The New International Encyclopædia/Wheelock, John

WHEELOCK, John (1754-1817). An American educator, born at Lebanon, Conn., the son of Eleazar Wheelock (q.v.). After three years in Yale, he attended Dartmouth for a year, and in 1771 graduated with the first class that went out from that college. He then tutored for four years in Dartmouth; served in the Patriot Army during the Revolutionary War, and attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel; and in 1780, soon after the death of his father, succeeded him as president of Dartmouth. Four years later he went to Europe to secure assistance for that institution, but on his return in 1784 was shipwrecked and lost all the money he had collected. He then succeeded in getting aid from the State, and was able to enlarge the institution. In 1815, owing to friction between him and the board of trustees, he was removed from the presidency; but the Legislature created a new corporation, which in 1817 restored him. Out of this dispute grew the famous Dartmouth College Case (q.v.). Wheelock died in 1817 before the case was decided. Among his published works may be mentioned Sketches of the History of Dartmouth College (1816).