BENEFACTORS.--TRUSTEES.
From various authentic sources we have the following sketches of
Dartmouth's leading benefactors, always excepting the last Royal
Governor of New Hampshire, John Wentworth, whose care for all the
interests of the Province is a matter of enduring record. Of the
distinguished person in honor of whom the College was named, the
following account, published in 1779, is from "Collins' Peerage":
"William, _the present and Second Earl of Dartmouth_, for his more
polite education, traveled through France, Italy, and Germany; and, on
his return to England, took the oaths, and his seat in the House of
Peers, on May 31, 1754. His Lordship was sworn of His Majesty's Privy
Council on July 26, 1765; in August following he was appointed first
Commissioner of Trade and Plantations, which he resigned in 1766; in
August, 1772, he was appointed Secretary of State for the Colonies;
and on November 10, 1775, Keeper of the Privy Seal.
"His Lordship married, on January 11, 1755, Frances Catharine, only
daughter and heir of Sir Charles Gunter Nicholl, Knight of the Bath;
and by her had issue eight sons and one daughter.
"His Lordship is also President of the London Dispensary;
Vice-President of the Foundling and Lock Hospitals; Recorder of
Litchfield; LL. D., and F. R. S."
The armorial inscription is:
"GAUDET TENTAMINE VIRTUS."
Forbes' Life of Dr. Beattie gives the following interesting paragraph:
"His Majesty (George III.) asked what I thought of my new
acquaintance, Lord Dartmouth. I said, there was something in his air
and manner which seemed to me not only agreeable, but very enchanting,
and that he seemed to me to be one of the best of men; a sentiment in
which both their majesties heartily joined. 'They say that Lord
Dartmouth is an enthusiast,' said the king, 'but surely he says
nothing on the subject of religion but what every one may and ought to
say on the subject of religion.'"
Of John Thornton, the devout Episcopalian, the kinsman of Wilberforce,
and the most munificent of Dartmouth's early benefactors, almost the
sole supporter of the founder for several years, Rev. Thomas Scott, in
a memorial "Discourse" says:
"It is worthy of observation, that this friend of mankind, in the
exercise of his beneficence, not only contributed his money (which
often is done to very little purpose) but he devoted his time and
thoughts very much to the same object; doing good was the great
business of his life, and may more properly be said to have been his
occupation, than even his mercantile engagements, which were uniformly
considered as subservient to that nobler design.
"To form and execute plans of usefulness; to superintend, arrange, and
improve upon those plans; to lay aside such as did not answer, and to
substitute others; to form acquaintance, and collect intelligence for
this purpose; to select proper agents, and to carry on correspondence,
in order to ascertain that his bounties were well applied: These and
similar concerns were the hourly occupations of his life, and the ends
of living, which he proposed to himself; nor did he think that any
part of his time was spent either happily or innocently, if it were
not some way instrumental, directly or indirectly, to the furtherance
of useful designs."
"Abiel Chandler was a native of Concord, N. H. In his childhood his
parents removed to Fryeburg, Maine, where he labored on a farm till he
was twenty-one years of age. He was graduated at Harvard College in
1806, and spent the next eleven years in teaching at Salem and
Newburyport, Mass. To the good reputation which he had previously
gained as a student, he added that of an excellent preceptor. A
little later he commenced a mercantile life at Boston. He was of the
house of Chandler and Howard, and afterwards Chandler, Howard, and
Company, for more than a quarter of a century, when he retired with a
fortune. To numerous relatives he made liberal bequests, with great
delicacy and judgment. After his legacy to the college, the residue of
his property was bequeathed to the New Hampshire Asylum for the
Insane.
"The origin of Mr. Chandler's endowment of the Scientific School is
referable to an incident that occurred to him when a young man at
Fryeburg. He fell in company with some students of Dartmouth College,
and he was impressed by their superiority to himself. He conceived the
purpose of being himself a scholar, and he fulfilled it. When, after a
few years of honorable industry as a teacher he became a merchant, he
saw himself, though now a scholar, ignorant, to a great extent, of the
principles and methods of mercantile life. Whereupon he set himself to
a new variety of learning. He gained it, and with it gained a fortune.
But he saw other men around him, in different spheres, suffering as he
had done from a similar want of knowledge,--merchants, traders,
ship-masters, artisans, farmers, laborers.
