartmouth Joseph Brant and later trained as a topographical schoolmate (class of 1801) was the engineer, carried out assignments to thoroughly clear leader of the college’s contingent at the federal survey, map, and fortify the lands of the Mississippi level. Some of the Dartmouth alumni representing and valleys that were secured during the Dartmouth College 51

The information Long gathered about the Great Plains, the Plains Indians, and western land use was influential, moreover, in Washington. He made recommendations concerning the Canadian border in the West that were incorporated into the 1818 Anniston Treaty, an agreement which left the Northwest open to “joint occupation” by both nations without establishing a border. Long’s description of the Plains as “unfit for cultivation” and his resulting recommendation to complete settlement in the East before going into the West stimulated the debate that ended in the Indian Removal Act in 1830.34 This Act called for Indians to give up their lands east of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers in exchange for cash or land west of that line, beyond which settlement by others was prohibited. The eastern land obtained by these means Stephen Harriman Long (1784–1864), oil on canvas, by Charles was later distributed by Jackson’s Secretary of the Wilson Peale, Philadelphia, c. 1819. Many early Dartmouth Treasury (class of 1809) to pay off graduates worked as missionaries to the Indians; others explored the nation’s war debts.35 their territory. Peale painted several members of Long’s 1820 expe- Long’s reports also represent a key step in the dition to the Rocky Mountains, explaining that, if they succeeded development of the collaborative model so important he would place their portraits in his museum, adding that “if they lost their scalps, their friends would be glad to have their portraits.” in settling the Far West. Long designed and used a Courtesy of Independence National Historical Park. steamboat to reach the confluence of the Missouri and Platte rivers, near the present-day Iowa and War of 1812.31 He was to map and survey the Great Nebraska border. The base camp he established set a Plains from the Mississippi River to the Rocky precedent as the preferred launch point for organized Mountains and from the Spanish Colonies to Canada, westward migration. His reports, along with the altogether some twenty-six thousand square miles. subsequent provisions of the Indian Removal Act In 1820 President asked Long of 1830, halted the incremental movement of to update and to better document the pioneering individual settlers along the frontier while at the explorations of Lewis and Clark and Zebulon Pike, same time preparing the way for future settlement of especially in relation to the Indians and their land remote regions beyond the Rocky Mountains via use. By 1821 the Dartmouth graduate reached the long-distance, wagon-train travel. Rockies, and much was written subsequently about To help test the joint-use provisions of the Long’s expeditions.32 The official surveys and reports Anniston Treaty, another Dartmouth graduate, John were quickly published, and, as early as 1822, a com- Ball (class of 1820), who had been fascinated from mercial atlas—the first atlas to include childhood by the effort to reach the Pacific Coast and separate maps of the states and territories—printed a who had studied Long’s and Lewis and Clark’s map of the Arkansas Territory based on Long’s man- reports, decided to join Nathaniel Wyeth’s 1832 uscript map.33 These publications were widely circu- expedition to Oregon.36 Wyeth was to follow the lated and most certainly studied eagerly by students North Platte route that Long had identified as a way and faculty at Long’s alma mater. to reach the Rockies. This was also the route used by 52 Historical New Hampshire

“Map of Arkansa[s] and Other Territories of the United States, Respectfully Inscribed to the Hon. J. C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, by S. H. Long, Major T[opographical] Engineers,” published in H. C. Carey and I. Lea’s A Complete Historical, Chronological, and Geographical American Atlas, 1822. In May 1819 Long, an army engineer from Hopkinton, N.H., together with a multi-disciplinary team of naturalists and artists, set out to conduct the first major survey of the American Great Plains. The expedition’s assessment of the area as “almost wholly unfit for cultivation” and its appearance on this and subsequent maps as the “Great Desert” had far-reaching consequences. Courtesy of Dartmouth College Library. Dartmouth College 53

“Engineer Cantonment (Missouri River),” watercolor on paper, by the expedition’s assistant naturalist, Titian Ramsay Peale (1799–1885), February 1820. Long proposed carrying out the survey by steamboat and designed his own vessel, the Western Engineer, seen here at the expedition’s winter headquarters just south of Council Bluffs, Iowa. Courtesy of the American Philosophical Society.

the St. Louis fur traders on their yearly trips to the his illustrious career.38 Chase later became governor Green River rendezvous, a popular meeting area in of Ohio, United States senator, Lincoln’s secretary of present-day Wyoming where Rocky Mountain fur the treasury, and finally chief justice of the Supreme traders gathered to conduct business. Court. Ball continued by boat up the Mississippi After agreeing to meet Wyeth in Baltimore in River and along the Missouri River to Independence, March 1832, Ball visited President Andrew Jackson Missouri, where he visited his Mormon relative to advise him of the planned trip.37 While in Joseph Smith.39 After discussing his journey with the Washington, Ball witnessed the Supreme Court deci- Mormons, Ball and the others with the Wyeth sion adjudicating the Indian Removal Act of 1830 expedition joined the William Sublette party heading and discussed the situation with Webster as well as for the Green River rendezvous and the Snake River.40 with Rufus Choate (class of 1819), Levi Woodbury, From various points along the way, Ball sent back, and other Dartmouth friends. He also spoke with via the extensive fur trade network, a series of former members of John Jacob Astor’s fur trading detailed letters intended for publication in the East. establishment in Oregon. The letters were published first in New York and Ball then proceeded west with the Wyeth expedition then in Boston, in the Methodist journal Zion’s in March 1832, starting out on the newly completed Herald, for general distribution.41 Yale Professor Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, then continuing down Benjamin Silliman published Ball’s findings as well the Ohio River by boat and through Cincinnati, in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1834 in the where Salmon P. Chase (class of 1826) was beginning American Journal of Science and Arts. In these publi- 54 Historical New Hampshire

