Indian College

Housing shortages at Harvard are no great novelty. Back in 1651, Harvard's president, Henry Dunster, realized that the overcrowded College desperately needed additional space. Lacking wealthy and willing alumni, Dunster wrote to the Commissioners of the United Colonies in England, explaining Harvard's situation. The Commissioners turned Dunster's request over to the London Society for the Propogation of the Gospel among the Indians. In 1652, the Society granted 120 pounds to the College for the construction of ". . . one Intyre Rome at the colledge for the Conveniencye of six hopfull Indians youthes to be trained up there. . . which Rome may be two stories high and built plaine but strong and durable."

The building, which probably stood on the present site of Matthews, opened two years later. The project, however, soon ran into difficulties. According to the London Society's grant, Indians would attend the College so that "preserving their own language, they may obtain the knowledge of other tongues and dispense the Indian tongue in the College." The trouble was that few aborigines cared to obtain knowledge or to dispense it. Those that did try to enter Harvard, about twenty in all, came hopelessly unready for higher education and had to be prepared for entrance in local prop school's at Harvard's expense.

Only five of these "youthes" actually studied in the Yard. Of these, three dropped out during the first year and one, Joel Iacoomis '64, was murdered by hostile Indians on his way back to Cambridge after Christmas vacation. Only one Indian, Caleb Cheeshahtesumuck '65, stayed around long enough to get his degree. He died of consumption the following year.

College administrators soon realized the experiment in Indian education was a failure. The Indian College became a dormitory for a while, housing about 20 students, all of them white. In 1665, the College moved the first university printing press in America from the President's office to the basement of the Indian College. There, the press turned out the Reverend John Eliot's famous Indian translation of the Bible. By 1676, the Indian College was declared unfit for human habitation and its residents moved out, although the printing press remained until 1698.

The structure stood deserted for five years until, in 1695, the President and Fellows voted to tear down the building and to use its bricks for new construction. The bricks from the Indian College eventually were used to build the old Stoughton Hall. In their resolution, however, the President and Fellows remembered the original terms of the London Society's grant. They provided that "in case any Indians should hereafter be sent to the College they should enjoy their studies rent-free in said building." Although this offer has never been repudiated, there is no record that anyone ever took the College up on it.