William Chamberlain, the successor of Professor Moore in the chair of Languages, was the son of General William and Jane (Eastman) Chamberlain, and was born at Peacham, Vt., May 24, 1797. From a reliable source we have the following account of him:
Perhaps there is on record no more worthy and comprehensive testimony to his character and his work than the few lines which the late President Lord furnished for the inscription on his tombstone. They read:
"William Chamberlain, Jr., A. M., Professor of Languages in Dartmouth College. A man of strong intellect, distinguished literary attainments, and moral worth.
"He added respectability to the institution, by prudence, efficiency, and a well-earned reputation; and contributed largely to promote its interests. By disinterested and unwearied labors, with fidelity in all his relations, beloved and honored, he filled up the measure of a short but useful life, and died with humble confidence in the Divine mercy, through the atonement of Jesus Christ, July 11, 1830, aged 33."
He gave to the college for ten years the unremitting labor of his life, and we may say his life itself. To his abundant and complete work as a teacher he added the labor of overseeing the material affairs of the college,—a labor devolved upon him, perhaps, on account of his superior executive ability.
Thus he superintended the building of Thornton and Wentworth Halls, and employed his vacations, and particularly the long winter vacation, in travelling over what was then the wilderness of northern New Hampshire and Vermont, in care of the wild lands belonging to the college. Stricken with pneumonia on one of these journeys,—he would not wait for a complete convalescence before returning to duty,—his malady assumed the chronic form, and terminated his life in about six months after its first invasion.
The influences of his early life were such as may well have conduced to a broad and strong character.
His mother belonged to a family long identified with the early history of southern New Hampshire.
His father, General William Chamberlain, after serving in the armies of the Revolution, became a pioneer settler of northern Vermont, where he acquired a handsome estate and a prominent public position. He became Lieutenant Governor of the State, and represented it in Congress for several terms. Among his public services may be mentioned his care for the Caledonia County Grammar School, where his sons were fitted for college. This school was at that time taught by Ezra Carter, a man greatly respected for his attainments and dignity of character.
Thus the future professor grew up amid the versatile life of the frontier, surrounded by the contests and traditions of public service.