History Packet No. 2

Multa Era 4-7: 1818 to 1906

George A. Wheelock, Naturalist

It has been suggested that a few words relating to the life history of George A. Wheelock would be appropriate in connection with the history of the Keene Natural History Society of which he was president.

George Alexander Wheelock, the eldest son of Lynds and Sarah Conant Wheelock, was born in Winchester, New Hampshire on January 21, 1816. The Wheelock family must have moved to Keene at about that time, for on June 23 of that year Lynds Wheelock entered into a partnership with his brother George in a general store in the wooden building that stood at that time on the east side of Main street about twenty feet southerly of the old tavern which stood on the present site of the Cheshire House. That location would be where the south wing of the Cheshire House now stands.

Lynds Wheelock died May 28, 1825 and the old store building was moved a few years later across the open land to the north side of Church street and made into a dwelling. I remember it as the old Hunt house. It was subsequently moved again by Mr. J. A. Toof and remodeled, and is now No. 70 and 72 on that street.

Young George Wneelock was educated in the schools in Keene and after a preparatory course entered Harvard University from which he graduated in 1836. He chose the law as his life work and after preparing himself for that profession became associated with his brother in law, John Henry Elliot, in an office in Keene. Mr. Elliot married Emily Ann Wheelock August 22, 1848.

To a man of Mr. Wheelocks tastes the law soon became irksome and he gradually succumbed to the call of the great out doors. He was a diligent student of nature and a very close observer and much of his time was spent in the woods and fields up to the closing years of his life. He was one of the prominent members of the Forest Tree Society which was formed in 1840 the object of which was the beautifying and improvement of the town by setting out trees along the streets. Many of our present beautiful trees were thus provided for.

In 1851 he had charge of enclosing the park in Central Square and setting out trees therein. Prior to that time the "Common" had been merely an unimproved open space without trees except the elm that was set out by Major Alva Walker, then proprietor of the Cheshire House, at the head of Main Street in 1842. Mr. Wheelock was one of the committee in charge of the centennial celebration in 1853, of the incorporation of Keene. He was prominent in the work of the Public Library and in the early 1850s became identified with the public schools and served as a member of the school committee for many years. I well remember his frequent visits to the school and the interesting talks he usually gave on some subject in nature.

He was a leader in the movement which resulted in securing the land and laying out Woodland Cemetery, in 1854, and was appointed its superintendent. He was one of the committee appointed to enlarge the cemetery in 1872 when the eastern division, so called, was laid out. He was one of the organizers of the Keene Natural History Society in 1871 and served as its president for many years.

On March 1, 1886 he presented the former Agricultural Fair Grounds at West Keene, which he had previously purchased, to the City of Keene to be forever maintained as a public park and since known as Wheelock Park. On March 29, 1889 he conveyed to the city another tract containing fifteen acres lying easterly of and adjoining the first tract to be used for the same purpose. On the same date he conveyed to the city a tract of twelve acres on Beech Hill adjoining the city's reservoir lot, to be held in trust for the children and to be called the Children's Wood. Mr. Wheelock set out many trees and shrubs not native to this locality in both Wheelock Park and the Children's Wood.

In walking through the latter tract one day he missed a Colorado blue spruce which he had set out. Mistrusting what had become of it, he kept a watch as he traveled about the town and finally located it set out in some ones door yard. He waited sometime to allow it to recover from injury that may have happened in transplanting and the next spring called at the house. When the lady opened the door he said good morning and remarked what a handsome tree they had in the yard. She said "yes, isn't it a beauty. My husband found it on Beech Hill and dug it up and set it here". Mr. Wheelock then explained his errand and ordered the lady to tell her husband to carry the tree back and set it where he found it if he wished to avoid further trouble. The tree was returned.

On March 22, 1897, he conveyed to the city, in trust, 83 acres of land on Beech Hill adjoining the Children s Wood and the reservoir lot, or the City Park as that tract had been named, to be called the Robin Hood Forest, to be kept as a forest and for public recreation and study. When the office of Park Commissioner was established, in 1888, Mr. Wheelock was unanimously chosen as the first incumbent, an office which he continued to fill until his death. He personally assumed the care and improvements of the parks, doing much of the work with his own hands. In Robin Hood Forest he projected and trimmed out numerous roads and paths, built stone monuments and sections of stone walls and named and marked many interesting objects and localities.