"The Chandler School is the ripened fruit of a well-considered purpose
to benefit mankind. He had confidence in the importance of his object,
the integrity of his aims, and the wisdom of his advisers. He bestowed
his charity with a hearty good-will, and left the event with God."
"_John Conant_ was born in Stowe, Mass., in 1790. His family descended
from the French Huguenots who were driven into England by Louis XIV.
His father was an industrious and successful farmer. In the district
school he was taught the merest rudiments of an English education. In
after years, by the aid and sympathy of an intelligent and
well-educated wife, he fitted himself to write for the public
journals, to lecture on temperance and agriculture, and to perform
with credit and honor the duties of important official stations, in
town and State. His leisure hours were devoted to study. He collected
a small private library of choice books in history, biography, and
science, and made them the companions of rainy days and winter
evenings.
"At the age of twenty-six, he purchased a farm in Jaffrey, under the
shadow of 'the great Monadnock,' on which he labored for thirty-five
years, and gathered 'a plentiful estate.' This was accumulated by
means of those home-bred virtues, industry, prudence, and economy; for
he never, in a single instance, increased his wealth by speculation.
"When the New Hampshire Insane Asylum was occupying the public
attention, he contributed liberally to its endowment, and was at one
time president of its Board of Trustees, being sole superintendent of
the first buildings that were reared.
"Turning his thoughts toward the rising academy at New London, Mr.
Conant proposed to add to its literary and scientific departments an
agricultural school. He ascertained, however, that his whole estate
would be inadequate to the work, and, after making generous donations
to the academy, he turned his attention to the Agricultural College at
Hanover.
"In his endowment of this institution, along with other things, he has
provided a model farm for the college, and founded a scholarship for
each town in Cheshire County, twenty-two in all, with an additional
one for Jaffrey.
"Mr. Conant was through life a liberal contributor to public
enterprises, and a supporter of the gospel, and for twenty years was
an active member of the Baptist Church."
Boynton's History of West Point gives the following valuable
paragraphs relating to Sylvanus Thayer, by whose munificence to the
cause of education he has laid his Alma Mater and his native town
under lasting obligations:
"Brevet-major Sylvanus Thayer, of the Corps of Engineers, on July 28,
1817, assumed command as superintendent of the West Point Military
Academy, and from this period the commencement of whatever success as
an educational institution, and whatever reputation the Academy may
possess, at home or abroad, for its strict, impartial, salutary,
elevating, and disciplinary government, must be dated. Major Thayer
was an early graduate of the academy. He had served with distinction
in the War of 1812, and had studied the military schools of France,
and profited by the opportunity to acquire more complete and just
views concerning the management of such an institution than were
generally entertained by educational and military men of that day. The
field before him was uncultivated; the period was one when rare
qualifications for position were not considered valueless; and,
blessed with health, devotion to the cause, and firmness of purpose,
he was permitted to organize a system, and remain sixteen years to
perfect its operation.
"Immediately after entering upon his duties, the Cadets were organized
into a battalion of two companies, with a colonel of Cadets, an
adjutant, and a sergeant-major, for its staff; and within the year he
created a 'Commandant of Cadets,' to be an instructor of tactics.
"The division of classes into sections, the weekly rendering of class
reports, showing the daily progress, the system and scale of daily
marks, the establishment of relative class rank among the members, the
publication of the Annual Register, the introduction of the Board of
Visitors, the check-book system, the preponderating influence of the
'blackboard,' and the essential parts of the Regulations for the
Military Academy, as they stand to this day, are some of the evidences
of the indefatigable efforts of Major Thayer to insure method, order,
and prosperity to the institution. When relieved, at his own request,
the upward impetus given to the institution had attracted general
observation."
General Thayer evidently believed that "peace hath her victories" as
well as war, and nobly acted in accordance with his intelligent,
earnest convictions.
"Joel Parker was born at Jaffrey, N. H. After studying in the academy
at Groton, where the late President James Walker was one of his
schoolmates, he entered the Sophomore class at Dartmouth College in
February, 1809, at the early age of thirteen, and graduated in 1811,
not yet seventeen years of age. After his graduation he studied law at
Keene, and with his brother Edmund at Amherst, and entered the bar of
Cheshire County, at the October term in 1817, at the former place,
where he at once engaged in practice.
