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ASA DODGE SMITH 7th President of Dartmouth College, 1863-1877 Sally Dodge was the daughter of Samuel and Susannah Dodge and a descendant of Richard Dodge. SHe married Dr. Roger Smith, and lived in Weston, Vermont, most of her life. Sally and Roger had at least 7 children, one of whom was Asa Dodge Smith, who became the 7th president of Dartmouth College. |
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The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume IX
Asa Dodge Smith, educator, was born in Mt. Vernon, N.H., Sept. 21, 1804; son of Dr. Roger and Sally (Dodge) Smith. Asa Dodge Smith was graduated at Dartmouth in 1830, and at Andover Theological seminary in 1834; serving, 1830-31, as principal of Limerick Academy, Maine. He served as pastor of the 14th Street Presbyterian church, New York city, 1830-33, and was lecturer on pastoral theology in Union Theological seminary, 1843-44. He was elected the seventh president of Dartmouth college in 1863, and served until his death. He received the honorary He is the author of: Letters to a Young Student (1832); Memoir of Mrs. Louisa Adams Leavitt (1843); Discourse on the Life and Character of Rev. Charles Hall (1854); The Private Character (1857); Home Missions and Slavery (1857); Christian Stewardship (1863); inauguration address (1863): Beneficence Our Life Work, a baccalaureate discourse (1865). He died at Hanover, N.H., Aug. 16, 1877. The administration of President Asa Dodge Smith was one of tremendous growth for Dartmouth. Smith was a cosmopolitan man, whose reputation as a preacher and public speaker had won him many friends and admirers. During his thirteen-year tenure, the Thayer School of Engineering was founded; the number of scholarships increased from 42 to 103; and the College became the beneficiary of several important bequests. One, left by Richard Fletcher of Boston, totaled $100,000. The Chandler Scientific School, which was later merged with the College, grew in enrollment and financial resources. Alumni were brought together in regional associations from Boston to Cincinnati. It was also during Smith's Aministration that Hanover became the site of New Hampshire's first land grant college after the passage in 1862 of the Morrill Act. The New Hampshire College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts remained in Hanover fo President Smith presided over the observance of the one hundredth anniversary of Dartmouth's charter--a spectacular event that was almost rendered a disaster by a sudden thunderstorm. Nevertheless, it drew such dignitaries as U.S. Chief Justice Salmon p. Chase, a graduate of the Class of 1826, and General William Tecumseh Sherman. |