Portrait of John Ball (1794–1884), 1831; together with the opening of a letter written by him during his trip to Oregon and reproduced in Zion’s Herald, Boston, January 1, 1834. After graduating from Dartmouth, Ball received training in natural history from Prof. Amos Eaton of the Rensselaer School in Troy, N.Y. Following in Long’s footsteps, Ball went beyond the Rockies all the way to Oregon. Portrait courtesy of the Oregon Historical Society, #OrHi 69869; newspaper headlines, courtesy of Boston University, School of Theology Library. cations, Ball described his journey, the favorable Ball, however, saw no immediate opportunity for land and climate beyond the Rocky Mountains, large-scale settlement in the Northwest until political and, perhaps most importantly, his season of farm- boundary issues were resolved and Americans could ing in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, where he is own land with clear title.44 He therefore chose in believed to have been the first American to farm. 1837 to settle in the new state of Michigan, where he This remarkable communication scheme allowed joined the legislature and turned his attention to Ball to systematically report from the field and have educational matters. his reports published while he was still in the West. Ball’s reports were widely circulated. At Dartmouth This was a plan that removed the lead-time report- they appear to have stimulated further interest in the ing problems that had plagued past efforts. Ball West. Benjamin Hale (class of 1818), professor of reported, “In March 1833, I procured seeds, imple- chemistry, geology, mineralogy and botany, was ments etc. of the Hudson Bay Company, enclosed among those naturally interested in examining Ball’s some prairie land, built a log house, raised a crop of writings.45 Also at this time, several students prepared wheat and would have remained in that country for lives committed to westward expansion.46 From could I have had a few good neighbors as associates.” 42 the pages of Long’s reports, Ball’s letters, and other Such comments inspired readers not only to go to available publications, Dartmouth students had Oregon but also to bring friends and family along everything they needed to conclude, as Long and Ball with them. had, that Iowa and the North Platte, rather than the Almost immediately Ball’s reports stimulated the Missouri, would become the gateway to the West. Methodist Missionary Society in Boston to send missionaries to Oregon. In 1834 this group sent Laying Tracks and a well-supplied vanguard to establish Perhaps the most significant way in which the Methodist missions there. While converting about Dartmouth graduates helped to further western thirty Native inhabitants, they introduced diseases expansion was through engineering and transportation that killed almost all of the Indians in the projects. After the War of 1812 Sylvanus Thayer Willamette Valley, inadvertently preparing Oregon (class of 1807) served as superintendent of West for future European settlement.43 Point and as chief engineer of the Army Corps of Dartmouth College 55

Engineers. Because he had acquired specialized Ready To Go Farther education at the École Polytechnique in Paris to In the late 1830s, recent Dartmouth graduates better understand European engineering methods, joined the cavalcade of alumni migrating west to including those of Napoleon, Thayer was assigned to make their fortunes. The implementation of the reorganize West Point with a focus on engineering.47 Indian Removal Act of 1830 by Secretary of He had a long and influential career at West Point the Treasury Levi Woodbury opened new land for and as head of the Army Corps of Engineers. settlement in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and It was probably not coincidence that, in 1815, Minnesota. Several Dartmouth graduates chose to Stephen Long (class of 1809), then a professor of settle in Illinois and Iowa. From either location, they mathematics and astronomy at West Point, was could move quickly along the North Platte gateway assigned to the newly formed Army Corps of to the Far West when the opportunity to settle Topographical Engineers, which at the time was part beyond Iowa opened. of the Army Corps of Engineers. During the 1820s John Wentworth opted to remain in Chicago, Long transferred his attention from exploring the while two classmates, James Wilson Grimes and Samuel wilderness to planning transportation improvements. Thurston (class of 1836), later joined by William G. Daniel Webster had introduced legislation in 1824 Woodward (class of 1828), continued on to the putting the Army Corps of Engineers in charge of all Iowa Territory. It was not a coincidence that Iowa interstate infrastructure projects. Long helped deter- attracted so many Dartmouth alumni at this time; mine the route of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad as Council Bluffs in the southwestern corner of the state one of two engineers in charge of the preliminary was soon to become the starting point for survey for the construction of this pioneering rail line, several major overland trails, heading respectively for the first in the nation providing passenger service. California, Oregon, and the Great Basin. Meanwhile, From 1827 until 1861 Long served as chief engineer the Dartmouth men in the two adjoining states for many of the railroads and river improvement proj- worked on common objectives of economic develop- ects in the East. It was Long’s efforts that shaped much ment, government, education, and transportation. of the land-use planning and infrastructure of rapidly They worked together on such projects as the Iowa growing, pre-Civil War America.

Long’s Jackson Bridge, erected near Baltimore, Maryland, 1829, from the Journal of the Franklin Institute, 1830. In 1827 the War Department reassigned Long to serve as consulting engineer for the pioneering Baltimore and Ohio railroad. Long soon became a noted authority in the new field of railway engineering, writing an influential manual on the subject and patenting both locomotive and wood- en bridge improvements. 56 Historical New Hampshire

Constitution and railroad connections, as well as on from the state in 1839 by an extermination order far western settlement. They faced other issues in com- from the governor. In contrast, few, if any, Iowa warrants mon, especially those related to Mormons and slavery. would ever be issued against the Mormons under the Woodward was appointed United States District leadership of Woodward and others. Attorney for the Iowa Territory. He moved there in John Wentworth moved to Chicago immediately 1839 and served until statehood in 1846.48 He was after graduating in 1836 and became editor of the one of the authors of the Iowa Constitution and Chicago Democrat. He later served as mayor and served on the Iowa Supreme Court. A great-grand- congressman.49 In December 1840, he led the Illinois son of Eleazar Wheelock, a classmate of Hyrum Democrats in supporting a charter for Nauvoo, a Smith, and a fellow Freemason, Woodward offered new Mormon community in the western part of the Iowa as a quiet sanctuary to which the Smith brothers state. In an editorial earlier that year, Wentworth and the Mormans could retreat if necessary. Large warned Illinois not to repeat Missouri’s actions numbers of Mormons had settled in both Ohio and against the Mormons.50 It was in large part an effort Missouri in 1830. The massive immigration of a to attract the Mormons’ vote in coming elections. In group-oriented, cooperative society terrified their 1842, after an inquiry from his friend George individualistically minded neighbors. After various Barstow (class of 1835), who was writing a history of confrontations in Missouri, the Mormons were driven New Hampshire, Wentworth asked Joseph Smith about the rumors of spiritual wifery (i.e., polygamy) in Nauvoo.51 When Wentworth replied to Barstow that Smith declined to discuss the subject, Barstow terminated his history at 1819, partly to avoid discussing controversial religious issues.52 By 1843 Nauvoo had grown to become the largest city in the Mississippi Valley—larger than Chicago. The Mormon city was soon perceived as an econom- ic and political threat by its neighbors. In turn Joseph Smith concluded by early 1844 that he needed to develop an exit strategy. Neither of the leading can- didates for the presidential election of 1844, Martin Van Buren nor Henry Clay, favored removing existing obstacles to western expansion. Smith felt a change of policy was essential if the Mormons were to find a place of refuge. In February, therefore, Smith entered the race for president with a platform of new populist ideas, including a strong westward expansionist agenda.53 In an effort to resolve unrest between the Mormons and their neighbors in Illinois, Wentworth introduced a resolution in Congress in March 1844 John Wentworth (1815–88), oil on canvas, by George Peter providing for Joseph Smith to lead an expedition to Alexander Healy (1813–94), 1858. Known from his Dartmouth 54 days as “Long John” because of his six-foot, six-inch height, Oregon. The measure was never considered because Wentworth was a strong supporter of westward expansion and of ongoing negotiations between Daniel Webster, oversaw the growth of his adopted city Chicago into the leading secretary of state for the Tyler administration, and metropolis of the Midwest. New Hampshire Historical Society. British authorities concerning the Canadian border. Dartmouth College 57