In the year 1821, contemplating a change of residence, he visited the
West, and was admitted to practice in the Circuit Court of the United
States at Columbus, Ohio, in January, 1822; but, fortunately for his
native State, returned in the latter year, and devoted himself
assiduously to his chosen pursuit.
Free from domestic cares, affianced only to his profession, he early
gained an honorable position by the steady exercise of natural
abilities well adapted to its pursuit. He was industrious, thorough,
minute, painstaking, cautious, persistent, and untiring. "Judge
Parker's mode of practice in the trial of cases," writes an early
professional associate, who still enjoys a ripe and honored age, "to
take down the testimony in full of the witnesses in writing, and to
cross-examine them at great length as to all the circumstances they
might know relative to the case, contributed greatly to change the
previous practice of the witness' first telling his story of what he
knew, followed by a brief cross-examination, with only a few notes,
made by the counsel, of the leading points of the testimony."
Of Judge Parker's judicial life in New Hampshire, Charles Sumner, in
1844, wrote: "It will not be unjust to his associates to distinguish.
Mr. Chief Justice Parker as entitled to peculiar honor for his
services on the bench. He may be justly regarded as one of the ablest
judges of the country."
The event which brought Judge Parker more conspicuously before the
public, and undoubtedly contributed justly and largely to give him a
wide and established reputation for vigor, independence, learning, and
capacity, was his controversy with 14 Mr. Justice Story of the Supreme
Court of the United States in regard to the proper construction of a
clause--it might even be said the meaning of a word [lien]--in the
Bankrupt Law of 1841; a controversy which became political in other
hands, and threatened to reach the magnitude of a conflict between the
United States and New Hampshire.
After the experiences of this generation, such a collision seems
trifling; but it involved subjects of grave importance, and was a
contest between no insignificant combatants,--not without interest at
this day to a student of common or constitutional law.
It began in 1842, when Story and Parker were each in the full vigor of
judicial life, and enthusiastic crowds of young men were learning the
science of the law from Story's lips. It ended seven years after, when
Story had passed away, and Parker was lecturing where Story taught, to
young men who now revere the memory of both. He had laid aside the
honor and labors of the office which required him to engage in the
struggle; and, in the first year of his service as a professor in the
school to whose success and reputation Story had so largely
contributed, the court which Story had adorned declared the survivor
victorious. Like Entellus, he might say,--
"Hic victor cestus artemque repono."
The eminent service rendered to the country and the age, by Judge
Parker, while Royall professor of Law at Cambridge, forms a material
part of our national history.
Richard Fletcher was a native of Cavendish, Vt. Having graduated at
Dartmouth, in 1806, he studied law with Daniel Webster, and commenced
practice in Salisbury, N. H. In 1819 he removed to Boston, where he
shortly took rank with the very first of legal advocates.
His biographer says: "While in practice before the courts his presence
ever commanded the utmost respect. Of good form, of handsome and
expressive features, and of most gentlemanly and pleasing address,
with his great learning and untiring industry, it is not strange that
he should have succeeded at the bar and on the bench.
"He was an orator of great power,--fluent and elegant in diction,
bright and sparkling in thought, keen and quick in repartee.
"His care not to be engaged in unworthy causes was a matter of note.
"In political life he found little that suited his tastes, although at
different times a member of both the State and National Legislatures.
"Mr. Fletcher was a sincere Christian. His religion was not so much of
the aggressive kind, nor did he often urge his views upon others; but
it pervaded his entire character, and shone out in all his actions. In
his will he made a provision for publishing biennially, a prize essay
adapted to impress 'on the minds of all Christians a solemn sense of
their duty to exhibit in their godly lives and conversation the
beneficent effects of the religion they profess, and thus increase the
efficiency of Christianity in Christian countries, and recommend its
acceptance to the heathen portions of the world.'"
Few of Dartmouth's alumni have manifested a more affectionate,
steadfast devotion to their Alma Mater, than Mr. Fletcher.
Tappan Wentworth was the son of Isaac Wentworth, of Dover, N. H., and
was born there February 24, 1802, and died in Lowell, June 12, 1875.
His father was a poor man, a boatman running a freight-boat between
Dover and Portsmouth.
