Community Corner
Fifth Week - Sunday's "Medfield Historical Minute"
A little something to read and learn to give you a little break during this time of boredom during isolation due to the Coronavirus Crisis
A Medfield Historical Minute...
This "Medfield Historical Minute" is brought to you by town historian Richard DeSorgher.
A little something to read and learn to give you a little break during this time of boredom during isolation due to the Coronavirus Crisis. A different "Medfield Historical Minute" will appear each day during the Crisis.
"Ephraim Wheelock, born in 1733, served four years in the French and Indian War, was captured at the Siege of Louisburg in Nova Scotia and later released, was a colonel in the Revolutionary War and was placed in command of a regiment in the Continental Army. His grandfather, Eleazar, is first noted in town records in 1676 when he killed four wolves. He later moved to Mendon where he “distinguished himself as a hunter of wild beasts.” Afterwards, returning to Medfield, he bought the former homestead of Rev. John Wilson, Medfield’s first minister, where town hall now stands. Ephraim’s cousin, named Eleazar Wheelock, became the founder of Dartmouth College. Ephraim’s great-grandfather was Ralph Wheelock,” the founder of Medfield,” and the first schoolmaster in Medfield. The Ralph Wheelock School on Pleasant Street (burnt to the ground in 1940) and the current elementary school on Elm Street were named in Ralph’s honor."
