Wheelock is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Robertson County,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, United States. It is located 15 miles northeast of Bryan and 11 miles southeast of

Franklin Franklin may refer to: People * Franklin (given name) * Franklin (surname) * Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class Places Australia * Franklin, Tasmania, a township * Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...

. Wheelock is located on

Farm to Market Road 46 A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

and Farm to Market Road 391. It is part of the Bryan– College Station

Metropolitan Statistical Area In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are neither legally Incorporated town, incorporate ...

. Wheelock's elevation is 436 feet (133 m), and it is located at (30.8976902, -96.3899639).

History

The town site of Wheelock was laid out in 1834 by founder Col. Eleazer Louis Ripley Wheelock (1793–1847), grandson of Dr.

Eleazar Wheelock Eleazar Wheelock (April 22, 1711 – April 24, 1779) was an American Congregational minister, orator, and educator in Lebanon, Connecticut, for 35 years before founding Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. He had tutored Samson Occom, a Mohe ...

, D.D., the founder of

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

. It was near Dunn's Fort, an early site for protecting Anglo settlers in Robertson's Colony. Eleazer L. R. Wheelock originally planned to name the community after

President

Mirabeau B. Lamar Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar (August 16, 1798 – December 25, 1859) was an Lawyer, attorney born in Georgia, who became a Texas politician, poet, diplomat, and soldier. He was a leading Texas political figure during the Republic of Texas, Texas ...

, but the community was named after

Wheelock, Vermont Wheelock is a town in Caledonia County, Vermont, United States. The population was 759 at the 2020 census. History The town was named after Eleazar Wheelock, the founder of Dartmouth College. Through a provision of the college dating to , any f ...

in 1837. Wheelock was considered as a site for both the Texas state capitol and the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

in the 1830s. Wheelock grew as a cattle ranching and cotton farming community in the 1840s, and it became one of the most well-known towns in Central Texas. A post office was set up in Wheelock in 1846. Wheelock became the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

of Robertson County in 1850, though it lost that designation to Owensville in 1856. Wheelock began to decline in the 1860s when the railroad bypassed the town; many of its residents moved to Hearne, a nearby community with a railway station. In 2000, the population of Wheelock was estimated to be 225. The late State Senator William T. "Bill" Moore, sometimes called "the father of the modern

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

", was born in Wheelock in 1918.Robert C. Borden, "Bull of the Brazos dies: Moore was champion of Texas A&M," ''

Bryan-College Station Eagle ''The Eagle'', officially known as ''The Bryan-College Station Eagle'', is a daily newspaper based in Bryan, Texas, United States. Centered in Brazos County, the paper covers an eight-county area around Bryan-College Station that includes Texas ...

'', May 28, 1999, pp. 1-3

Trivia

The real life events fictionalized in the movie

The Sugarland Express ''The Sugarland Express'' is a 1974 American crime drama film directed by Steven Spielberg in his directorial debut. The film follows a woman (Goldie Hawn) and her husband (William Atherton) as they take a police officer (Michael Sacks) hostage a ...

occurred partly in Wheelock.

Hearne, Texas Hearne ( ) is a city in Robertson County, Texas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 4,544. The city is named for a family that settled in the area in the 19th century and promoted the construction of rail lines throu ...

was named after the Wheelock resident who donated land for that town's railroad depot.

References

External links

*http://www.texasescapes.com/CentralTexasTownsSouth/WheelockTx/WheelockTexas.htm *http://www.cemetery.state.tx.us/pub/user_form.asp?pers_id=23 *http://www.forttours.com/pages/hmrobertson.asp#Wheelock1 {{authority control Unincorporated communities in Robertson County, Texas Unincorporated communities in Texas Bryan–College Station