Eleazar Wheelock

author

Eleazar Wheelock

1711–1779

A New England minister and educator, he founded Dartmouth College after first building Moor’s Indian Charity School in Connecticut. His life sits at the crossroads of revival preaching, colonial education, and the complicated history of missionary work among Native communities.

1 Audiobook

A plain and faithful narrative of the original design, rise, progress and present state of the Indian charity-school at Lebanon, in Connecticut

A plain and faithful narrative of the original design, rise, progress and present state of the Indian charity-school at Lebanon, in Connecticut

by Eleazar Wheelock

About the author

Born in Windham, Connecticut, in 1711, Eleazar Wheelock was educated at Yale and became a Congregational minister in Lebanon, Connecticut. He gained notice as a preacher during the Great Awakening and spent decades working as a pastor before turning more fully toward education.

In 1754 he established Moor’s Indian Charity School, a project shaped in part by his connection with Samson Occom, the Mohegan minister and teacher. That school eventually led to the founding of Dartmouth College in 1769, and Wheelock became its first president. He died in 1779 in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Wheelock remains an important and complicated figure in early American history. He is remembered for founding one of the colonial colleges, but also for his role in missionary and educational efforts aimed at Native students, a legacy that is still closely examined today.