The Reverend Samson Occom was the first success of colonial education on the native Indians: born of the Mohegan Indian tribe, he underwent a conversion at the age of 20, becoming a Christian minister preaching to his fellow natives. Eleazar Wheelock, fellow minister, was so inspired by Occom’s conversion that he founded Moor’s Charity School in Lebanon, Connecticut, dedicated to the education of Indians. With Occom’s help, he decided to expand the school into a college, moving it to the Province of New Hampshire. That was the start of one of the oldest and most respected educational institutions in the U.S.

On this day, December 13, in 1769, by charter of King George III, the College of Dartmouth was founded. It was named after William Legge, the Second Earl of Dartmouth, one of Wheelock’s principal backers.

Dartmouth’s most famous graduate, Daniel Webster, also was one of the biggest forces in establishing its independence. In 1819, eighteen years after his graduation, Webster argued in front of the Supreme Court a case involving his alma mater, which established the principle of public vs private charters and created the fundamentals behind private business corporations.