Detail from an “Ornamental Map of the United States and Mexico,” published by Ensign and Thayer, New York, 1848, graphically doc- umenting the situation at the middle of the nineteenth century. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 had restricted white settlement to the area east of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, while at the same time, forcing the remaining Indians in that area to relocate west of the same line on the Great Plains. The country is seen here just as the settling of border disputes with its neighbors was about to open up the far west to mass eastern settlement, as indicated here by a “contemplated Oregon railroad.” New Hampshire Historical Society.

The Webster-Ashburton treaty of 1843 did not Chicago, in which he was personally invested. His resolve the division of Oregon. Wentworth suggested extensive real estate holdings included land which Vancouver Island as a refuge for the Mormons, but in became the Chicago stockyards. Wentworth never the final division of Oregon in 1846 during the Polk moved farther west himself but spent the rest of his life administration, the island went to the British. building Chicago into the principal city and rail Before the Mormons could leave Illinois, Joseph center of the Midwest.55 and Hyrum Smith were both assassinated. By that After his inauguration in 1845, Polk changed his time, Wentworth had begun preparations to assist in objective for western expansion from Oregon to the demise of Van Buren’s candidacy in favor of Mexican California, an easier target. He completed James K. Polk, who was willing to run on a westward the annexation of the Republic of Texas and expansion platform. Wentworth led the “54°40' or brought it into the Union as a slave state to placate fight” charge that secured the presidency for Polk in his southern supporters.56 He then sent Zachary the 1844 election. Wentworth’s interest in westward Taylor to patrol the vast disputed area between the expansion related to his expectations for the future of western border of Texas at the Neuces River (to the 58 Historical New Hampshire

west of San Antonio) and the Rio Grande River. This provoked the Mexicans to attack American troops, and after Taylor was fired upon in April 1846, preparations proceeded rapidly for war, which was declared May 13. Meanwhile in February that year, , Smith’s successor, led a Mormon exodus from Nauvoo over an ice bridge across the frozen Mississippi River and to a sparsely populated area in the western part of the Iowa Territory. Before leaving Nauvoo, Young had sent a letter to Polk asking for assistance and offering support. On January 31 Polk met with Senator Semple of Illinois to review Gov. Thomas Ford’s request to prevent the Mormon exo- dus to Oregon. Polk informed him that “as President Samuel Thurston (1816–1851), c. 1847. Thurston, Wentworth’s of the United States I [possess] no power to prevent classmate, moved from Iowa to Oregon shortly after the 1846 or check their migration.”57 Young’s offer led to northwestern boundary settlement. As the territory’s first Mormon participation in the Mexican War as the Congressional delegate, he was largely responsible for land distri- . Polk and his advisor, Amos bution legislation that served as a model for the 1862 Homestead Kendall (class of 1811), met with Young’s representa- Act. Courtesy of the Oregon Historical Society, # CN 020665. tive, Jesse C. Little, on June 7 to arrange to form the legislature, promoting that location as the future Battalion, which was recruited in July 1846 into the trailhead for routes going west. Later as Iowa’s gov- Army of the West and sent to take California.58 ernor, he fulfilled this plan and sponsored a rail link In June Polk partially satisfied the demands for from Rock Island, Illinois, across the Mississippi resolution of the Canadian border by negotiating a River and through his state. Completed by Long’s northern boundary for Oregon along the forty-ninth topographical engineers in 1856, this line anticipated parallel. By this time, Woodward, Grimes, and a future transcontinental railroad passing through Thurston—all friends of Wentworth—had wel- Iowa, in direct competition with ’s desire comed the Mormons to Iowa and were encouraging for such a line to follow a more southerly route.60 them to settle the lands in the western part of the ter- Grimes also accommodated the notion of a sanc- ritory that had been vacated by the required move of tuary for the Mormons fleeing Nauvoo. It appears he the Pottawatomie Indians westward across the saw them as the first block of emigrants gathering at Missouri. Wentworth’s Iowa friends doubtless saw the trailhead.61 Through all this, Grimes kept in the Mormon settlers as capable of tilting the balance touch with fellow Dartmouth legislators and justices, of sentiment in the territory toward statehood. Five writing, for example, more than a dozen letters to previous Iowa constitutional conventions had failed Cincinnati’s Salmon P. Chase.62 because southern settlers there wanted to retain their Samuel Thurston (also class of 1836) became the slaves. The arrival of thousands of Mormons in 1846 editor of the Iowa Gazette.63 The newspaper, Iowa’s tipped the balance, though by a mere 456 votes. Later first, was modeled after the Dartmouth Gazette. In that year statehood was approved 9,492 to 9,036.59 its pages, Thurston reported even-handedly on the Wentworth’s classmate James Wilson Grimes (class Mormons during their most difficult times. After of 1836) had gone directly from Dartmouth to Iowa. the settling of the Oregon boundary in 1846, he There he became a leading figure in the territorial concluded that if Iowa was to be the trailhead, Dartmouth College 59