Among the latter is Sunset Rock from which one of the finest views can be obtained of the Keene valley. Near by is a very large boulder on which he carved the name Jumbo. Another bears the name Ajax. A large flat stone arranged for a seat on the road near Sunset Rock has the name Blarney stone carved on the front. On a large flat ledge over which the path up the hill from the north west passes we find the name Hell Gate. There is also the Kidd, Table rock Ascutney boulder &c.

Near the southerly end of the crest of Beech Hill are the ruins of Wheelock's Monument, so called. Mr. Wheelock built the monument out of field stones with his own hands between the years 1870 and 1875. It was about eight feet in height and built with an opening down the center like a chimney. A view of it, as it appeared about 1885, is shown on page 539 of the Repertory. Soon after, natural and human forces, mostly the latter, commenced its destruction and it is now a formless pile of stones. The site offers one of the most comprehensive views of Keene and the Ashuelot valley to be had in this vicinity.

Although interested in all branches of Natural History he made a specialty of geology and wrote many articles on the geology of Keene and Cheshire County, which, with those upon other subjects, were published frequently in the local newspapers. Copies of these with other interesting articles are preserved in his scrap book which is in the possession of the Elliot family. He was particularly interested in the Ascutney boulders, large rocks which had their origin on or near Ascutney Mountain and were distributed during the ice age over parts of Cheshire County, several specimens having been found in Keene.

Soon after the Natural History Society was organized Mr. Wheelock secured a specimen of these boulders on Beech Hill and had it moved to the old Academy lot on Winter street where it stood in front of the Academy building for several years. When the new High school building was erected on that site the rock was moved to the north east corner of the lot where it remained until recently moved to the new High school lot one Washington street.

Mr. Wheelock was a collector of native mushrooms. Some one asked his nephew William H. Elliot how they determined whether they were poisonous or not. He said "when some mushrooms are brought in we cook them and feed them to Uncle George, if they do not poison him then the rest of the family eat them." He wrote many pieces of poetry, mostly on nature subjects, a good many of which were published in the local newspapers and are preserved in his scrap book. In 1905 a collection of 64 of his poems were published in book form. One of his poems is characteristic of himself. It is entitled "The Naturalist" and describes in an humorous vein his tastes and habits in that capacity.

THE NATURALIST

Who's that man with grizzled beard,
Who loiters along the streets,
And stops to look at birds? He talks
To children whom he meets.

I've seen him, both hands in a ditch;
He bottles the slippery slime.
He turns up stones and fallen logs;
I've seen him many a time.

His trails branch off to bleaching bones,
To hedgehog cliffs and horses graves;
Carrion beetles, snails, lichens,
Ringbones and puffballs he saves.

He talks of Darwin and missing links,
Believes that monstrous fable,
Would make us out a tribe of monkeys,
If science were only able.

Fresh water clams squirt in his pockets;
Toads hop out in pairs;
He loses half; and salamanders
escape him unawares.

Snails, black snakes, and snapping turtles
make up his precious treasure.
The well cleaned bones cast up by owls
Delight him beyond measure.

He haunts the pools of teeters and herons,
And pokes in lily beds;
He tracks across the Swanzey sands
for Indian arrow heads.

I saw him open the elephants heart,
And saw the valves and. strings
Inside; what mighty veins and pulses,
Hearts are wonderful things.

They say he had a woman's arm
Bleaching upon a shed;
He called it "the manus of a dear."
I think he's out of his head.

The heart referred to was that of Barnum's elephant Albert which was shot near the bank of Ashuelot River July 20, 1885. Mr. Wheelock was much interested in the dissection of the animal and I have been informed that there were some parts preserved in the natural history collection.

In 1853 Mr. Wheelock was chosen director in the Ashuelot National Bank and became its president in 1875, which office he held during his lifetime. In 1874 he was elected a member of the state legislature. He was never married but made his home with his sister, Mrs. John Henry Elliot, and family.

He passed away June 17, 1906, at the age of 90 years, and was buried in the eastern division of Woodland Cemetery next to North Lincoln Street. One of the Ascutney boulders which he discovered was placed upon the lot and a dark colored stone bears the following inscription.

There is no epitaph on the stone but it may be proper to refer to one which he wrote at the end of a poem written by him in 1896 entitled "Four Score Years," in which he comments on past life, present conditions and the future.

HIS EPITAPH

No wife nor child had he; one friend
The dog; t'was not his own;
They loved to climb the hill near by,
Where now his mound is shown.

---

Samuel Wadsworth wrote the text and gave this presentation before the Keene Natural History Society in 1920.

Back to Top