Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817, the son of pencil manufacturer John Thoreau and Cynthia Dunbar. The father was an immigrant with French-speaking ancestors from the island of Guernsey . The house where he was born, known as Wheeler-Minot Farmhouse after previous owners , still exists and is on the National Register of Historic Places in Concord . Thoreau studied at Harvard University from 1833 to 1837 .