Of Mrs. Wheelock, it is said:[2] "Every tradition respecting her makes her a woman of unusual intelligence and rare piety. Her home, the main theatre of her life, was blessed equally by her timely instructions, her holy example, and the administration of a gentle yet firm discipline." Their son Eleazar was born at Windham, April 22, 1711.
[2] Huntington Family Memoir, p. 78.
The first minister of this honored town was Rev. Samuel Whiting, a native of Hartford, and trained in the "Hooker School." For a helpmeet he had secured a lineal descendant of that noble and revered puritan, Gov. Wm. Bradford. The labors of this worthy pair were largely blessed to their people. At one period, in a population of hundreds, it is said "the town did not contain a single prayerless family."
Thus kindly and wisely did the Master arrange, by long and closely blended lines of events, that the most genial influences should surround the cradle of one for whom He designed eminent service and peculiar honor.
The mother of Eleazar Wheelock having died in 1725, for a second wife his father married a lady named Standish, a descendant of Myles Standish, whose heroic character she perhaps impressed, in some measure, upon her adopted son. "Being an only son," says his biographer,[3] "and discovering, at an early age, a lively genius, a taste for learning, with a very amiable disposition, he was placed by his father under the best instructors that could then be obtained." At "about the age of sixteen, while qualifying himself for admission to college, it pleased God to impress his mind with serious concern for his salvation. After earnest, prayerful inquiry, he was enlightened and comforted with that hope in the Saviour, which afterwards proved the animating spring of his abundant labors to promote the best interests of mankind." At the time of his admission to the Windham church, the distinguished Thomas Clap was its pastor.
[3] Memoirs of Wheelock, by McClure and Parish.
Having made the requisite preparation, he entered Yale College, of which President Williams was then at the head, "with a resolution to devote himself to the work of the Gospel ministry." Among his college contemporaries were Joseph Bellamy and President Aaron Burr.
"His proficiency in study, and his exemplary deportment, engaged the notice and esteem of the rector and instructors, and the love of the students. He and his future brother-in-law, the late Rev. Doctor Pomeroy of Hebron, in Connecticut, were the first who received the interest of the legacy, generously given by the Rev. Dean Berkeley," for excellence in classical scholarship.
Soon after his graduation, in 1733, he commenced preaching. Having declined a call from Long Island, to settle in the ministry, he accepted a unanimous invitation from the Second Congregational Society in Lebanon, Connecticut, and was ordained in June, 1735.
This town occupies a conspicuous place in American history; for, whoever traces the lineage of some of the most illustrious names that grace its pages, finds his path lying to or through this "valley of cedars," in Eastern Connecticut. Here the patient, heroic Huguenot aided in laying foundations for all good institutions. Here the learned, indefatigable Tisdale taught with distinguished success. Here lived those eminent patriots, the Trumbulls. By birth or ancestry, the honored names of Smalley, Ticknor, Marsh, and Mason, are associated with this venerable town.