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The Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, Congregational minister, orator, educator, and founder of Dartmouth College, was born on April 22, 1711, in Windham, Connecticut to Ralph Wheelock and Ruth Huntington. In 1733, he graduated from Yale College having won the first award of the Dean Berkeley Donation for the distinction in classics. He continued his theological studies at Yale until he was licensed to preach in May of 1734, and installed as pastor of the Second Congregational Church of Lebanon, Conn. in February of 1735. He served as their minister for 35 years. On April 29, 1735, he married Sarah Davenport. He participated fully and enthusiastically in the Great Awakening, which had begun to sweep the Connecticut River Valley around the time of his graduation from Yale. He was one of its greatest proponents in Connecticut, serving as the "chief intelligencer of revival news".
In 1743, he took in a student named Samson Occom, a Mohican who knew English, and had been converted to Christianity in his childhood. Eleazar's success in preparing Occom for the ministry encouraged him to found a school for Native American Indians, with the purpose of instilling, in the boys, elements of secular and religious education, so that they could return to their native culture as missionaries. The girls were to be taught "housewifery" and writing. The school was to be supported by charitable contribution. His plans to educate the young Native American students in his Charity School did not progress well however - many of his students became sick and died while some turned profligate and in other ways failed to successfully pursue the charter of missionary work.
He eventually decided to enlarge the school to include a college (for the education of whites in the classics, philosophy, and literature) and began to search for another location for the school. Eleazar obtained a charter from King George III on December 13, 1769, over the objections of Samson Occom and the English Board of Trustees headed by Lord Dartmouth who opposed the addition of the college. Despite Lord Dartmouth's opposition, Eleazar named the college Dartmouth College, and Dresden, NH (later renamed Hanover) was chosen for the site, and in 1771, four students were graduated in Dartmouth's first commencement, including Eleazar's son John.
Rev. Eleazar Wheelock died during the Revolutionary War, on April 24, 1779. He is buried in Hanover, NH. His writings include "Narrative of the Indian School at Lebanon."
Dartmouth Presidency:
Eleazar Wheelock, a Congregational minister from Connecticut, founded Dartmouth College in 1769 and served as its first president. The last of the Colonial colleges, Dartmouth was established by a charter granted by King George III, with funds from the second Earl of Dartmouth and others and a grant of land from John Wentworth, Royal Governor of the Province of New Hampshire. Wheelock had earlier established Moor's Charity School in Lebanon, Connecticut, to provide education to young American Indian men and train them for missionary work. Hoping to expand his school into a college, but unable to gain a charter in Connecticut, Wheelock looked to the north, where settlements were growing and, with them, the need for educational institutions. Samson Occom, a Mohegan Indian and one of Wheelock's first students, was instrumental in making Wheelock's dream a reality by raising funds and goodwill from English and Scottish missionary organizations.
A major figure in the first Great Awakening, Wheelock was a visionary and a preacher of some renown, a career he continued at Dartmouth where, in addition to President, he was also Trustee, Professor of Divinity and Minister of the College Church. Devoted to the College he had carved out of the wilderness, Wheelock was also thoroughly practical and throughout the difficult years of the Revolutionary War forged the political alliances and raised the funds necessary to keep the fledgling enterprise open. Largely because of his efforts, Dartmouth is one of the few American colleges to have continually graduated a class since 1771.
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