Lebanon Crank

Variant name of place

Society in Lebanon

Geographic position

41.6911° N, 72.3072° W

Sources

"Columbia Green Historic Disctrict." Living Places. http://www.livingplaces.com/CT/Tolland_County/Columbia_Town/Columbia_Green_Historic_District.html; McCallum, James Dow. Eleazar Wheelock, Founder of Dartmouth College. Hanover: Dartmouth College Publications,1939. Geo coordinates at https://www.google.com/#q=geographic+coordinates+of+columbia+connecticut.

General note

Lebanon Crank was the name of an area in the northwest part of the town of Lebanon, Connecticut, on both sides of the Hop River, which was created by the Connecticut legislature in 1716, in response to the demand of residents who did not want to travel to the First Church in Lebanon proper for services. It was also known as Lebanon North Parish and the Second Society or Second Church in Lebanon, names that refer to religious organizations of the Congregational Church. The two dozen families who started the parish built their first meetinghouse near the site of the present structure, around which the religious and political life of the community revolved. Eleazar Wheelock served as minister in this parish from 1735 to 1769, and his house, built around 1735, is the oldest building still standing. Lebanon Crank played a major role in his life. It was his base of operations when he became an itinerant mininster during the religious awakenings of the 1730s and 1740s, and he presided over a revival in the Second Church in 1740. His Indian Charity school was located nearby in Lebanon, and his students attended the Second Church in Lebanon Crank as part of their education. The parish was so invested in Wheelock's School that they tried to keep him from moving it up to New Hampshire when he founded Dartmouth College, but failed. Lebanon Crank was subsequently renamed Columbia and established as a separate town in May 1804.