Oregon must be the terminus. Thurston decided he Young appointed Carrington as the treasurer and wanted to be at the head of the exodus and moved tax collector for the provisional State of Deseret that to Oregon himself later that year. As the territory’s the Mormons established in the Great Basin. By first congressman, he immediately introduced land 1846 another group of Mormon emigrants from the distribution laws for Oregon and Washington in Northeast had sailed from New York to settle in San Congress. Once traffic increased on what became Francisco and the Bay Area.65 While planting crops known as the as a result of the bound- and building a sawmill at Sutter’s Mill (now Coloma, ary settlement, Thurston began preparing land sales California) in January 1848, some members of the for arriving settlers. He furthered the efforts of Mormon Battalion, released in 1847 from military Long and Ball, the former having identified the duty, discovered gold. As a result Carrington coined North Platte valley as the most logical route to the gold at his mint in 1849 before Far West and the latter having testing it out and similar operations began in San Francisco.66 The reported from a distance on his success. discovery would not only transform the previously pastoral California economy but also provide valuable West with the Mormons initial capital for the new Great Basin settlement. Albert Carrington (class of 1834), Brigham’s aide-de- Part of Carrington’s plan for organized group camp, also became important in western settlement settlement involved salvaging items left along the as a leading Mormon. After pursuing lead mining in trail, refurbishing and recycling them to sell to Wisconsin starting in 1837, he joined the Mormons non-Mormon wagon trains on the way to California. in 1841, moved to Nauvoo in 1844, but escaped with He knew that as these settlers descended the treach- the others to Iowa. Carrington rose rapidly through erous western slopes of the Wasatch Range into the the leadership ranks of the Mormon hierarchy. He valley of the , they still faced crossing was with the advance party entering the valley of the the desolate Nevada desert and the High Sierra Great Salt Lake, part of a large, arid area with no before they would reach their destination. Both drainage to the ocean known as the Great Basin, during and after the Gold Rush, the salvage trade where the Mormons eventually settled. Brigham along the California trail provided cash that Young chose this remote area to relocate his battered Carrington needed to move and settle the Mormons community. Here they would have greater freedom in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake.67 from conflict with other settlers than in such attrac- Another of Carrington’s assignments was to tive coastal destinations as Oregon and California. accompany and guide the Stansbury Expedition sent Carrington was assigned to survey the vicinity, dam by Stephen Long in 1849 to survey the Great Basin local streams, locate timber, and plant crops.64 lands acquired in the Mexican War and also to The Mormon exodus to the Great Basin proved identify a potential route for a transcontinental the viability of the trails identified by Long and railway. At the request of the army, Carrington went tested by Ball as well as the viability of the group back to Washington in early 1850 to write up and settlement model to facilitate mass settlement of the present the survey to Long. While there Carrington West. From Iowa the Mormons took the North made contacts with Daniel Webster and other Platte route as far as Casper, Wyoming, and from Dartmouth alumni sympathetic to the Mormon sit- there angled southwest along various routes uation, including Wentworth and Thurston.68 through southwestern Wyoming to reach the valley Carrington’s trip to Washington seems to have of the Great Salt Lake. This was the same route later contributed to a favorable outcome for the Mormons. traveled by settlers who were headed through His survey data provided input to Webster, who as Nevada to California. senator and later as secretary of state in the Fillmore 60 Historical New Hampshire

Webster accommodated the Mormons through- out the Fillmore administration. In 1851 he told one of the fleeing federal authorities, who felt that the Mormons were continuing their own theocracy rather than adopting the republican form of govern- ment mandated in the Compromise of 1850, to return to his post or resign.70 When Carrington returned to the West in 1850, Young assigned him to relocate the Utah territorial capital from Salt Lake City, the capital of Deseret, to Fillmore in newly formed Millard County. This gesture assured Washington of Mormon goodwill in connection with implementing the Compromise of 1850.71 In 1850 Carrington founded the University of Utah. He later served as territorial attorney general and editor of the . Most importantly Albert Carrington (1813–89), albumen print by Charles Roscoe Carrington served as assistant and secretary to Savage (1832–1909), 1870–73. While Thurston followed the Brigham Young. In 1857 Carrington’s daughter Oregon Trail along the North Platte River, a schoolmate helped Jane married Brigham Young, Jr.72 Carrington, lead the Mormons from Iowa over a diverging trail to the valley of however, was not without enemies, his main critic the Great Salt Lake. Courtesy of L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. being, somewhat surprisingly, another Dartmouth graduate, James Thornton Cobb (class of 1855), administration, shaped and implemented the who arrived in Utah in 1858 to join his mother Compromise of 1850, which defined the rules of who had previously become one of Brigham entry into the Union for territory acquired in the Young’s wives.73 Mexican War. Brigham Young had wanted his fledg- Cobb joined the Mormons, was adopted by ling state to enter the Union as Eastern California, Young, served a mission, taught at the Brigham but his representatives to the California constitution- Young Academy which would become the al convention, delayed by heavy mountain snows, University of Utah, and remained active in the arrived after the convention ended.69 Webster’s dis- community for about ten years.74 In 1867, howev- tribution of the territory acquired in the war provid- er, he joined liberal dissidents and became an oppo- ed the Mormons with a home in the Utah Territory, sition voice in their publication, which later became bound by the Sierra on the west and the Rockies on . As a vehement opponent of the east, and gave Young the opportunity to serve as polygamy, Cobb engaged, during the decades its first governor. before Utah’s statehood in 1896, in a war of words The Compromise of 1850 provided a long- against his archrival Carrington, charging him with term solution to the twenty-year-old problem “lascivious living.”75 By then Carrington had been posed by the incompatible lifestyles of the editor of the church-owned Deseret News for ten Mormons and their neighbors. The Compromise years, and it is ironic that two Dartmouth gradu- allowed the Mormons the time and space to ates, both with close ties to Brigham Young, evolve their preferred theocratic government to a inspired the adversarial newspaper dialogue on var- more representative one, thus conforming to the ious related subjects that has continued into the republican standard adopted by the country. twenty-first century. Dartmouth College 61

