"Students Ducked at Hanover Fire"

At Rauner, we have some collections of letters that Dartmouth students wrote home from college over the years, and they give an interesting look into what was on the students’ minds in those times, including their perspective on events. One of these students, Frank Whitcomb, class of 1911, wrote to his sister Helen about a fire in Hanover and how he thought it had been misrepresented in the news.

On the night of October 13th, 1910, the Tavern Block on Main Street in Hanover caught on fire. The Hanover fire department rushed to fight the fire. Various Boston newspapers (the title of this post is the headline from the Boston Journal) reported that hundreds of students also rushed to the scene of the fire and fought to hold the nozzle of the fire hose, until the firefighters had enough of the interference and sprayed the students with the hose to keep them away. However, Frank Whitcomb (among other students) took issue with this account, explaining that the students who showed up at the fire were simply “too eager to assists the volunteers,” so the firefighters needed to use the hose to make more room. He also pointed out to Helen that “the hose which did the most of the work of putting the fire out was manned by two students.”

The events that unfolded should have been simple enough, but how the story was told depended on who was telling it. This event prompted The Dartmouth (whose account Whitcomb agreed with) to publish an article calling for a system to ensure truthful reporting of College news.

To read Whitcomb’s letters, come to Rauner and ask for MS-1438. (Or, ask about our other collections of student letters!)