Frank E. Wheelock

Wheelock was born in Holland, New York.[1] His family moved to Moline, Illinois when he was a child, and his uncle Stillman Wright Wheelock (1816–1892) served as mayor of Moline from 1877 to 1882.[1]

In 1887, at the age of 24, Wheelock came to West Texas to become the manager of the short-lived but large IOA Ranch, owned by the Western Land and Livestock Company, a firm controlled by Wheelock's great-uncle, Stillman W. Wheelock, the president of the Moline Plow Company begun by John Deere and the Moline Paper Company. The IOA was established in 1884, and encompassed the southern portion of what is now Lubbock County. It had 20,000 cattle, but was unprofitable. The ranch was liquidated around 1900, with the remaining cattle sold to farmers and stockmen.[2]

Wheelock and Rollie C. Burns (1857–1945), a Missouri native who was also the IOA manager, turned their interest to developing home sites for newly arrived pioneers. Two communities developed—one north of the Yellow House Canyon, "Lubbock" or "North Lubbock", and the second, established by W. F. Rayner, formerly of Stonewall County, Texas, was called "Monterey" or "Ray Town", though the name "Monterey" was rarely used at the time. Rayner believed that his more southern location would make it easier for a railroad connection to come to the location. In 1890, leaders of the two settlements, which were of similar small size, met in the Nicolett Hotel, a business established the previous year by Wheelock, who named it for the Nicollet Hotel (different spelling) of Minneapolis. At the meetings, the two factions resolved their differences and merged to establish what became Lubbock.[3]

The new Lubbock County had only 94 registered voters in 1891. Wheelock served on the first county commission.[2] On March 16, 1909, voters agreed to incorporate Lubbock as a city by a vote of 84 to 46. The population had then reached 1,800. Wheelock became the first mayor; he received all 168 votes cast in the election held on April 6, 1909. He was the mayor until 1915.

Wheelock died in the summer of 1932 of a heart attack while outside the Nicolett Hotel.[4]

Wheelock and his wife, the former Sylva Belle Hunt (1874–1944), had seven children.[1]

F. E. Wheelock Elementary School at 3008 42nd Street in Lubbock, an entity of the Lubbock Independent School District, is named in his honor.[5] The Wheelock Subdivision also bears his name.