Wheelock

Colonel Wheelock's town took its name by way of New England. The Handbook of Texas says he first meant to call it Lamar, for Vice President Mirabeau B. Lamar, but in 1837 chose Wheelock, after the Vermont town named for his grandfather, the founder of Dartmouth College. The ambitions matched the pedigree: several attempts were made in the late 1830s to make it the capital, and in 1837 it was among the sites weighed for a university. Sam Houston stopped here during his last campaign for governor. The town counted 225 people in 2000.

What the plaque says

Wheelock Founded in 1833 by Colonel E. L. R. Wheelock, soldier, lawyer and educator. One of the organizers of Robertson's colony. Captain of Texas Rangers. Died in Edwardsville, Ill, in 1846 while visiting the place of his birth. Wheelock Eleazar Louis Ripley Wheelock (1793-1847) came to Texas from Illinois in 1830. A surveyor for Robertson's colony, he established a town on his land along the Old San Antonio Road. Named Wheelock in 1837, the town boasted twenty businesses by the 1840s, including general stores, land and freight offices, and a cotton gin. By 1845 Wheelock was a transportation hub in Central Texas. A post office was established in 1846, and the town was Robertson County Seat from 1850 to 1856. Bypassed by the railroad in the 1860s, Wheelock declined; many of its citizens moved to Hearne. (1997)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Calvert — 18 mi
  A railroad cotton town of 1868 on State Highway 6 that claimed the largest cotton gin in the world and elected Black men to county and state office during Reconstruction.
• George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum — 21 mi
  The library of the forty-first president on the Texas A&M campus, opened in 1997, where George and Barbara Bush and their daughter Robin are buried in a family plot on the grounds.
• Fort Boggy State Park — 31 mi
  A 1,847-acre park in Leon County named for a settlers' palisade of 1840, with a 15-acre lake, short trails and the story of Tennessee farmers, the Keechi and a Ranger captain.

More markers nearby

• Shiloh Baptist Church — 5.8 mi
• James Wilson — 6.5 mi
• Alexander Cemetery — 8.2 mi
• Alexander Methodist Chapel — 8.2 mi