He was sent first to common schools till he reached the classical
school where he studied Latin in a class with the late John K. Young,
D.D., Dr. George W. Kittredge, and Hon. John H. White, but was taken
from school after having read two books of Virgil. Judge White says:
"Tappan was a good scholar, energetic and self-reliant. I was in the
Latin class with him, and was told by the father that he was too poor
to keep him in school." He then spent about three years in Portsmouth,
in a North End grocery store.
From Portsmouth he went to South Berwick, Me., into the stores of the
late Benjamin Nason and Alphonso Gerrish, successively, as clerk. He
there attracted the attention of Hon. William Burleigh, a then member
of Congress from York district, by a spirited article he had written
in favor of Mr. Burleigh's re-election. Mr. Burleigh now offered to
take him as a law student, and the young clerk entered upon the study
of law, and was admitted to the bar in York County in 1826. After
seven years' successful practice in his profession in South Berwick
and Great Falls, he came to Lowell, bringing some seven thousand
dollars with him.
He now seemed to form his life plan of work, professionally and
financially,--diligence in his profession and all possible investments
in real estate. At his death his $7,000 had swollen into nearly
$300,000, during his forty-five years of Lowell life.
During these years he became a leading member of his profession, was
often in offices of trust in city affairs, at different times in both
houses of the Legislature, and a member of Congress from 1853 to 1855.
After assigning "pride of ancestry and name" as one reason for Mr.
Wentworth's munificence to Dartmouth, Judge Crosby says:
"Another reason for the gift to the college is found in his
appreciation of the value, the power, and the beauty of education. He
had had hard experience in relation to it. He had hungered for it when
he could not get it. He had obtained it in limited departments, by
hard work, at great odds and under great embarrassments, when other
claims must be postponed in its behalf. And as he looked over our
college studies he found many branches he had never pursued and could
not approach."
"The fund is not given for scholarships, professorships, libraries, or
buildings. It is given for the support of the institution, to make
instruction independent, learned and cheap; given to invite the youth
to come here, and to give them the best opportunities of cultivation
at lessened expense, to lay foundations of learning and mental
enlargement for any department in life. It will maintain ten learned
professors or twenty tutors, or give 20,000 volumes of books annually,
as the honorable Trustees shall think the demands of the college
require.
"It may enlarge, repair, or ornament these grounds; it may be turned
into laboratories, museums of natural history, or art; it may raise
the curriculum to higher studies and extended courses. It is not
restrained by his personal judgment and direction in the future, but
left to the better judgment of living mind."
Should Dartmouth ever lose her maiden name, she would not hesitate in
regard to the new one.
William Reed was born at Marblehead, Mass. Compelled to abandon the
hope of a public education, he afterwards engaged in mercantile
pursuits, which he followed with great energy and activity and with a
good degree of success.
Having by his untiring energy and perseverance, and by his strict
habits of economy come into possession of a considerable amount of
property, he devoted the latter part of his life to philanthropic and
benevolent purposes.
As a citizen he was distinguished for activity, public spirit and true
patriotism. The many marks of attention and respect which he received
from his fellow-citizens evinced the high estimation in which he was
held by the community.
In 1811 he was elected to a seat in the Congress of the United States,
a station which he filled for four years with honor to himself, with
satisfaction to his constituents, and with advantage to his country.
While the cause of Foreign Missions received the largest share of his
Christian sympathies and the largest amount of his charitable
donations, yet he was deeply interested in all the benevolent
operations of the day. His sound judgment was sought in the management
of various public institutions. In 1826 he was elected a member of the
Board of Visitors of the Theological Seminary at Andover, and occupied
that station until his death. He was for several years a Trustee of
Dartmouth; also of Amherst.
Dr. George Cheyne Shattuck was born in Templeton, Mass., in the year
1783, in the sixth generation from William Shattuck, who was born in
England in the year 1621, and died in Watertown, Mass., in the year
1672, Dr. Benjamin Shattuck graduated at Harvard College in 1765, and
having studied medicine, settled in Templeton. His youngest son
inherited thirteen hundred dollars, and this sufficed for his support,
fitting for college, and college and Medical education, commenced at
Hanover and continued in Philadelphia and Boston, with such addition
as he was able to make by school-keeping. There were no public
conveyances when he went from Templeton to Hanover, and he bought a
horse on which he rode to Hanover and then sold it, taking the pay in
board. He received four degrees from his Alma Mater; the first in the
year 1803 and the last, of Doctor of Laws, in 1853. He settled in
Boston in the year 1807, and for the space of forty-seven years
devoted himself to the practice of his profession. He secured the
esteem, respect and affection of his patients, and gathered a handsome
estate. He gave liberally to his Alma Mater for an Observatory, for
books, and for portraits of distinguished alumni. He founded a
professorship in the Medical Department of Harvard University and
endowed scholarships in the Academical Department. He gave liberally
to various charities during his lifetime, as well as to public
institutions, and the poor and needy never appealed to him in vain. He
died in Boston in the year 1854, in the profession of the faith in
which he had been educated both at home and at college.
