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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 673 Collections and/or Records:

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 815175
Mss 815175
Date(s): 1815-02-25
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 815230
Mss 815230
Date(s): 1815-03-30
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 815322
Mss 815322
Date(s): 1815-05-22
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 815355
Mss 815355
Date(s): 1815-06-05
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 815357.1
Mss 815357.1
Date(s): 1815-06-07
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 815357.2
Mss 815357.2
Date(s): 1815-06-07
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 815371
Mss 815371
Date(s): 1815-06-21
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 815404
Mss 815404
Date(s): 1815-07-04
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 815424
Mss 815424
Date(s): 1815-07-24
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 815431
Mss 815431
Date(s): 1815-07-31
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 815455.1
Webster Mss 815455.1
Date(s): 1815-08-05
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 815455.2
Mss 815455.2
Date(s): 1815-08-05
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 815472.2
Mss 815472.2
Date(s): 1815-08-22
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 815476.3
Mss 815476.3
Date(s): 1815-08-26
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 815525
Mss 815525
Date(s): 1815-09-25
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 815590
Mss 815590
Date(s): 1815-10
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 802107
Mss 802107
Date(s): 1802-01-07
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 815673
Mss 815673
Date(s): 1815-12-23
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 802410
Mss 802410
Date(s): 1802-07-10
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 816190
Mss 816190
Date(s): 1816-02
Abstract

In English.

Additional filters:

Type
Collection 612
Archival Object 61
 
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