Wheelock, John , 1754-1817
Biography
John Wheelock was born on January 28, 1754, in Lebanon, Conn.He was the eldest son of Eleazar Wheelock who was the founder and first president of Dartmouth College; John Wheelock succeeded his father as the College’s second president.
Wheelock began his higher education at Yale, then followed his father to Hanover, NH when his father founded Dartmouth and completed his studies there, where he was a member of the College’s inaugural graduating class in 1771.
In 1776, Wheelock became a leader of the United Committees, a group of disgruntled New Hampshire citizens angry at their lack of representation in the state legislature and the distance of the state capital; in retaliation for these slights, Wheelock and others led twelve New Hampshire towns to secede from the state and attempt to join Vermont. The next year, 1777, as the Revolutionary War raged, Wheelock briefly served in New York and Vermont as a lieutenant colonel in Colonel Bedel's Regiment.
Upon his father's death in 1779, John Wheelock assumed the presidency of the College, despite the fact that he was neither an academic nor a minister.
During his almost forty years as Dartmouth's president (1779–1815), Wheelock oversaw the construction of Dartmouth Hall and the founding of Dartmouth Medical School, the fourth-oldest medical school in the country; he also maintained the College’s fiscal solvency throughout the Revolutionary War, mainly through the Vermont legislature’s grant of 23,000 acres (93 km²) in Wheelock, Vermont.
During the latter half of Wheelock's tenure, he became embroiled in a dispute with Dartmouth’s Board of Trustees. Wheelock proceeded to convince the governor of New Hampshire to fill the Board with supporters and turn Dartmouth College into a state-controlled Dartmouth University. The original, private Board resisted and eventually sued. The case, Dartmouth College v. Woodward, went through various judicial courts, before the United States Supreme Court decided in the Board's favor in 1819, the result of a brilliant peroration by Dartmouth alumnus Daniel Webster, class of 1801, who had, ironically, graduated under Wheelock's tenure. However, by this time, Wheelock, who had been forced out of the presidency in 1815 by failing health and poor relations with the Board, had died.
Found in 655 Collections and/or Records:
Nathan Smith mortgage deed
In English.
Nathaniel Chipman letter
Two page letter from Nathaniel Chipman of Philadelphia to J. Wheelock, advises the obtaining of a confirmatory act from the Legislature, recognizing the power, as a corporation, of Moore's School to hold property and c.
Nathaniel Whitaker letter
Whitaker writes to Wheelock from Salem expressing his desire to serve the College again.
Nicholas Baylies letter
In English.
Noah Webster letter
In English.
Noel Annance letter
In English.
Notice to Jedediah Baldwin from School Committee
Call for a meeting addressed to Jedidiah Baldwin (1768-1849) for the purpose of raising funds for a school house, signed by John Wheelock (1754-1817) and Lemuel Dow Jr., selectmen.
Notification of a meeting
Otis Freeman affidavit
In English.
Peter Colt letter
In English.
Peter Olcott letter
In English.
Philip Corrigan letter
In English.
Pres. John Sullivan letter
In English.
Reuben Blanchard letter
Letter from Reuben Blanchard of Peacham, Vermont to John Wheelock in Hanover, New Hampshire, concerning the Moses Hall case.
Rev. Benjamin Trumbull letter
In English.
Rev. Dr. MacFarlan,Secy. letter
In English.
Rev. E.D Griffin letter
In English.
Rev. F.A. Vanderkemp letter
In English.
Rev. Levi Hart letter
In English.
Rev. Wm. Montague letter
In English.
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- Collection 594
- Archival Object 61