Holding the Expanded Nation Together stumped with Lincoln in northern Illinois and eastern Iowa for the Republican ticket as early as While the Compromise of 1850 succeeded in helping the Mormons, its deferral of a showdown on 1856. At the 1860 National Republican Convention slavery merely provided a ten-year period in which in Chicago, at which Chase dropped out of the race both sides throughout the nation hardened their and threw his support to Lincoln, Wentworth, the positions on this issue. In 1861, in a final attempt to convention host and the city’s first Republican avoid Civil War, a peace convention was held in mayor, helped introduce Lincoln to his fellow which both James W. Grimes and Salmon P. Chase Republicans from Iowa to the East. This time 79 participated.76 Not even the best efforts of Grimes, Lincoln trounced Douglas for the presidency. Chase, and others, however, could avoid the In the meantime, Wentworth’s friend George inevitable conflict. Barstow (class of 1835), one of the Northern As the two sides became polarized, many Dartmouth Democrats who had helped Tuck organize the politicians across the country joined with Amos Tuck Republican Party in New Hampshire, moved to (class of 1835) of Exeter, New Hampshire, in his California in 1858. There, along with William efforts to organize a new Republican Party.77 Along Barstow (class of 1842), a cousin, and Isaac Rowell with most northern and many western Whigs, (Dartmouth Medical School class of 1849), who had Grimes and Chase joined the Republicans when the both arrived in California in 1849, he helped organ- 80 Whig Party collapsed following the deaths in 1852 of ize the Republicans in that state. Soon Leland its three leaders—Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and Stanford, governor, and George Barstow, speaker of John C. Calhoun—within six months of each other. the house, helped elect Lincoln as president. The Many Northern Democrats, such as Wentworth, same men also are credited with helping to keep who had been closely tied to Stephen A. Douglas, California in the Union and helping to charter the also turned to the Republicans when the Kansas- Central Pacific, the western portion of the transcon- Nebraska Act of 1854, rather than prohibiting tinental railroad.81 slavery, allowed settlers to decide for themselves The impact of Dartmouth graduates in Washington whether or not to allow it. continued through this period and throughout the When Wentworth lost his seat in Congress in Civil War. Salmon P. Chase and Moses Norris (class of 1854, he left the Democratic Party. He returned to 1828) played key roles in the Senate debates over the Chicago and, in his new role as mayor, focused on a passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, both eventually series of railroad, waterway, and other infrastructure opposing it.82 Lincoln appointed John Noble projects that would pay off eventually not only for Goodwin (class of 1844) as chief justice of the new Chicago but also for the Union itself. He relied upon Arizona Territory and as governor in 1863 to keep Joseph Dana Webster (class of 1832), formerly of Union control of that territory intact.83 Long’s Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, to During the war years, however, it was Joseph manage some of these projects. Webster served as Dana Webster, the engineer who worked in president of the commission empowered to reverse Chicago with Wentworth, whose contributions had the flow of the Chicago River and to raise various the most immediate and critical effect. When war parts of the city so that railroads entering the city broke out in April 1861, Webster was named chief from different directions could connect.78 engineer for the state of Illinois. He immediately By 1858 Wentworth had dropped his support for took a special midnight military train south on Douglas and instead supported Lincoln for the Wentworth’s Illinois Central railroad to take over Illinois senate seat, but Lincoln lost. Wentworth had and fortify the southern-leaning town of Cairo, 62 Historical New Hampshire

Albert Sydney Johnston and Pierre Beauregard were preparing a trap. Before Webster could finalize the positioning of the fifty cannon, Grant engaged the Confederates. The battle, however, was soon in con- trol of the Confederates. Yet Webster was able to concentrate fire on their lines, stabilize the situation, and by dawn, the enemy was gone.86 Grant then determined to go after Vicksburg in an attempt to divide the confederacy at the Mississippi River. In preparation, he put Webster in charge of all the military railroads in the area. The Illinois Central was especially critical because of its north-to-south orientation paralleling the Mississippi. Webster was also by this time military governor in Memphis. As such, he was able to coordinate in various ways with George Foster Shepley (class of 1837), military governor in New Orleans.87 The land above Joseph Dana Webster (1811–76), 1860–65. One of Long’s Corp of Vicksburg surrounding the mansion of James Shirley Topographical Engineers, Webster later worked on Chicago infra- (class of 1818) provided a strategic location for structure projects with Wentworth and, during the Civil War, per- Grant, and with Webster’s help, he positioned the formed critical service as superintendent of military railroads and cannon and pounded Vicksburg into submission. chief of staff to Generals Grant and Sherman. Courtesy of the Eventually, Shirley’s property was also the site of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Confederate General John C. Pemberton’s surrender Illinois. After he fortified Cairo and thus stabilized of the city.88 the volatile situation in Illinois, he proceeded When Grant was transferred to face Lee in across the Ohio River to fortify Paducah, , Webster was assigned as chief of staff for Kentucky, which secured the Ohio in Union General William T. Sherman, then about to under- hands. Grant was then finishing training the take his march to the sea to further divide the Illinois militia at Camp Douglas in Chicago, and confederacy. After defeating Gen. John B. Hood at Webster became Grant’s chief of staff.84 With the Battle of Atlanta, Sherman sent Webster and his support of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, heavy guns back to support Gen. George H. Thomas which the seventy-seven-year-old Long still headed, at Nashville where Hood was regrouping. While and building upon Long’s personal knowledge of the Sherman continued unopposed to Savannah, Mississippi Valley and southern fortifications and Webster eliminated any threat from Hood at transportation, Webster developed a strategic plan Nashville and then rejoined Sherman for his for winning the war involving logistical control of Carolina Campaign. What made all the movement railroads and waterways.85 of heavy weapons possible was the rail system that With Webster’s advice, Grant and his men took Long, Wentworth, and Webster had built in the years Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in northern leading up to the war. The network of rail lines Tennessee and seized the new cannon that the proved effective both in bringing men and munitions Confederates positioned there. With the cannon in to the front and in returning prisoners of war to hand, Grant was ready to proceed farther south in prison camps in Illinois and elsewhere. Webster’s Tennessee to Shiloh, where, unfortunately, Generals superior logistics are often credited for Union success Dartmouth College 63

the roll call for Iowa was called, however, Grimes, carried in on a stretcher, raised himself up and cast a deciding vote for acquittal.90 The transcontinental railroad then became the nation’s highest priority. It was especially important for those Dartmouth alumni who had devoted much of their careers in one way or another toward this monumental achievement. Long had been involved not only with the Baltimore and Ohio and the line from Rock Island, Illinois, across Iowa, but he had also been consulted during Franklin Pierce’s James Wilson Grimes (1816–72), probably 1860s, from Brady- administration on the feasibility of a southern route Handy photograph collection. A classmate of both Wentworth and Thurston, Grimes settled in Iowa. He joined many other across the continent. Long’s report on the subject Dartmouth graduates from New Hampshire to California in help- suggested that Jefferson Davis’s preferred route ing to form the Republican Party. He was a member of the peace through swampy Louisiana was not the best choice as convention in 1861 and opposed the impeachment of Andrew it would require too many bridges.91 Johnson. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Now it was up to Barstow in California, assisting Photographs Division. Stanford and the Central Pacific Railway, and in the western and southern campaigns. One histori- Carrington in Salt Lake City, assisting Young and an, for example, has described Webster’s role in the the Union Pacific Railway, to complete the transcon- fall of Atlanta as “of an importance almost on a par tinental line across the nation on the northern route. with Sherman’s own.”89 In 1869 with strong aid from the Mormons as During the post-Civil War era of Reconstruction, construction proceeded through the Great Basin, the the nationwide contributions of Dartmouth alumni railroad was finally finished and the golden spike appear to have reached a peak. After the war the driven at Promontory, Utah, on May 10.92 Long, Radical Republican Speaker of the House Thaddeus unfortunately, died in 1864 and did not witness this Stevens (class of 1814) introduced the Fourteenth achievement. Amendment, which defined national citizenship to Grant, who succeeded Johnson as president, include blacks. Stevens led Reconstruction efforts as hoped to accelerate reconciliation and reconstruc- House chair of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction. tion. He appointed Georgia resident Amos T. In the ensuing impeachment trial of President Akerman (class of 1842) as attorney general, and it Andrew Johnson, Salmon P. Chase presided as chief appears that Ackerman’s skill in negotiation helped justice of the United States Supreme Court; overcome previous hostility to Reconstruction in Thaddeus Stevens presented the Impeachment Georgia. Grant also determined to negotiate with the Articles as Speaker of the House; and James Wilson Mormons over lingering issues. Polygamy was not Grimes and James Willis Patterson (class of 1848) sat one of the topics to be considered, as both Lincoln on the Senate jury. Grimes led a group of seven and Grant had chosen not to enforce the Morrill Republicans opposed to impeachment, who felt the Anti-bigamy Act of 1862. country would be better served by focusing instead When Congress passed the Poland Act in 1874 to on more constructive initiatives such as completing a force the Mormons to implement governmental transcontinental railroad and other positive recon- reforms, Grant sent George W. Emery (class of 1858) struction efforts. When Grimes suffered a stroke, it to Utah as territorial governor in 1875.93 Previous appeared that the impeachment vote would pass. As appointees as governor in Utah had been disastrous. 64 Historical New Hampshire

