Wheelock, Caledonia County, Vermont Genealogy

Brief History
Wheelock was chartered on November 8, 1780 by the Vermont Legislature.

The charter was issued to John Wheelock and the trustees of Dartmouth College and Moor's Charity School. Wheelock is thus the only town in Vermont ever to have been chartered to an organization wholly outside of the state.

As late as the mid-l800's the rentals paid by Wheelock tenants continued to provide a large percentage of the permanent funds for Dartmouth College, and some lands in the town are still held under long-term rentals from the college.

In 1828, Dartmouth President Nathan Lord was in Wheelock collecting rents, and was heard to invite any person of Wheelock who wanted to go to college to come down to Dartmouth, where they would get free tuition. Fifty years passed before anyone actually took him up on his invitation. In total, only eight students from Wheelock have taken advantage of Lord's offer. A man of the Class of 2005 is the most recent.

Cemeteries
The following is a list of major cemeteries in present-day Wheelock. For location of all cemeteries, see Cemeteries of Vermont, Caledonia County, website at this link.


 * Drown Cemetery - inscriptions at Find A Grave site.
 * Horne Cemetery - inscriptions at Find A Grave site.
 * Old Wheelock Village Cemetery - inscriptions at Find A Grave site.
 * South Wheelock Cemetery - inscriptions at Find A Grave site.
 * Sulfur Spring Cemetery - inscriptions at Find A Grave site.
 * West Wheelock Cemetery - inscriptions at Find A Grave site.


 * Wheelock Cemeteries List at FindAGrave
 * Caledonia County Cemeteries at FamilySearch Places

Church Records
Historically, the largest religious groups in Vermont were the Congregational, Baptist, Roman Catholic, and Methodist churches. For general information about Vermont denominations, view the New Hampshire Church Records wiki page. To see the churches in Wheelock, visit. Church records and the information they provide vary significantly depending on the denomination and the record keeper. They may contain information about members of the congregation, such as age, date of baptism, christening, or birth; marriage information and maiden names; and death date. The following are church records available online for the town of Wheelock:

City Directories
1888 Wheelock Town Directory

Historical Data
Wheelock, Vermont USGenWeb Page

Land Records
The following are online land records for the town of Wheelock:

Libraries and Historical Societies
Northeast Kingdom Genealogy - Genealogy resources for towns in the counties of Essex, Orleans and Caledonia.

Maps
The following are online maps of the town of Wheelock:

1875 map of Wheelock

Newspapers
Burlington Free Press

The Barre Montpelier Times-Argus

The Caledonian Record

Probate Records
In Vermont, most probate records are kept at the town level. The following are online probate records for the town of Wheelock:

The probate district for Wheelock is Caledonia Caledonia Probate Division 1126 Main St, Ste 1 St Johnsbury, VT 05819 Phone: (802) 748-6605

Town Histories
Town of Wheelock, Vermont's gift to Dartmouth College, by Eleanor Jones Hutchinson (1961) - find this book in a library.

Town Records
In Vermont, most records are kept at the town level and generally began being kept at the founding of the town. These records may include the following: The following are TOWN town records available online:

Town Clerk Vital and Town Records, 1792-2001, can be found on FamilySearch (browse only images).

The Family History Library has microfilm of original records from the Wheelock Town Clerk's Office. These include Land records, 1785-1902; indexes to land records, 1785-1992, and Vital statistics, 1857-1939, indexes to vital statistics, 1785-1992.

Wheelock Town Clerk 1192 Vermont 122 Wheelock, VT 05851 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 1328 Lyndonville, VT 05851 Phone:(802) 626-9094 Email: wheelocktc@charterinternet.com

Town Clerk
The town clerk is responsible for these records, and so most originals can be found at the town clerk's office.

Vital Records
FamilySearch Historical Records Collection has Vermont birth, death, and marriage records online.