1800 - 1850

1800 Hanover shifted from pounds, shillings, and pence to decimal system.

$333.34 (equivalent of 100 pounds) was appropriated for schools in Hanover.

22 years before Tunis School opens. Congress meets for the first time

1801  Thomas Jefferson elected President

1804  Lewis and Clark Expedition began

1809  James Madison is elected President

1810 “Sheep Fever” takes hold with the arrival of Merino sheep (and maybe Tunis?) The great virgin forests on the high hills above Hanover were cleared and burned for pastures. Stonewalls were constructed.

A School Inspector in addition to a School Committeeman was elected in each district.

1812  War of 1812 commences with Britain

1814  Star Spangled Banner written;  British capture and burn Washington

1815 “The Great September Gale”.  Napoleon is defeated at Waterloo

1817  5 years until Tunis School opens James Monroe is elected President

1819 Dartmouth College Case is argued and won by Daniel Webster in the Supreme Court.

1820  “wrangling” begins about establishing schools, for the first time, on the east side of Moose Mountain.  Florence Nightingale is born in England; “mad’ King George III dies

1822  Districts #11 and #12 were established. TUNIS SCHOOL (#12) OPENS and is located on the corner of Tunis and Wolfeboro Roads

1825 Erie Canal opens to access rich Ohio River Valley.  John Quincy Adams is elected President.  First passenger railroad in England

1826  Redistricting occurs after considerable controversy, but Tunis is not affected.  World’s first photograph is taken

1827 Etna Baptist Church (Trumbull Hall) is completed. A legislative act replaces School Inspectors for individual districts with a Superintending School Committee for the town to examine and fire teachers, select texts to be purchased by parents, encourage attendance, dismiss students, and report to the town after semi-annual inspections. Each district had a Prudential Committee to choose teachers and provide board for them, repair the schoolhouses and provide fuel for them, and notify the Superintending Committee when  summer and winter school commenced.

1828  Construction begins on first public railroad.

1830 Laura Bridgman was born in rural Hanover.

7.5 acre Dartmouth Green laid out and seeded 1831. Goss School (#16) is established.  Indian Removal Act is passed

1833  Hanover has 17 districts

1837  Queen Victoria ascends to the throne of England where she reigns until 1901

1840 Hanover Center Church is erected.

Sheep industry and population peaks; mass migration and farm abandonment begins.  Underground Railroad is active

1844  Telegraph patented.  Potato Famine begins in Ireland.

1848 Connecticut & Passumpsic Rivers Railroad connect Upper Valley to outside world. Tunis School in operation for 26 years.  Revolution of 1848 shakes all of Europe except England and Russia as the bourgeoisie elite led opposition against reactionary governments.

1849 “Sheep Fever” dies out with the exodus of people to the more fertile west. With farm abandonment came reforestation. Tunis School is in operation for 27 years. California Gold Rush begins.

1851  The London World Exposition, the first world’s fair, celebrates the work of industry.


© Keith Quinton 2015