George H. Bissell was born at Hanover, N. H. He is descended from a
family of Norman-French origin, which came from Somersetshire,
England. His mother came of Belgic and Holland descent. One of his
ancestors was the first settler at Windsor, Ct., in 1628. The late
Gov. Clark Bissell, of Connecticut, and Gov. William H. Bissell, of
Illinois, were relatives. In 1846, after successful teaching
elsewhere, on the organization of the High School in New Orleans Mr.
Bissell was elected its first principal over many competitors.
Subsequently he was chosen superintendent of the public schools in
that city. His remarkable administrative abilities and high
qualifications as a scholar were of great service in his onerous
position. The schools reached a discipline and prosperity before
unknown. He is also a member of the legal profession.
In the development of petroleum Mr. Bissell was a leading pioneer;
perhaps he justly deserves the pre-eminence in this great work. Mr.
Bissell is a self-made man. We quote a portion of his letter to
President Smith, announcing his munificent donation for a gymnasium:
"In acceding to your wishes, my dear sir, I can but recall that day,
now twenty years since, when, leaving Dartmouth, alone and unaided, I
felt that 'Tentanda via est, qua me quoque possim tollere humo.'
"It affords me unqualified pleasure now to be able to gratify a wish
then cherished, to aid in some degree my Alma Mater, and in that
manner which you assure me is the most effectual."
"Gen. David Culver was born in Lyme, N. H. In the year 1832 he left
the parental roof, and after a residence in Hartford, Conn., and New
York City, for some years, where in both cities he was actively
engaged in lucrative business pursuits, he returned to his beautiful
ancestral home in Lyme, in 1855. The residue of his years he spent in
pleasant agricultural life, on the old farm of his strongly-endeared
childhood, memory, and attachment. In the rural district of this home
he was ever apparently content and happy, and, much to his praise,
seemed greatly beloved by his neighbors. His townsmen many times by
their united suffrage gave him important offices of public trust and
confidence. Of the Congregational Church of Christ, in Lyme, he was
for many years a highly valued helping member, and for the gospel
ministry was a liberal supporter, giving of his means in so quiet a
manner that he appeared not to wish his good deeds blazoned to the
world.
"For the needy, suffering poor of his personal acquaintance,
especially the helpless poor, he had a sympathizing heart, and so
deeply pitied them, in many instances, as to greatly alleviate their
sufferings by ministering pecuniarily to their relief.
"To the cause of general education in the community,--elementary,
common, agricultural, and collegiate,--he was always a warm-hearted,
deeply-interested friend. In many instances, to aspiring youth in
indigent circumstances, who were striving after the acquisition of the
needful knowledge to prepare themselves and others for usefulness, he
has been known to bestow pecuniary assistance to aid them on their
way.
"And so agreeably bland was he in his mode of conferring his favors,
as to greatly augment the value of them, and at the same time heighten
the esteem of the recipients for the donor." Outside of her alumni
Dartmouth had few warmer friends than General Culver.
Samuel Appleton was a native of New Ipswich, N. H.
His enterprise and his liberality have given his name a conspicuous
place in New England history. We append a portion of one of his
letters to President Lord, which shows his generous appreciation of
liberal culture.
"It affords me much pleasure to have it in my power to do something
for the only college in my native State which has done so much to
establish a sound literary character in the country. Dartmouth has
done her full proportion in educating for the pulpit, the bar, the
healing art, and the senate, good and great men who have done honor to
their names, to the college, and to the country."
