250 years since the start of the American Revolution, a look at Dartmouth’s ‘very strange corner’ of the conflict

250 years since the start of the American Revolution, a look at Dartmouth’s ‘very strange corner’ of the conflict

Almost exactly 250 years ago, as the sun rose on a late spring day, members of the fifth graduating class of Dartmouth College awoke to the sound of distant cannon fire. Eleazar Wheelock, the College's founder and first president, noticed it too, writing in his diary and in letters to friends of the "noise of cannon" echoing through the valley.The date was June 17, 1775, and remarkably, this cannon fire was said to be heard over 100 miles northw…