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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:

J. Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 788162
Mss 788162
Date(s): 1788-02-12
Abstract

In English.

J. Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 788452
Mss 788452
Date(s): 1788-08-02
Abstract

In English.

J. Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 788567
Mss 788567
Date(s): 1788-10-17
Abstract

In English.

J. Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 789362
Mss 789362
Date(s): 1789-06-12
Abstract

In English.

J. Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 789472
Mss 789472
Date(s): 1789-08-22
Abstract

In English.

J. Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 789667
Mss 789667
Date(s): 1789-12-17
Abstract

In English.

J. Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 792551
Mss 792551
Date(s): 1792-10-01
Scope and Contents

Four page letter from J. Wheelock to John Rogiers he and Mrs. Wheelock have just been on a visit to Beverwyck. Warner Rogier (D.C.1793) doing very well. Business matters.

J. Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 813677
Mss 813677
Date(s): 1813-12-27
Scope and Contents

Two-page letter from J. Wheelock at Dartmouth College to Robert Mayo, MD, thanking him for a copy of his "Historical Views of Ancien Geography."

J. Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 814175
Mss 814175
Date(s): 1814-02-23
Scope and Contents

Three-page letter of J. Wheelock at Dartmouth College to Prof. Joseph McKean of Harvard about the admission of Charles H. Bruce (DC 1814)

J. Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 814217
Mss 814217
Date(s): 1814-03-17
Scope and Contents

Two-page letter from J. Wheelock of Dartmouth College to Joseph McKean regarding the admission oc C.H. Bruce.

J. Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 814278
Mss 814278
Date(s): 1814-04-28
Scope and Contents

Two-page letter from J. Wheelock to Daniel Stroud, informing him that Thomas Adams (D,C. 1814) agrees to teach at the academy in Stroudsburgh, Pennsylvania.

J. Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 814307
Mss 814307
Date(s): 1814-05-07
Scope and Contents

Letter from J. Wheelock in Hanover to Senator Thomas W. Thompson, discussing the political situation.

J. Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 814311.2
Mss 814311.2
Date(s): 1814-05-11
Scope and Contents

Letter from J. Wheelock at Dartmouth College to Jonathan Curtis informing him that he is to make a master's oration.

J. Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 814326
Mss 814326
Date(s): 1814-05-26
Scope and Contents

Personal letter from J. Wheelock at Dartmouth College to Jonathan Curtis.

J. Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 814351
Mss 814351
Date(s): 1814-06-01
Scope and Contents

Letter from J. Wheelock at Dartmouth College to John Taylor, Lieutenant Governor of New York, introducing William H. Woodward.

J. Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 814354
Mss 814354
Date(s): 1814-06-04
Scope and Contents

Letter from J. Wheelock at Dartmouth College to John Armstrong, Secretary of War, objecting to Hanover being used as a rendevous for the new recruits and suggests West Lebanon or Orford.

(J. Wheelock) letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 786630
Mss 786630
Date(s): 1786-11-30
Abstract

In English.

J. Wheelock letter

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 786677
Mss 786677
Date(s): 1786-12-27
Abstract

In English.

J. Wheelock letters

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 814311.1
Mss 814311.1
Date(s): 1814-05-11
Scope and Contents

Letter from J. Wheelock of Dartmouth College to Charles H. Bruce, announcing his admission to the senior class.

J. Wheelock memorial

 Item 1
Identifier: Mss 794227.1
Mss 794227.1
Date(s): 1794-03-27
Scope and Contents

Memorial of J. Wheelock of Philadelphia to Congress asking that his salary as Lieut. Col. from 15 Nov. 1777 to 20 June 1779 be paid. "The above memorial was not offered to Congress, - the state of national affairs not admitting..."

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Collection 612
Archival Object 61