“East and West,” photograph by Andrew Joseph Russell, May 10, 1869, at the ceremony celebrating the joining of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific rail lines at Promontory Point, Utah. This image was captured just moments before the driving of the final “golden spike” completed the nation’s first transcontinental railroad, symbolizing the joining of East and West. Extending across the Midwest and East through Iowa and Chicago toward Baltimore, the completion of the line represented the culmination of the efforts of many Dartmouth alumni. Courtesy of the Union Pacific Museum, Council Bluffs, Iowa. During his time in Congress, however, Emery had Conclusion developed a reputation as a good negotiator, and We can conclude that Dartmouth alumni, in gen- Grant chose to resolve the governmental issues in the eral, succeeded in making significant contributions Utah Territory through negotiation rather than con- to the nation’s westward development through tinued belligerence. Despite the bitter anti-Mormon their relations with the Native Americans, their sentiment cultivated by previous governors, Young early western exploration and settlement, their and Carrington welcomed Emery, who arrived with engineering achievements (topographical, civil, the desire to assist in moving Utah toward statehood. and military), their political evolution, and their Emery implemented election reforms and expanded stabilization efforts to keep a rapidly growing government services to meet the needs of the grow- nation together. Success in early Indian relations ing population. On Grant’s October 1875 visit to provided unique opportunities to participate in Utah six months after Emery’s appointment, the frontier activities in the South, the Mississippi president was amazed at his friendly reception and Valley, and the West. Successful infrastructure reportedly told Emery that he had until then been projects on fortifications, waterways, roads, and deceived about the Mormons. After Emery’s five-year railroads facilitated both western expansion and term ended, the Utah legislature was sufficiently stabilization efforts before, during, and after the pleased with his term in office that it named a newly Civil War. The political success of Dartmouth formed county in central Utah after him. All parties alumni, moreover, allowed them not only to serve decided to let the courts decide the final outcome of their local constituents but also to coordinate with the polygamy issue. Dartmouth College 65

other like-minded alumni and friends to both American Revolution (New York: Alfred A. expand and consolidate the United States during Knopf, 2006); Frederick Chase, A History of these turbulent and critical times. Dartmouth College and the Town of Hanover, New Hampshire, 2 vols. (Cambridge: John Wilson and Son, 1891), 1:619; American National Notes Biography, 24 vols. (New York: , 1999), s.v. “Brant, Joseph” and “Brant, Molly.” 1. The principal methodology used in this study has 8. Kirkland went from Moor’s School to the involved entering data on early Dartmouth College of New Jersey (now Princeton). College and Moor’s School alumni into a rela- Dictionary of American Biography, s.v. “Kirkland, tional data base. The author then designed Samuel.” queries to identify relationships among alumni 9. Joseph T. Glatthaar and James Kirby Martin, by profession, location, time, etc. The primary Forgotten Allies: The Oneida Indians and the source for identifying Dartmouth graduates American Revolution (New York: Hill and Wang, active in the west and for basic information about 2006), 205. See also Town of Westmoreland, their lives and careers is George T. Chapman, Oneida County, New York, “History,” Sketches of the Alumni of Dartmouth College http://town.westmoreland.ny.us/content/History. (Cambridge, Mass.: Riverside Press, 1867). The 10. “Royalton Raid Revisited,” Herald of Randolph, biographical information about the Dartmouth VT, October 13, 2005, http://rherald.com/ graduates included in this article is from news/2005/1013/Front_Page/f07.html. Chapman unless otherwise credited. Note that 11. Reginald Horsman, Expansion and American some who attended Dartmouth without graduating Indian Policy, 1783–1812 (Norman: University are included in the study as well. In the early of Oklahoma Press, 1967), 83. years of Dartmouth’s history, most students came 12. Dinsmore, a native of Windham, N.H., signed from northern New England. For those gradu- many of the early treaties with the southern ates discussed who were born in New Hampshire, tribes. About his efforts toward assimilating the the towns where they were born are provided in Cherokees by training them in European skills, the notes. see “Tellico Blockhouse,” Tennessee Encyclopedia of 2. Ralph Nading Hill, ed., The College on the Hill: History and Culture, http://tennesseeencyclopedia A Dartmouth Chronicle (Hanover, N.H.: .net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=T011. Dartmouth Publications, 1964), 23, and Dick 13. William C. Davis, A Way through the Wilderness: Hoefnagel with Virginia L. Close, Eleazar The Natchez Trace and the Civilization of the Wheelock and the Adventurous Founding of Southern Frontier (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Dartmouth College (Hanover, N.H.: Hanover University Press, 1996), 255. Historical Society, 2002), 5–9. 14. Ibid. 3. Hoefnagel, Eleazar Wheelock, 20. 15. Chase, History of Dartmouth College, 1:599. 4. Ibid., 34, quoting Eleazar Wheelock to the Moor’s School was an experiment that the Marquess of Lothian, etc., “A Proposal for trustees of the funds often viewed skeptically. Introducing Religion, Learning, Agriculture and 16. Hill, College on the Hill, 27. The Oneida Indian Manufacture among the Pagans in America,” July School, founded in 1793, became Hamilton 27, 1763. College in 1812, much the way that Moor’s 5. The use of these funds was restricted for certain School evolved into Dartmouth. purposes and would lead to many convoluted 17. Chase, History of Dartmouth College, 1:636. After financial decisions and governance problems. the 1810s, Moor’s School was maintained to 6. “Indian College,” Wikipedia, http//en.wikipedia.org/ allow continued access to the trust funds. While wiki/Indian_College. the school officially closed in 1849, the trust 7. Alan Taylor, The Divided Ground: Indians, funds were not transferred to Dartmouth until Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the the 1860s. 66 Historical New Hampshire

