Wheelock Academy (Oklahoma)

The history of Wheelock Academy dates to as early as 1832, when a missionary couple, Alfred and Harriet Wright, began teaching Choctaw female children. A dormitory was build in 1839 and the school was forally adopted into the Choctaw school system in 1842 as the Wheelock Female Seminary. The school closed in 1861 due to the Civil War. The Seminary building and many of the nearby buildings bruned after the Civil War, but the Choctaw national leaders rebuilt the school in 1884.

The federal government assumed control of the school in 1910 and continued its operation until 1955 when it was closed. It has also operated under the name of Wheelock Female Ophan Academy.

Student Case Files, 1911-1953, and a Register of Students, 1916-1926, are among the holdings of the Southwest Regional Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Fort Worth, Texas.

Some records of Wheelock Academy may be embedded in the records of the Muskogee Area Office and the Five Civilized Tribes Agency, many of which are housed at the Southwest Regional Archives of NARA in Fort Worth.

Microfilm copies of “Narrative and Statistical Reports” for Wheelock are included in National Archives Microcopy M1011, available in the National Archives system and in the collections of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, beginning with their film number 1724219.

References

Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States

Oklahoma Historical Society. Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.