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A Short Biography of
Frank Emerson Wheelock
Wheelock Elementary
School was named for Frank Emerson Wheelock, founder of the City
of Lubbock, and one of the most influential early-day citizens of
the South Plains of Texas. Mr. Wheelock was born in Holland (Erie
County), New York, on April 11, 1863. The Wheelock family had come
to America from England during the historic "Great Migration" of
the early seventeenth century to escape persecution by the Stuart
Kings. The family immediately assumed a leading role in the
affairs of the colonial New England. Frank Wheelock's parents, Dr.
William Efner (1842-1902) and Louisa Diane (Farrington, 18??-1869)
Wheelock made their home in New York, where Dr. Wheelock was a
practicing physician.
After the death of his
wife, while Frank Wheelock was yet a child, Dr. Wheelock moved to
Madison, Wisconsin, taking young Frank and his brother, William
Ava Wheelock , with him. According to family records, the father
went on west to buy a farm in North Dakota, where the boys spent
summers with him. During the school terms, Franks stayed in
Madison with his Uncle, Jerome Wheelock, while William went to
Moline, Illinois to stay with another Uncle.
In 1876, the Jerome
Wheelocks moved to Moline taking Frank with them, and in 1878 the
family moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Frank finished
school. His first employment was with S.J. Palmer, a fruit
commission merchant of Minneapolis, but in 1887 he accepted a new
position as a farm manager on the IOA ranch, an extensive
livestock operation in West Texas. The Western Land and Live Stock
Company, which owned the IOA ranch, was controlled by Stillman W.
Wheelock, a great uncle of Frank Wheelock, who was a prominent
businessman and civic leader of Moline. Stillman Wheelock was
president of the well-known Moline Plow Company, the Moline Paper
Company, and a number of other Illinois firms.
Frank Wheelock moved to
Texas at the age of twenty-four, and from that time forward began
to play an important role in the development of the South Plains
region. Although the ranch was dissolved in 1892 following the
death of his uncle, Frank Wheelock remained in Texas. He had
become interested in ventures of his own. His interest in building
a town on the plains was discussed by Rollie Burns, an IOA
foreman:
"In the spring of 1890, a real estate man by the name of W.E.
Rayner came to Lubbock County and began to talk about laying off a
town site and establishing a county seat. He wanted the good will
of some of the local citizens, and offered Frank (F.E.) Wheelock
and myself ten lots each if we would support him in his effort to
get the county seat at Monterey. Wheelock and I had been watching
his activity, and decided that the matter of starting a town was
not so involved. We told him our support would cost a great deal
more than ten lots apiece. He got mulish and said that was all he
would give. Wheelock and I decided to start a town of our own."
This they did, with
financial support from John T. Lofton and James Harrison of Fort
Worth, and with Frank Wheelock as manager for the venture.
Wheelock built the Nicolett Hotel which was to become a Lubbock
landmark, a store building, and put in a well and windmill. This
activity prompted Rayner, the rival town promoter, to suggest a
compromise, which was effected December 19, 1890, by an agreement
between F.E. Wheelock, J.T. Lofton, James Harrison, W.E. Rayner,
and H. Rayner. A new section of land, where the town of Lubbock
now stands, was selected as the site for a joint town venture, and
Wheelock was appointed to manage the affairs. The success of his
untiring efforts are witnessed today in the "Hub City" of the
South Plains.
From that time on, Frank
Wheelock's chief interest and occupation was the zealous promotion
of the civic affairs of his beloved city. He served a Lubbock's
first mayor and was on the first Lubbock County Commission,
introduced the first cotton gin in Lubbock County, introduced the
first self-binding harvest machine in the county, brought the
first Sudan seed to Lubbock, and was one of the earliest breeders
of registered Hereford cattle in the area. He also was Lubbock's
first postmaster, and promoted the first motor bus line operating
out of Lubbock. He was further interested in the development of
the Lubbock Cemetery and the promotion of railroads and good
highways. His name is perpetuated in Lubbock in the Wheelock
Addition of the City and in the F.E. Wheelock School.
He continued private
business ventures as a rancher and cattle-man, as a partner with
Irving L. hunt in the mercantile firm of Hunt and Wheelock, and as
a financier. |