David Hilton Wheeler

David Hilton Wheeler (November 18, 1829 – June 18, 1902) He subsequently became president of Allegheny College, serving from 1883 to 1888 and again from 1890 to 1893. In addition to his educational and political work, he was known for his writings on Italian history, including Brigandage in South Italy .

Early life and education

Wheeler was born in Ithaca, New York in 1829; his parents moved the family to Illinois in 1846. He also served for a time as editor of the town newspaper, the Carroll County Republican, and was active in working for educational reform and the formation of a union school in the community.

Wheeler returned to Cornell in 1857, and continued to teach there until receiving the ambassadorship to Italy in 1861. From 1875 to 1883 he worked as editor of The Methodist magazine.

From 1883 to 1888, and again from 1890 to 1893, Wheeler served as president of Allegheny College in Pennsylvania. There he saw the college through a difficult period of internal dissension, and oversaw administrative and curricular changes that included the start of postgraduate education at Allegheny. Exhaustion compelled him to retire in 1893.

Wheeler died of apoplexy at his home in Meadville, Pennsylvania in 1902.

Writings Brigandage in South Italy (1864) The conspiracy of Gianluigi Fieschi, or, Genoa in the sixteenth century (1866) "Political Economy of the Fire" (1872) By-ways of Literature (1883) Our Industrial Utopia and its Unhappy Citizens (1895)