In closing this record, we can only allude to other leading
benefactors, among whom are John D. Willard, who gave to Dartmouth
some of the fruits of his busy, earnest life. Salmon P. Chase, loyal
to his Alma Mater to the last. John Wentworth, who still lives to
witness her work. Henry Bond, loving her scarcely less than his
kindred, "according to the flesh." Frederick Hall, who gave his money,
and what he valued more. John Phillips, whose name will live as long
as Dartmouth, or Andover, or Exeter, shall exist. Israel Evans, the
patriot divine, who cherished for Washington and Wheelock similar
affection. Aaron Lawrence, the conscientious Christian merchant.
Jeremiah Kingman, the busy agriculturist, who cultivated his mind as
well as his fields. Mrs. Betsey Whitehouse, the parishioner of Abraham
Burnham, by whose labors her valuable Christian and general character
was largely moulded, and E. W. Stoughton, who fully realizes the close
connection between a healthy body and a sound mind.
The services of Dartmouth's Trustees should not be passed over in
silence.
We give a statement of the character of the Board half a century ago,
when the College was in "middle life," from Mr. William H. Duncan.
"Of the members of that Board, there was Elijah Paine, of Vermont, who
had received his appointment as District Judge of the United States
for the District of Vermont from Washington, a graduate from Harvard,
'a Roman of the Romans,' one who would have done honor to Rome in her
noblest and best days for the purity, integrity, and elevation of his
character. Charles Marsh, who held for many years the unchallenged
position of the leader of the bar in Vermont, a cousin of that giant
in the law, Jeremiah Mason, whom he greatly resembled in many of his
intellectual characteristics,--a high-toned gentleman, and a devout
and reverend believer in Christianity. Moses P. Payson, a graduate of
the College, of the class of 1793, a lawyer of courteous and elegant
demeanor, and of high social position. Judge Edmund Parker, a sound
lawyer, a man of good sense, and excellent judgment, and above all a
man of unspotted character, a brother of the distinguished ex-Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire. Israel W. Putnam, D.D.,
a graduate of the class of 1809, so long and so favorably known in New
Hampshire as a clergyman. John H. Church, D.D., a graduate from
Harvard, a man of apostolic solemnity and dignity of character, whose
praise is in all the churches. John Wheeler, D.D., an accomplished
scholar, afterwards President of the University of Vermont. Bennett
Tyler, who was still a Trustee, although he had resigned his position
as president, a man of commanding dignity of presence, an unrivaled
logician, and one of the best pulpit orators it has ever been the good
fortune of the writer to listen to. Judge Samuel Hubbard, of Boston,
one of the best lawyers of New England, who for many years was the
rival and the peer of the leaders of the Suffolk Bar. When on the
bench of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, he was numbered among her
most eminent jurists, and was ranked with Fletcher and Shaw. He was a
man of the finest sensibilities, and a devout and reverent Christian.
Mills Olcott, of the class of 1790, who had been the Secretary and
Treasurer of the College before he was a Trustee, whose father had
served before him for twenty years in the same capacity, a man of
remarkable sagacity and enterprise in business affairs, of assured
social position, and of great elegance and dignity of manner.
"And of this body of men was Ezekiel Webster, the elder brother of
Daniel, a man of remarkable intellectual endowments; in sagacity and
judgment, in the opinion of those who knew them both, fully equal to
his distinguished brother, well read, as all the gentlemen of the old
school were, in the old English authors; a profound lawyer, and, at
times when he could be prevailed upon to speak, as eloquent as his
brother; of commanding personal presence, which in no way can be so
well described as by borrowing a Homeric epithet, for he was truly a
'king' among 'men.'
"Such was the body of men whose grave and majestic air used to impress
the writer of this sketch, when the Commencements came round, in his
college days, with the same feeling of awe and reverence with which
the barbarians' were inspired when they first looked in upon the Roman
Senate, supposing that they were looking upon an assembly of kings."
If to these we add the names of the eminent men who were the
colleagues of the founder, and of Nathaniel Niles, Jonathan Freeman,
Thomas W. Thompson, Stephen Jacob, Timothy Farrar, Samuel Bell, Asa
McFarland, Seth Payson, Samuel Prentiss, George Sullivan, John Aiken,
William Reed, Samuel Delano, Samuel Fletcher, Nathaniel Bouton, Silas
Aiken, Joel Parker, Richard Fletcher, and the honored Governors of the
State, we are fully impressed with the fact that the interests of the
college have been in the keeping of wise and prudent guardians.