18. Samuel Worcester was a native of Hollis, N.H. 29. American National Biography, s.v. “Ledyard, John.” Samuel M. Worcester, The Life and Labors of Rev. 30. James Zug, American Traveler: The Life and Samuel Worcester, D.D., 2 vols. (Boston: Crocker Adventures of John Ledyard (New York: Basic and Brewster, 1852). Books, 2005), 220. 19. Oklahoma Historical Society, “Dwight Mission,” 31. Long was a native of Hopkinton, N.H. Among Chronicles of Oklahoma 12 (March 1934): 42–51, the forts he designed was Fort Smith in 1818 http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/ near the Dwight Indian School in western v012/v012p042.html. Arkansas. 20. Chase, History of Dartmouth College, 1:615. 32. George J. Goodman, Retracing Major Stephen H. 21. Wilson was a New Boston, N.H., native. Long’s 1820 Expedition (Norman: University of 22. For more about Ripley, who grew up in Hanover, Oklahoma Press, 1995); Lucile M. Kane, The N.H. and was a grandson of Eleazar Wheelock, Northern Expeditions of Stephen H. Long see Charles R. Corning, “General Eleazar (Minneapolis: Minnesota Historical Society Wheelock Ripley,” Granite Monthly 17 (July Press, 1978). 1894): 1–13; American National Biography, s.v. 33. About Long’s map in Carey and Lea’s atlas, see “Ripley, Eleazar Wheelock.” New York Public Library, “Heading West: 23. “Stephen Mack, Jr.” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia Mapping the Territory,” http://www.nypl.org/ .org/wiki/Stephen_Mack,_Jr. west/hw_explor1.shtml. 24. Boutwell was from Lyndeborough, N.H. 34. Richard G. Wood, Stephen Harriman Long 25. Luman Shurtleff joined with the Mormons in (Glendale, Calif.: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1966), Kirtland, Ohio; then moved to Far West, 116, quoting Long. Missouri; then to Nauvoo, Illinois; and finally to 35. Woodbury was a native of Francestown, N.H., Salt Lake City, Utah. Jeffrey S. O’Driscoll, and later resided in Portsmouth. Postmaster Hyrum Smith: A Life of Integrity (Salt Lake City, General Amos Kendall (class of 1811) extended Utah: Deseret Book, 2003), 166, 168, 169, 175. mail service to the areas opened to settlement as 26. Hill, College on the Hill, 125–26; Clement Long, a result of Indian removal. A Discourse Commemorative of Rev. Roswell 36. Ball was from Tenney Hill in Hebron, N.H. Shurtleff, D.D., Late Professor Emeritus of Moral 37. For Ball’s recollections of his trip, see Born to Philosophy and Political Economy in Dartmouth Wander: Autobiography of John Ball, 1794–1884, College (Concord, N.H.: McFarland and Jenks, ed. Kate Ball Flowers, Flora Ball Hopkins, and 1861), 22–48. Lucy Ball (1925; reprint, Grand Rapids, Michigan: 27. Cochran, who was from Enfield, N.H., had Grand Rapids Historical Commission, 1994). thousands of followers in eastern New 38. Chase was a native of Cornish, N.H. Hampshire, western , and western New 39. Ball, Born to Wander, 42. Ball’s cousin Sally Ball York. Gideon T. Ridlon, Saco Valley Settlements Mack was Smith’s aunt by marriage. They had and Families (1895; reprint, Rutland, Vt.: lived in neighboring towns in Vermont. Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1969), 269–80. Cochran 40. Evening and Morning Star, Independence, may have had direct or indirect contact with Missouri, June 1832; Ball, Born to Wander, Moor’s School since he acquired an education 41–42. prior to the founding of other schools in the area. 41. Zion’s Herald, Boston, Dec. 18, 1833; Jan. 1, However, there are no existing attendance 1834; Jan. 15, 1834. Ball’s letters were addressed records prior to 1813 except for Indian students. to Dr. T. C. Brinsmade of Troy, N.Y. and identi- For reasons relating to funding, Indian atten- fied in Zion’s Herald as “from the N.Y. dance was better documented. Cochran was a Commercial Advertiser.” distant cousin of Daniel Webster. 42. “Remarks upon the Geology, and Physical 28. About Thurston, who attended Dartmouth but Features of the Country West of the Rocky graduated from Bowdoin, see Biographical Mountains, with Miscellaneous Facts, by John Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–1989 Ball, of Troy, N.Y.,” published in American (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Journal of Science and Arts 25 (Jan. 1834), reprinted Office, 1989), s.v. “Thurston, Samuel Royal.” in Ball, Born to Wander, 155 (appendix). Dartmouth College 67

