Ralph Rodolphus Wheelock was born on August 19, 1742 in Lebanon, CT. He was the son of Rev. Eleazar Wheelock and Sarah Wheelock. He was a graduate of Yale College class of 1768. He died February 17, 1817 in Hanover, NH and is buried in Dartmouth College Cemetery in Hanover, NH.

Bible is missing the front cover. Leather spine and back cover are present, with back cover separated from spine. Binding is tight, and only front page is loose. Last page has the corner torn off. Bible measures 3 ¼” x 5 ¼”. Front page is inscribed, “DARTMO. COLLEGE / BOUGHT OF MAJOR RALPH WHEELOCK 3 FEB. 1772”.

Eleazar Wheelock was a Puritan minister who founded Moor's Charity School in 1754 in Lebanon, Connecticut, to provide education for Native Americans who desired to be missionaries to the native tribes. Eleazar Wheelock became involved in education when Samson Occom, a Mohegan Native American, asked Rev. Wheelock for instruction. From 1750 to the early 1770s forty-nine Native American boys and eighteen Native American girls were educated at the school. Between 1766 and 1768, Occom went on a fundraising tour of Britain to raise money for the school. The fundraising effort was extremely successful, raising 12,000 pounds in donations. The school survived for only a fairly short time, as Connecticut was located far from Native American territories on the frontier of the British colonies in North America, and because Wheelock desired to expand the institution to include a school for Europeans. The institution was moved to New Hampshire in 1770, where it was re-established as Dartmouth College, now a private Ivy League research university. It is the ninth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution.

Ralph was Wheelock's oldest son and heir apparent. While Wheelock believed that Ralph showed great aptitude for the "Indian business," others saw Ralph as arrogant and abrasive. He also suffered from epilepsy, which seriously impeded his ability to work. Wheelock's struggle to accept his son's illness and his son's struggle to overcome it provide an undercurrent for some of the stranger events in the history of Moor's Indian Charity School and Dartmouth College. Ralph grew up surrounded by and dedicated to Indian education. Ralph was unable to finish coursework at the College of New Jersey, which he attended from 1761-1763, although he graduated from Yale in 1765. He made three tours of the Six Nations (in 1766, 1767, and 1768), assisting ministers in bringing back children and negotiating with tribes. He taught at Moor's for two years, and was briefly considered as a companion for Occom on the Fundraising Tour. Wheelock formally named him as his heir in the 1768 draft of his will. However, Wheelock's reliance on Ralph brought disastrous consequences for the school. In the spring of 1768, Wheelock sent Ralph to the Onondagas and Oneidas to negotiate about schoolmasters and missionaries. Once there, Ralph managed to offend the assembled chiefs beyond repair. Ralph blamed his failure on Kirkland, and it was not until 1772 that Wheelock learned the truth of the matter. It is likely that Ralph's conduct influenced the Oneidas' decision to pull their children out of Moor's later in 1768: Wheelock himself implied as much in his 1771 Journal. By the early 1770s, Wheelock had realized that Ralph was never going to take over Dartmouth College. In a later will, Wheelock provided Ralph with £50 per annum for his care, to be paid out by the College, and stipulated that his other heirs should look after his oldest son. Because Ralph was unable to serve as Wheelock's heir, the presidency of the College passed to John Wheelock.  [sl]

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