Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/396

 WHEELER

WHEELOCK

drowned at Camp WikolT, Sept. 7, 1S9S. General "Wheeler received from Georgetown university the lionorary degree of LL.D. in 1899, and is the amlior of The Saiitiit<jo Cantpaign (1899).

WHEELER, William Almon, Vice-Presidenc of thi- United Stales, was born in Malone. N.Y.,

June 3<t, 1S19; son of and Eliza (Woodward)

Wlieeler. both of Vermont. Ilis father died in 1827. and left a widow, one son and two daugh- ters without means of support. He was educated in the district school; tauglit school while a mere lad. and was enabled to spend two terms at the University of Vermont, from which institu- tion lie was an honorary graduate, as it appears from the catalogue, with the class of 1842, re- ceiving his A. 13. degree, 1876. He studied law at Malone, N.Y., 1841-45; was town clerk, school commissioner and school inspector; was ad- mitted to the bar in 1845; served as district at- torney of Franklin county, 1845-49; was a Whig member of the state assembly of 1850; and al)andoned the practice of law in 1851 to engage in the banking and railroad business. He was a state senator. 1858-59, and was elected president pro tempore of the senate; served as a represent- ative from the New York in the 37tli congress, 1861-G3; and was a member and president of the state constitutional convention of 1867. He was re-elected a representative to the 41st-44th con- gresses, 1869-77, and served as chairman of the committees on the Pacific railroad and com- merce, and as a member of the committee on a[ipropriatious; and as cliainuan of the liouse Committee on Southern affairs he proposed the compromise that adjusted the political troubles in Louisiana in 1875. He was a candidate for Pres- ident of the United States before the Republican national convention of 1876, and on the nomina- tion of Hayes for President was made the can- didate for Vice-President. When the electoral commission decided in favor of the Republican candidates, he was declared elected b\' being awarded lb5 electoral votes, 184 being given to Tliomas A. Hendricks, the Democratic candi- date for Vice-President. He retired from his duties as Vice-President March 4, 1881; returned to Maliine, declined to allow his name to go b(.'fure the legislative caucus of 1881 as a candidate for U.S. .senator, and liis health soon after failing rapidlj', he retired from business and social life. He received the honorary degree of A.M. from Dartmouth in 1865; that of LL.D. from the University of Vermont in 1867, and from Union in 1877. He died in Malone, X.Y., June 4, 1887. WHEELOCK, Eleazar, educator, was born in Windham, Conn., Aj.ril 22, 1711; son of Ralpli and Ruth (Huntington) Wlieelock; grandson of Capt. Eleazar Whetdork, an officer in King Philip's war, and great-grandson of the Rev.

Ralpii Wlieelock (1600-1683), who came from Shropshire, England, to Dedham, Mass., 1637, and was subsequently a founder of Medfield, Mass., and a representative in the general court. He was graduated from Y^'ale college, A.B., 1733, A.M., 1736, meanwhile studying tlie- olog}-, and was ortlained pastor of the Second Congregational church at Lebanon Crank (now Columbia), Conn., in March, 1735, where he served until 1770. He was married first, in 1735, to Sarali Davenport of Stamford, Conn., widow of Capt. William Maltby of New Haven. Conn.; and secondly to Mary Brinsmaid of Milford, Conn. In 1743, obliged to increase his inade- quate salary, lie received into his liome as a pupil Samson Occom, a Mohican Indian, who subse- quently became a prominent Presbyterian preacher among the Indians. This experiment led to the foundation of a school for the Christian education of Indian boys and girls, beginning with two pupils in December, 1754, others soon being added, and which became through the gift of a house and two acres of land from one Joshua Moor of Mansfield, Conn., Moor"s Indian Cliarity school, dependent for its support on the contribu- tions of interested persons. Attempts to procure a charter from Connecticut or from England proved unsuccessful, but through the efforts of Occum and Nathaniel Whitaker (q.v.), a board of trustees was eventually constituted in Eng- land, with William Legge, Earl of Dartmouth, at its head, and in due time, a fund of £10,000 was raised and committed to their charge. As the school grew, Mr. Wlieelock decided to establish in its connection a " seminary of learning " for English youth. He realized the necessity of a more suitable location, and owing chiefly to tiie assurance of a charter, and among other advant- ages to its vicinity to the Canadian Indians, Dresden (now Hanover), N.H., was ultimately decided upon. On Dec. 13, 1769. the charter was given in the name of King George III. by Gov. John Wentworth, who had himself offered a whole township for the school, though the title afterward proved invalid, and who was named a founder and president of the newly incorporated institution, to be called Dartmouth college in honor of Lord Dartmouth. The first board of trustees, twelve in number, consisted of the gov- ernor and his council. Dr. Wlieelock, and five other Congregational ministers. Dr. Wlieelock removed to Dresden in August, 1770, and the school work was carried on through the winter in a rudely constructed log hut. The first class of four pupils was graduated in 1771, among whom was his son, John Wlieelock (q.v.). Two other sons, Eleazar and James, were graduated in the class of 1776. and in 1779 the number of grad- uates had increased to seventeen. From the ten