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 61 Collections and/or Records:
John Wheelock to David McClure
Letter from John Wheelock of Dartmouth College to D. McClure with his epitaph for Eleazar Wheelock's monument. Objections abroad to the incorporation of the School with the College.
John Wheelock to David McClure
Wheelock writes to McClure of gifts from Newbury Port and privately mentions that a project he spoke of previously is prospering.
John Wheelock to David McClure
Three page letter from J. Wheelock of Dartmouth College to David McClure at the recent meeting of the Trustees Charles Backus was against the will of Wheelock and the faculty, elected Prof. of Divinity. Asks for information about his character.
John Wheelock to David McClure
Three page letter from John Wheelock of Dartmouth College to David McClure of East Windsor, Conn., regarding account of the investigation of the grant to Moor's Indian charity school by a committee of the Vermont assembly.
John Wheelock to David McClure
Letter from John Wheelock of Dartmouth College to [David McClure]. writer will be glad to promote the education of Mr. Strong's son.
John Wheelock to David McClure
Three page letter from J. Wheelock of Dartmouth College to David McClure, telling him that he will take both the Indian boys into the School. Trouble with the Society in Scotland. Wishes McClure would write a sketch of the life of Eleazar Wheelock: "No person can do the work so well as you."
John Wheelock to David McClure
Two page letter from J. Wheelock of Dartmouth College to David McClure, telling him that the Trustees have given him the degree of D.D. Approves of the plan that the College and School be kept entirely separate.
John Wheelock to David McClure
Three page letter from John Wheelock of Dartmouth College to David McClure of East Windsor, Conn. with a statement of the money collected at home and abroad for Moor's charity school and Dartmouth college. Writer's trip abroad.
John Wheelock to David McClure
Three-page letter from John Wheelock in Hanover to David McClure, telling him of the malice and falsehoods of the Trustees. His own innocence. He asks permission to publish extracts from his letter in regard to the college finances at Eleazar Wheelock's death, and the harmonious cooperation of the former Trustees.
John Wheelock to David McClure
Two-page letter from John Wheelock at Dartmouth College to David McClure, telling him about the College Lottery, the lease of College land, and that Mr. B...s has declined his appointment. His earnest desire that he shall attend Commencement.
John Wheelock to David McClure
Two page letter from John Wheelock of Hanover, N.H. to David McClure comments on the recent death of Bulkley Olcott and urges McClure to attend next commencement of Dartmouth College.
John Wheelock to David McClure
Three page letter from J. Wheelock from Dartmouth College to David McClure 150 students in college; successful careers of graduates. Has sold half of the grant of 41000 acres to pay debts. The Trustees have made a demand for 6000 on account of their losses in Landaff.
John Wheelock to David McClure
Letter from John Wheelock of Dartmouth College to David McClure as Brown will not go on a mission to Saba, writer has written Smith.
John Wheelock to David McClure
Three page personal letter from J. Wheelock of Dartmouth College to David McClure the Assemble refuses to grant the request of the College regarding Landaff.
John Wheelock to David McClure
Three-page letter from John Wheelock to David McClure, telling him that he expects the new building to erected in four weeks.
John Wheelock to David McClure
Letter from J. Wheelock of Dartmouth college to D. MacClure his domestic matters have been deranged by Mr. Washburn's son's not coming. Mr. V. Beverhoudt wishes to engage and overseer.
John Wheelock to David McClure
Two-page letter from John Wheelock at Dartmouth College to David McClure, telling him that his wife and daughter will visit him on their way to New Jersey. Also talks about McClure's history and the additions by Major Woodward and Dr. Elijah Parish and of the encouragement by the Trustees and its publication.
John Wheelock to David McClure
Three-page letter from John Wheelock to David McClure, telling him that he is sending some subscription papers for the "Memoirs." Will supply the money to have an engraving of his father placed in the book. The trouble over the town of Wheelock settled in favor of the School.
John Wheelock to Rev. D. McClure
Three-page letter from John Wheelock in Hanover to Rev. David McClure, informing him about the corrupt purposes and practices of the party which has removed him from office. The "Sketches" and the "Vindication." He asks him to write an account of the state of the College at the founder's death.
John Wheelock to Rev. David McClure
Dartmouth is flourishing. The country's clamor for liberty. Dart. Coll. 2p.
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