A later "Narrative" says:
"The beginning of May [1773], the Rev. Mr. Ripley and Mr. Dean sat out on a mission to visit the Indians at Penobscott, and on the Bay of Fundy, as they should find encouragement, agreeable to representations heretofore made of a door open for service among them."
They had a good measure of success, in some respects, in this mission.
The following tribute to Professor Ripley is from the "Memoirs of Wheelock."
"In the winter of 1786-7, the college experienced the loss of an eminent instructor, the Rev. Sylvanus Ripley. He was suddenly called from his labors, in the vigor of life and the midst of extensive usefulness.
"After taking his degree in 1771, in the first class which received the honors of the college, he continued with Mr. Wheelock as a tutor in the college. In 1775, he was appointed master of Moor's Charity School, and in 1779, upon the decease of Dr. Wheelock, he succeeded him in the pastoral care of the church in the college, and soon after was elected professor of Divinity. Professor Ripley was a learned man, an orthodox divine, an evangelical and popular preacher. His eloquence had nothing artificial or studied. His sermons were seldom written; his manner was pleasing and winning, his words flowed as promptly and readily in the pulpit as in the social circle."
Professor Ripley died at Hanover, February 5, 1787, of injuries received in a fall from his carriage, while returning from a religious service in a distant part of the town.
His wife was Abigail, daughter of Pres. Eleazar Wheelock.
Bezaleel Woodward, the first professor of mathematics in the college, was the son of Israel and Mary (Sims) Woodward, and a descendant of Henry Woodward of Dorchester, Mass., 1638, and Northampton, Mass., 1639, where he was one of the "seven pillars" of the church formed there in 1661. He was born at Lebanon, Conn., July 16, 1745, and graduated at Yale College in 1764.