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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:

Francis Brown letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 815661
Mss 815661
Date(s): 1815-12-11
Abstract

In English.

Francis Brown letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 815665.1
Mss 815665.1
Date(s): 1815-12-15
Abstract

In English.

Francis L. Whiting et.al letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 815529
Mss 815529
Date(s): 1815-09-29
Abstract

In English.

Gabriel Luis letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 802515
Mss 802515
Date(s): 1802-09-15
Abstract

In English.

Gabriel Luis letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 802518
Mss 802518
Date(s): 1802-09-15
Abstract

In English.

George Grennell letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 813467
Mss 813467
Date(s): 1813-08-17
Scope and Contents

Letter from George Grennell of Greenfield, Massachusetts to John Wheelock in Hanover, New Hampshire, recommending Elijah Alvord as candidate for Master's Degree.

George Patten letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 788618.1
Mss 788618.1
Date(s): 1788-11-18
Abstract

In English.

George Woodward letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 808356
Mss 808356
Date(s): 1808-06-06
Abstract

In English.

Gid(eon) Granger letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 803276
Mss 803276
Date(s): 1803-04-26
Abstract

In English.

Governor John Langdon letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 810425
Mss 810425
Date(s): 1810-07-25
Abstract

In English.

Henry Marchant letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 786574
Mss 786574
Date(s): 1786-10-24
Abstract

In English.

Ira Allen letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 791580
Mss 791580
Date(s): 1791-10-30
Scope and Contents

A personal letter from Ira Allen of Hartland to J. Wheelock.

Isaac Garvin letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 803462
Mss 803462
Date(s): 1803 to 1805
Abstract

In English.

Isaac Tichenor letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 787503.1
Mss 787503.1
Date(s): 1787-09-03
Abstract

In English.

Israel Morey letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 788617.1
Mss 788617.1
Date(s): 1788-11-17
Abstract

In English.

J. Wheelock letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 790557
Mss 790557
Date(s): 1790-10-07
Abstract

In English.

J. Wheelock letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 790602
Mss 790602
Date(s): 1790-11-02
Abstract

In English.

J. Wheelock letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 788162
Mss 788162
Date(s): 1788-02-12
Abstract

In English.

J. Wheelock letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 788452
Mss 788452
Date(s): 1788-08-02
Abstract

In English.

J. Wheelock letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 788567
Mss 788567
Date(s): 1788-10-17
Abstract

In English.

Additional filters:

Type
Collection 594
Archival Object 61
 
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