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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 809668
Mss 809668
Date(s): 1809-12-18
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 799229.3
Mss 799229.3
Date(s): 1799-03-29
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 810461
Mss 810461
Date(s): 1810-08-11
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 810473
Mss 810473
Date(s): 1810-08-23
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 810475.1
Mss 810475.1
Date(s): 1810-08-25
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 810478
Mss 810478
Date(s): 1810-08-28
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 811479.1
Mss 811479.1
Date(s): 1811-08-29
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 810581
Mss 810581
Date(s): 1810-10-31
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 810619
Mss 810619
Date(s): 1810-11-19
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 783509
Mss 783509
Date(s): 1783-09-09
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 784107
Mss 784107
Date(s): 1784-01-07
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 784110
Mss 784110
Date(s): 1784-01-10
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 784113
Mss 784113
Date(s): 1784-01-13
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 784171
Mss 784171
Date(s): 1784-02-21
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 784190
Mss 784190
Date(s): 1784-02
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 784201.1
Mss 784201.1
Date(s): 1784-03-07
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 784205
Mss 784205
Date(s): 1784-03-05
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 784210
Mss 784210
Date(s): 1784-03-10
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 784226
Mss 784226
Date(s): 1784-03-26
Abstract

In English.

John Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 784227
Mss 784227
Date(s): 1784-03-27
Abstract

In English.

Additional filters:

Type
Collection 612
Archival Object 61
 
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