Eleazar Wheelock

Eleazar Wheelock (* April 22, 1711 in Windham, Connecticut, † April 24, 1779 in Hanover, New Hampshire ) was an American Congregational church pastor, speaker, educator and founder of Dartmouth College.

Early years

Born as the son of Ralph Wheelock and his wife Ruth Huntington in Windham in Connecticut Wheeock closed in 1733, the Yale College from, won the first prize of Dean Berkeley Foundation and stayed to study theology at Yale until he in February 1735 as pastor of the Second Congregational Church was hired in Lebanon in Connecticut, where he remained for 35 years. 1735, he married Sarah Davenport. Wheelock enthusiastically supported the spreading at that time in New England Great Awakening and became one of its most important advocates in Connecticut and served as heralds of salvation messages. His sermons were well attended and very popular. In 1741 he published for the carriage of revivalism A Hundred Sermons more than there are Days in the Year ( Hundreds of sermons more than days in the year). Some contemporaries criticized Wheelock would with his sermons incite sectarian excessive emotions and encourage them to form their own communities revival. 1743 Connecticut passed a law that would restrict the activities of the movement.

Wheelock's Charity School

1743 he took a theology student named Samson Occom on, a Christian convert Mohegan, which dominated the English language. The training Occoms was extremely successful, Occom was a popular pastor of the Presbyterian church and preached to Native American and white church visitors. This success encouraged Wheelock to found a charity funded by donations School ( " charity school" ) for Indian boys and girls, in order to undergo a religious education on the English model. Subsequently, she should return to her people as missionaries. The girls were taught home economics and English.

1754 donated Colonel Joshua More from Mansfield, Connecticut, the necessary funds for a plot and two school buildings and until 1762 was attended by around 20 young people Wheelock's Indian School, the Moor 's Charity School. Wheelock collected donations for his project continues to be successful and sent Samson Occom 1765 and Nathaniel Whitaker to the UK to raise funds. They came back after two years with 12,000 pounds, most of which is a board of trustees chaired by William Legge, Earl of Dartmouth, was handed over to the fiduciary manager.

At school, however, there were problems. Part of the Indian youth in Wheelock's care fell ill and died, while another succumbed to alcohol or other reasons were unsuitable for missionary service. Meanwhile, Wheelock sought to acquire land in the Six Nations in New York State. After the Congress of Fort Stanwix in 1768 he lost his enthusiasm for the charity school and its Indian wards. In addition, he had trouble with the church in Lebanon, who wanted to cut his salary.

Dartmouth College

Wheelock finally put his plan to expand the school and to integrate a college for white students, through to the Trustees. On December 13, 1769 he received a charter from King George III. , Eleazar Wheelock, the founder and first appointed president and awarded him the right to choose his successor. Wheelock named the university after the chairman of the Board of Trustees Dartmouth College. A new site (then Dresden ) found in Hanover, New Hampshire. After his dismissal Wheelock left the church in Lebanon and came with his helpers in August 1770 in Hanover. Here she was expecting pristine wilderness; in the first months of trees were cut down and built temporary huts for college. The circumstances were difficult and the following first winter put heavy demands on the residents.

1771 was the first academic graduation ceremony held in Dartmouth and four students received their diploma, including Wheelock's son John. This later became the second president of Dartmouth. 1774 the money collected in England was exhausted and Dartmouth suffered in Wheelock's remaining term of office under growing debt. The American War of Independence met the Charity School for Indians particularly hard. Many tribes fought on the side of the British and sent their children do not go to school anymore. A notable exception was the Oneida who remained loyal to the Americans and the survival of the school secured first.

1786 was the Dartmouth College around 93 km ² land granted by Parliament in Vermont, approximately the area of ​​the present town of Wheelock in Vermont. In the early years of the 19th century, the debt was gradually reduced with the proceeds from this land grant. In his last years, Wheelock increasingly suffered diseases, but his duties as preacher, educator and president of Dartmouth College, he never neglected. Eleazar Wheelock died during the War of Independence on April 24, 1779 and was buried in Hanover, New Hampshire. (: Narrative of the Indian School in Lebanon English ) Among his few writings of the report on the Indian school in Lebanon belongs.

Parts of the old Moor 's Indian Charity School in Lebanon are still standing. The site is now a Historic Landmark in Columbia, Connecticut, as Lebanon is now called. The place Wheelock in Vermont was named after Eleazar Wheelock.