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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:

Lucas von Beverhoudt letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 789102
Mss 789102
Date(s): 1789-01-02
Abstract

In English.

Lucas von Beverhoudt letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 787115
Mss 787115
Date(s): 1787-01-15
Abstract

In English.

Lucas von Beverhoudt letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 787155
Mss 787155
Date(s): 1787-02-05
Abstract

In English.

Lucas von Beverhoudt letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 787215
Mss 787215
Date(s): 1787-03-15
Abstract

In English.

Lucas von Beverhoudt letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 787503.2
Mss 787503.2
Date(s): 1787-09-03
Abstract

In English.

Lucas von Beverhoudt letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 790159
Mss 790159
Date(s): 1790-02-09
Abstract

In English.

Lucas von Beverhoudt letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 790364
Mss 790364
Date(s): 1790-06-14
Abstract

In English.

Lucas von Beverhoudt letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 790666
Mss 790666
Date(s): 1790-12-16
Abstract

In English.

Lucas von Beverhoudt letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 789258
Mss 789258
Date(s): 1789-04-08
Abstract

In English.

Lucas von Beverhoudt letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 789279
Mss 789279
Date(s): 1789-04-29
Abstract

In English.

Lucas von Beverhoudt letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 789329.3
Mss 789329.3
Date(s): 1789-05-29
Abstract

In English.

Luke Eastman letter

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 812469
Mss 812469
Date(s): 1812-08-19
Scope and Contents

Letter from Luke Eastman of Hollis, New Hampshire to John Wheelock, requesting that his diploma be awarded in absentia.

Memorial of J. Wheelock

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 786315
Mss 786315
Date(s): 1786-05-15
Abstract

In English.

Memorial of John Wheelock

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 808602
Mss 808602
Date(s): 1808-11-02
Abstract

In English.

Memorial of John Wheelock and Stephen Jacob

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 806607
Mss 806607
Date(s): 1806-11-07
Abstract

In English.

Memorial of John Wheelock and William H. Woodward

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 808560
Mss 808560
Date(s): 1808-10-10
Abstract

In English.

Moor's Charity School account

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 808900.2
Mss 808900.2
Date(s): 1807-02-04 to 1808-01-19
Abstract

In English.

Moor's Charity School account

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 809102
Mss 809102
Date(s): 1809-01-02
Abstract

In English.

Moor's Charity School account

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 810106
Mss 810106
Date(s): 1810-01-06
Abstract

In English.

Moor's Charity School account

 Collection
Identifier: Mss 810106.1
Mss 810106.1
Date(s): 1810-01-06
Abstract

In English.

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Collection 612
Archival Object 61
 
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