43. Historical Oregon City, End of the Trail Interpretive 53. Joseph Smith, Views of Powers and Policies of the Center, http://www.historicoregoncity. org. Government of the United States (Nauvoo, Illinois: 44. Ball took a sea route home from Oregon via Joseph Smith, 1844). California, Hawaii, Tahiti, and around Cape 54. This was known as the Mormon Horn, continuing to write reports. Ball’s jour- resolution. Robert Bruce Flanders, Nauvoo: ney inspired others as well. His reports were Kingdom on the Mississippi (Urbana: University of available in published form before Richard Illinois Press, 1966), 297. Henry Dana left on his well-known 1834–35 55. Fehrenbacher, Chicago Giant. voyage to California, which paralleled the 56. Ebenezer Allen (class of 1826), a native of ocean portion of Ball’s journey and was publi- Newport, N.H., was instrumental, as Texas cized in 1840 through Dana’s Two Years before secretary of state and attorney general, in the Mast. writing the Articles of Annexation of Texas 45. About Hale, see Hill, College on the Hill, 127. into the United States. Ken Byler, “Who 46. The lives and careers of four of these students— Was Ebenezer?” Star Community Newspapers, John Wentworth, James Wilson Grimes, Samuel http://www.couriergazette.com/articles/ Thurston, and Albert Carrington—will be dis- 2008/10/17/allen_american/opinion/54.txt. cussed below. 57. James K. Polk, The Diary of a President, ed. Allan 47. James William Kershner, Sylvanus Thayer: A Nevins (New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., Biography (New York, N.Y.: Arno Press, 1982). In 1952), 47. 1867 General Thayer endowed Dartmouth’s 58. Ibid., 109–10. Thayer School of Engineering and developed its 59. Loren Horton, The Iowa Mormon Trail, ed. Susan curriculum; see Hill, College on the Hill, 68, 80. Easton Black and William G. Hartley (Orem, 48. Woodward was a native of Hanover, N.H. His Utah: Helix Publishing, 1997), 55. father, William H. Woodward, had been 60. Grimes was a native of Deering, N.H. William Masonic Grand Master of New Hampshire, and Salter, The Life of James W. Grimes (New York: D. his grandfather, Bezaleel Woodward, had helped Appleton and Co., 1876), 27; Wood, Stephen organize the first Masonic lodge in Hanover. Harriman Long, 234–35. William G. Woodward continued the family 61. Salter, James W. Grimes, 23. Masonic tradition in Iowa. John King Lord, A 62. Ibid., 53–55, 75, 116, 133, 152, 156, 215, 337, History of the Town of Hanover, New Hampshire 357–59. (Hanover, N.H.: for the town, 1928), 278–86; 63. Biographical Directory of the United States Gerald D. Foss, Three Centuries of Freemasonry in Congress, s.v. “Thurston, Samuel Royal;” New Hampshire (Somersworth: New Hampshire Oregon Historical Society, The Oregon History Publishing Co., 1972) 10, 276–78. Project, Biographies, “Samuel Thurston,” 49. Wentworth was born in Sandwich, N.H. Don E. http://www.ohs.org/education/oregonhistory/ Fehrenbacher, Chicago Giant: A Biography of Oregon-Biographies-index.cfm. “Long John” Wentworth (Madison, Wis.: 64. Michael K. Winder, Counselors to the Prophets American History Research Center, 1957). (Roy, Utah: Eborn Books, 2001); Brigham D. 50. Chicago Democrat, October 25, 1840. Madsen, “Albert Carrington,” Utah History 51. Joseph Smith published a response in Nauvoo to Encyclopedia, http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/ Barstow’s inquiry. Joseph Smith Jr., “Church c/CARRINGTON,ALBERT.html. History [Wentworth Letter],” Times and Seasons 65. Amos Kendall (class of 1811) worked with the 3 (March 1, 1842): 706–10. Polk administration to facilitate the departure of 52. Barstow was born in Haverhill, N.H. Chapman a ship full of Mormons from New York harbor in appears to have omitted him accidentally from early February bound for San Francisco. Polk was his Sketches of the Alumni of Dartmouth College. concerned that a large number of Mormons For information about Barstow, see Charles H. arriving in California too soon could upset his Bell, The Bench and the Bar of New Hampshire war plans. Donald B. Cole, Amos Kendall and the (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1894), Rise of American Democracy (Baton Rouge: 171. Louisiana State University Press, 2004), 257–58. 68 Historical New Hampshire

66. Polk chose to delay public announcement of the “Stanford University School of Medicine and the discovery of gold until a final treaty with Mexico Predecessor Schools: An Historical Perspective,” was ratified. He also wanted to better assess the http://elane.stanford.edu/wilson/html/chap15/ impact of the gold discovery on the distribution chap15-sect4.html. of lands acquired during the War. 81. Bell, Bench and Bar of New Hampshire, 171. 67. The Mormons had left most of their personal Barstow and Stanford worked together to pass property behind when they evacuated Nauvoo. the laws necessary to strengthen the Unionist 68. Brigham D. Madsen, Exploring the Great Salt California Militia and to facilitate the railroad Lake: The Stansbury Expedition of 1849–50 (Salt company’s charter. Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1989). 82. Norris was from Pittsfield, N.H. Although Wentworth, Grimes, and others helped 83. Goodwin later served as territorial delegate. the Mormons in their common objective of west- Biographical Directory of the United States ward expansion, they never converted to Congress, s.v. “Goodwin, John Noble.” Mormonism themselves. 84. Camp Douglas was built as a training camp in 69. Richard O. Cowan and William E. Homer, 1861 on land previously owned by Stephen A. California Saints: A 150-year Legacy in the Golden Douglas, who had died earlier that year. It later State (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, became a prison camp. 1996), 164. 85. On the importance of Webster’s abilities to key 70. “Runaway Officials of 1851,” Wikipedia, Union generals, see Dictionary of American http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_Officials Biography, s.v. “Webster, Joseph Dana.” _of_1851. 86. Appleton’s Cyclopedia, s.v. “Webster, Joseph 71. Later in the decade the capital was moved back to Dana;” Bruce Catton, Grant Moves South Salt Lake City as a more viable location. (Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Co., 1960), 72. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 237–43. Genealogical Records, http://www. familysearch.org. 87. David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler, eds. 73. Dale R. Broadhurst, “James Thornton Cobb: Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A The Don Quixote of Deseret,” The Spalding Political, Social, and Military History (Santa Research Project, http://solomonspalding.com/ Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2000), s.v.“Shepley, SRP/saga/saga10a.htm. George Foster.” 74. Ibid. 88. Appleton’s Cyclopedia, s.v. “Webster, Joseph Dana.” 75. Cobb’s editorials often attacked the Mormon 89. Quoting Steven E. Woodworth, in American leadership practicing polygamy with that National Biography, s.v. “Webster, Joseph Dana.” emotionally heated phrase. At Dartmouth’s centennial in 1869 both 76. Biographical Directory of the United States Sherman and Shepley spoke, presumably con- Congress, s.v. “Chase, Salmon Portland” and cerning Dartmouth participation in the success- Grimes, James Wilson.” ful war effort. Chase, Wentworth, and Patterson 77. Hugh Gregg and Georgi Hippauf, comps., Birth also spoke. Leon Burr Richardson, History of of the Republican Party: A Summary of Historical Dartmouth College (Hanover, N.H.: Dartmouth Research on Amos Tuck and the Birthplace of the Publications, 1932), 572–73. Republican Party at Exeter, New Hampshire 90. Salter, James W. Grimes, 382. (Nashua: Resources of New Hampshire, 1995). 91. Wood, Stephen Harriman Long, 234–35. 78. Joseph Dana Webster was a native of Hampton, 92. Bill Bingham, “Mormons and the Transcontinental N.H. James Grant Wilson and John Fiske, eds., Railroad,” Golden Spike National Historic Site, Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography, 6 National Park Service, http://www.nps.gov/ vols. (New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton and Co., archive/gosp/research/mormon.html. 1888–89), 6:416. 93. “George W. Emery,” Utah History To Go, 79. Fehrenbacher, Chicago Giant, 177–80. http://historytogo.utah.gov/people/governors/ 80. The same men also founded the first medical territorial/emery.html. school in the state, which has evolved into Stanford Medical School. John Long Wilson,