Eleazar Wheelock (1711-1779), American clergyman and educator, was the founder of Dartmouth College and led efforts to educate the Indians of New England.

Eleazar Wheelock was born on April 22, 1711, in Windham, Conn. In 1733 he graduated from Yale. The following year he continued his theological studies in New Haven. In May 1734 he was licensed to preach and the following February was called to the pulpit of the Second (or North) parish in Lebanon, Conn. In April he married Sarah Davenport Maltby, a widow, by whom he had six children.

When the movement of religious fervor known as the Great Awakening swept over New England in 1740, Wheelock was its warmest supporter in Connecticut. He traveled extensively, preached persuasively, and served as the chief intelligencer of revival news. Assailed by orthodox persons for his itinerancy, the neglect of his own parish, and the promulgation of "a meer passionate Religion," he was...