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
Letter from John Wheelock of Dartmouth College to Jonathan Freeman of Philadelphia informing him that it seems impossible to make an immediate payment on an engine. Writer thanks Freeman for Harper's speech.
John Wheelock letter
Letter from John Wheelock at Dartmouth College to Mrs. Maria (Shum) Wheelock in Pittsfield, Massachusetts with news from home and friends.
John Wheelock letter
Letter from John Wheelock at Dartmouth College to Samuel Miller D.D., acknowledging his election as an honory member of the NY Historical Society.
John Wheelock letter
Two-page letter from J. Wheelock at Dartmouth College to Senator Nicholas Gilman, forwarding a petition to be laid before Congress asking that measures be taken to reduce the number of stills in that part of the country, suggests a prohibitive tax;
John Wheelock letter
Two-page letter from John Wheelock to Rev. Jedidiah Morse, Secretary, informing him of the death of Thomas Stacy and John Sauk, former pupils in the Indian School. Sauk's annals of the Canadian Indians. Paul J. Gill has been ordained. Mr. Mann, tutor of the College, is the bearer of the letter.
John Wheelock letter
Two-page letter from John Wheelock at Dartmouth College to Jedidiah Morse informing him of his improved geography in use at the College and that was harm done by allowing so much distilling of spirits.
John Wheelock letter
Two-page letter from John Wheelock at Dartmouth College to Rev. Jedidiah Morse informing him that the latter's geography is used here and that there is a movement against the distilling of ardent spirits.
John Wheelock letter
Letter from John Wheelock of Dartmouth College to Jon. Freeman informing him that in this country the people are more united against the conduct of France than ever before in any cause.
John Wheelock letter
Two-page letter from J. Wheelock in Hanover to Senator Nicholas Gilman informing him that the hard feeling between the north and south. Discontent at "an unjust war, conducted in weakness and folly." Constituiton violated. Propsect of the growth of a military aristocracy.
John Wheelock letter
Two-page letter from J. Wheelock in Hanover to Senator Nicholas Gilman informing him that the hard feeling between the north and south. Discontent at "an unjust war, conducted in weakness and folly." Constituiton violated. Propsect of the growth of a military aristocracy. Original of Mss 814155
John Wheelock letter
Personal letter from John Wheelock of Dartmouth College to Jon. Freeman.
John Wheelock letter
Letter from John Wheelock of Dartmouth College to Samuel West degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on addressee on the 22nd.
John Wheelock letter
Two-page letter from John Wheelock in Hanover, New Hampshire to Daniel Stroud in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, recommending Thomas Adams for a position as instructor in Greel and Latin, and furnishing information on living expenses of students at Dartmouth College.
John Wheelock letter
Letter of recommendation from John Wheelock of Dartmouth College (Hanover, N.H.) for Lyman Spalding, testifying to Spalding's moral character and his abilities as a lectures.
John Wheelock letter
Letter from John Wheelock of Dartmoth College to "Dear Sir" introducing William Woodward.
John Wheelock letter
Letter from John Wheelock of Dartmouth College to Jedidiah Morse of Charlestown, introducing William Woodward to Morse.
John Wheelock letter
Four page letter from John Wheelock of Hanover to Rev. Dr. Kemp, Secy. to the Society in Scotland. The Society should be guided in its management of the fund by Dr. Whitaker's Memorial. He has engaged Rev. Lyman Potter to go as a missionary to the Cherokees, and will soon draw on the Society for money.
John Wheelock letter
Letter from John Wheelock of Hanover to Rev. Peter Thacher, Secy. of the Boston Commissioners. He is sending by William Woodward a letter for the Society in Scotland in regard to a mission to the Cherokees, and wishes the views of the Commissioners on the matter.
John Wheelock letter
Eight page letter from John Wheelock of Hanover to Rev. Dr. Kemp, Secy. informing him about his wishes as to the management and application of the fund. He has only recently learned that the Commissioner in Boston resigned their trust Apr. 8, 1797; that Board was established Mar. 1, 1787.
John Wheelock letter
Letter from John Wheelock of Hanover to Jon. Freeman rejoices that Gen. Washington's death did not happen until his people were consolidated and thanks addressee for papers giving details of his death. Asks addressee to procure writer a copy of Constitution of Royal Philosophical Society at London and another of the Am. Philosophical Socety at Philadelphia. Stephen Burroughs and family have gone to Canada.
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