Wheelock is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Robertson County,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, United States. It is located northeast of Bryan and southeast of Franklin. Wheelock is located on Farm to Market Road 46 and Farm to Market Road 391. It is part of the Bryan– College Station Metropolitan Statistical Area.

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 Congregationalism in the United States, Congregational minister, orator, and educator in present-day Columbia, Connecticut, for 35 years before founding Dartmouth College in ...

, D.D., the founder of

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

. 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, 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 ...

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, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

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 parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

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 A state senator is a member of a State legislature (United States), state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature. History There are typically fewer state senators than there ...

William T. "Bill" Moore, sometimes called "the father of the modern

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

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

Trivia

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

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